English
Frieze Week draws hundreds of exhibitors to Regent’s Park each year, but London’s wider art scene offers far more than the fair itself. This season, the city hosts a remarkable range of exhibitions, from Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s intimate paintings of love and friendship to a bold retrospective of 1990s British art and fashion. Visitors looking for a quieter, more reflective art experience will find plenty to explore across the capital’s galleries and museums.
Love, Identity and Queer History
The Courtauld Gallery is currently home to “Salman Toor: Someone Like You,” the Pakistani American artist’s first European solo exhibition. The show hangs next to Édouard Manet’s iconic A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), and Toor’s 19 paintings offer a striking contrast. His work The Bar on East 13th (2019) shows a man with pigtails and painted nails holding a lemon above a margarita glass. Other pieces include Phone Watcher (2022) and Fag Puddle with Carriers (2026). The exhibition runs until January 10, 2027.
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Meanwhile, the National Portrait Gallery presents “Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends,” a sweeping celebration of queer history and personal identity. The show features portraits of the Gay Liberation Front alongside contemporary icons including Björk, Lady Gaga, Frank Ocean, Chappell Roan, and a nude Harry Styles. Walker began the project in 2020 after discovering a plaque on a building in Highbury Fields. The plaque marked the spot where around 150 people gathered on November 27, 1970, to protest for gay liberation. That date also happened to be Walker’s own birthday. Curator Susanna Brown described the exhibition’s central theme as “everyone’s right to love,” celebrating connection between friends, chosen families, couples and communities. The show continues until February 7, 2027.
Old Masters and Impressionist Masterworks
The National Gallery’s “Renoir and Love” arrives at a particularly dramatic moment for the Impressionist artist’s legacy. Just weeks before the exhibition opened, thieves stole several of Renoir’s paintings from his former home in southern France. Two of the four stolen works were left behind at the scene, and authorities later recovered the remaining two. Against that backdrop, the exhibition offers a more joyful encounter with Renoir’s art. It brings together 40 paintings focused on friendship, love and everyday gestures, ranging from the lively crowd scenes in Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876) to Danse à la campagne (1883), which depicts his friend Paul-Auguste Lothe dancing with his future wife, Aline Charigot. The show runs until January 31, 2027.
Also exploring historical art, Robilant gallery presents “Still Life, Then and Now,” tracing the still life genre from the 16th century to the present day. Works on display include a floral arrangement by Osias Beert the Elder, a fruit basket by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, a bound ram by Francisco de Zurbarán, and a resting skull by Andy Warhol. The gallery is also participating in Frieze Masters with a booth featuring John Singer Sargent’s Constantinople and Warhol’s portrait of German art collector and real estate developer Erich Marx. Gallery director Michele di Robilant noted a clear shift in collector appetite. “We have all seen the renewed interest in Old Masters as the pendulum swings from speculative to secure,” he told ARTnews, adding that clients are increasingly drawn to artists who have proven they can hold their value. The exhibition closes December 18.
Art, Design and the Power of Worlds
The Design Museum is currently showcasing “Es Devlin: Other Worlds,” a wide-ranging exhibition from the celebrated artist and set designer. Devlin holds three Emmy Awards, three Olivier Awards, and a Tony Award for production design. She has also built sets for major artists including Beyoncé, The Weeknd, and Adele. Her exhibition opens her entire creative library, from large-scale installations to films. She recreated her London studio for the show and displays a wall installation called Archive Unboxed, which draws on work she produced during her school, university and art college years. In addition, she partnered with Penguin Random House UK on a book installation titled Infinite Library, featuring books that will later be donated to local charities. The exhibition runs until April 4, 2027.
The Barbican Art Gallery, meanwhile, offers a survey of the late American painter Robert Ryman in “Robert Ryman: The Real Thing.” Before turning to painting, Ryman had ambitions as a professional jazz saxophonist. To support himself, he worked as a security guard at New York’s Museum of Modern Art during a period when the institution was actively acquiring works by Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. The exhibition traces his artistic development from The Painting of the Mysterious Shadow (1966), completed after he left MoMA, through to later works such as Surface Veil II (1971). The gallery has placed a bench in front of that piece, inviting visitors to sit and reflect. The show continues until February 28, 2027.
The 1990s Revisited at Tate Britain
Perhaps the most talked-about exhibition this season is “The 90s: Art and Fashion” at Tate Britain. Critics have described it as both “dissatisfying” and “buzzing,” making it the kind of show that demands a personal visit. The exhibition revisits the 1990s from a fresh angle. While familiar names like Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst appear, the show also highlights artists not typically linked to the Young British Artists movement, including Hamad Butt, Eileen Perrier, Yinka Shonibare, and Barbara Walker. For those who want a tangible memento, the gallery sells T-shirts modelled after the one Sam Taylor-Johnson wears in her 1993 photograph Fuck, Suck, Spank, Wank. The message on the shirt is easy enough to guess. The exhibition runs until February 17, 2027.
