Your Summer Guide to London's Best Cultural Hotspots

We have a thousand and one exhibitions to cover so we won't bore you on why you should have these shows on your radar, hopefully the exhibitions themselves will do the talking. Get ready for the ultimate summer exhibition guide to end all guides.

INTERDEPENDENCE at SHOWstudio

Closing 28 June

What would a SHOWstudio summer cultural guide be without a modest self-plug? If you haven't made the journey down to our Belgravia studio then take this as your sign to do so. Over London Gallery Weekend, we commissioned sculptor and fashion stylist Sophia Lai to transform the SHOWstudio Gallery into a sculptural time warp. As Lai caved into past memories of her grandmother in search of inspiration to create several characters for the public to interact with, a carefully selected curation of fashion illustrations from our own archive also served as meticulous reference points. The result? A set of sculptures that are as unnerving as they are comically brilliant.

The Aesop Queer Library, 2024

27 - 30 June

Taking a summer holiday soon and have read all the books on your bookshelf? Stress no more as the Aesop Queer Library is returning to London's Soho from 27 - 30 June. To celebrate its return, Aesop teamed up with A Vibe Called Tech's Charlene Prempeh and Lewis Dalton Gilbert earlier this month as they were invited to host a conversation titled Multiple Margins between novelist and magazine founder Liv Little, writer Jason Okundaye, and artist and writer Osman Yousefzada. At the heart of the panel discussion was an emphasis the importance of amplifying intersectionality in queer spaces and literature, a principle that also guides the Aesop Queer Library which was founded on 'a belief in the transformative power of queer storytelling'. The best part is that over the weekend's pop-up, each visitor will be invited to select a complimentary book from the shelves to keep, (while stocks last, of course). Summer reading? Sorted it.

Little Things Mean A Lot at Hackney Gallery

Closing 30 June

Yes, city life is much more fast-paced than country living but there's something about living in London that means all its 10 million inhabitants are permanently glued to the fast track lane - stopping for no one - (not even themselves). Encouraging us to stop and reflect on the beauty we all know this brilliant city has to offer, London-based fashion photographer Sirui Ma has turned her introspective lens to a series of park benches and winding roads so she can hold up a mirror to daily life and the quiet beauty that lurks around the city. As each photograph is distilled with a gentle intimacy of sorts, each scenic depiction is also reminiscent of the relationships Sirui builds with her sitters as her practice explores the unspoken solidarity among women of Asian descent. Acknowledging the parallel lines that run between sisterhood and nature, Ma's new exhibition Little Things Mean A Lot acts as a defiant love letter to London's female asian community and the how extraordinary the ordinary can be.

Artist of the Day at Flowers Gallery

Closing 6 July

Flowers Gallery's annual Artist of the Day exhibition may be one of the industry's fastest-revolving shows yet but that doesn't diminish the exhibition's collective importance, especially when the likes of Tracey Emin and Sir Frank Bowling are involved. Rather than one show, the exhibition's concept - originally thought of by Angela and Matthew Flowers in 1983 - revolves around the idea of a group of seminal artists invited to choose one up-and-coming artist individually, with every choice culminating in an exhibition of the lesser-known artist's work for one day at Flowers Gallery in Cork Street. The result is a series of one-day shows spanning two weeks - each exhibition overseen by an industry top titan This week, the programme involves 10 international artists, chosen by some of the most exciting names in modern art today. Those involved include: Dame Tracey Emin DBE RA, Liliane Tomasko, Sir Frank Bowling OBE RA, Hughie O'Donoghue RA, John Lessore, Jessie Makinson, Barbara Walker MBE RA, Victoria Cantons, Stewart Geddes PPRWA and Olivia Bax. As for the artists selected? Get yourself down to Flowers Gallery to see the one-day installations for yourself. This may be your last chance to catch them before their talent hits global status.

Laila Tara H at Cooke Latham Gallery

Closing 19 July

The ever-concerning presence of surveillance in our daily lives may not be pondered as much as it should be by some, but that doesn't mean to say that every time we step out of the house a thought isn't lent to questioning 'who is watching, and from where?' Expanding on these notions is Iranian artist and painter Laila Tara H who's latest exhibition at Cooke Latham Gallery reflects on the artist's personal histories while also laying bare ideas, thoughts and narratives that transcend cultural boundaries to pervade everyone's everyday.

Known for creating work that deconstructs the aesthetic framework of the Persian miniature tradition, Tara H's show revolves around the idea of simulating an everyday experience that guides the viewer from dawn until dusk, essentially serving as somewhat of a mirror to our contemporary human experience - thoughts that ruminate when we leave the house and come home, thoughts that are just as thorough in the morning as they are at night. In a statement to press, the artist noted: 'We exit our homes and come to face the uncontrollable. In times of comfort, this itself adds to the softness...In times of discomfort, it is an invasion. A parent removing the lock on your door'. Tara H's soft yet alarming use of painted imagery also adds an eerie quality to the exhibition, one not so obvious per se, but impossible to ignored once noticed.

John Baldessari: Ahmedabad, 1992 at Sprüth Magers

Closing 27 July

In the early weeks of 1992, the godfather of conceptual art John Baldessari was invited to live and work in the expansive compound of the Sarabhai family, Indian industrialists and patrons of the arts, in the Shahibaug district of Ahmedabad. The artwork he produced during his stay may stray from his previous body of work in some shape or another (these collages are more traditional and less humorous - the latter of which was essential to understanding any piece of John Baldessari artwork) but nonetheless, they are distinctly Baldessari in their effortlessness and still retain loving hints of playfulness. Baldessari may have died at the beginning of 2020 but the fact that his portfolio continues to influence many of today's working collagists says everything you need to know, making this show a must-see in our books.

Staub (Störung) by Maren Karlson at Soft Opening

Closing 3 August

When an image is destroyed, does it still inhabit its original meaning? Or can succumbing to the process of deconstruction alter its intentions for good. Posing this question in her latest exhibition Staub (Störung), contemporary artist Maren Karlson scrutinises what it would take to alienate an image from itself and extends this thought to understand whether we ourselves can similarly be alienated - pondering on how this method could (and does) subvert systems of control, good and bad. Naturally, her concept is an intensely surreal one, if not, acutely romantic; a principle underpinning every one of her abstract paintings.

In The Shadow of Paper Mountains at Gathering

Closing 21 August

If anyone has mastered the art of collage it's Montana-based multimedia artist Wendy Red Star, whose upbringing within Apsáalooke culture has inspired her often humorous works, intertwining both public and personal histories. Taking a literal approach to collage as an art form, her latest exhibition at Gathering London sees her set up life-size paper mountains in the gallery's space as she invites viewers to engage in a thoughtful exploration of cultural narratives and their evolution over time. If you were ever one to think it's time art climbed out of its elegantly mounted and framed confinements then this exhibition is most certainly for you. Think sculpture, think collage, think real-life painting and immerse yourself in the shadow of paper mountains.

A Place at Sarabande

1 August - 6 September 2024

Eight mentions in and we finally get to the exhibition that should be on everyone's radar this summer. Of course, it's none other than the annual Sarabande Summer Group Show and this year's spectacular bonanza is titled A Place. Spanning six weeks, two groups of artists will exhibit across two group shows, presenting different versions and interpretations of A Place with the first named 'Can I just…' (running from 1 August to 16 August), and the second titled '…stay longer'  (22 August to 6 September).

In signature Sarabande style, the exhibition will bring together a variety of techniques popularised by their artists-in-residence including delicate photographs on leaves, a ‘stained glass’ sugar sculpture and a plethora of intricate hand carvings, all of which try to communicate the feeling of liminal space.

Beyond Fashion at Saatchi Gallery

Closing 8 September

Looking for a culmination of the best fashion imagery of all time? Look no further than Saatchi Gallery's latest exhibition Beyond Fashion, which not only compiles a selection of work by the fashion photography greats (yes, we mean Nick Knight, Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, Miles Aldridge, and Ellen von Unwerth) but also, an entire room dedicated to SHOWstudio and our mammoth archive of fashion film. We don't know about you but we couldn't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Utopia at Incubator

28 June - 8 September

All too often it feels as though the climate conversation falls on deaf ears. Alas, one young gallerist has stepped up and the proof is in the pudding thanks to Incubator's summer show Utopia, marking the gallery's partnership with Client Earth. Featuring five UK-based breakout artists, the exhibition presents a collective offering of 'what a climate-conscious art gallery could be', Incubator founder Angelica Jopling said in a statement and if one thing is for sure, the show stands as a true testament to the fact that sustainable art doesn't have to mean ugly art. To find out more about the exhibition, read our previous coverage here.

Visceral Canker at Spike Island

Closing 8 September

We know we said this was a London-specific guide but heads up... there are a couple of cheats and Spike Island's exhibition Visceral Canker, documenting the work of seminal BLK artist Donald Spike, is one of them. Taking a pensive look at Rodney's artistic output during the 15 years he used art to challenge and provoke, the exhibition brings together all the artist's surviving works from large-scale oil pastels on X-rays to sculptures, restaged installations and even the entirety of the artist's sketchbook collection. Just like Rodney himself, the collection of works is as defiant as it is acerbic, owing in part to the artist's often sardonic outlook on life which in turn, massively influenced the direction he took his work in. Mellow, meditative and simply marvellous, the exhibition paints Rodney as more than an artist but an activist, too. To find out more about the exhibition, read our previous coverage here.

Reverb - The Vinyl Factory at 180 Studios

Closing 28 September

The Guardian may have won itself the reputation of being a publication filled with tough critics (anyone read Jonathan Jones' John Singer Sargent review?) but their generous review of 180 Studios' collaborative exhibition with The Vinyl Factory, Reverb, noted the show as 'irresistible and infectious' and boy, we couldn't agree more. If granted enough time (the exhibition is made up of various films, all differing in length), it becomes crystal clear each cinema display has the power to enter your bones and entice more than just a head bop (or two). Magical, exuberant and a truly one-of-a-kind the show, Reverb is a spellbinding showcase of what happens when the power of music takes hold.

Writing Clothes: An Exhibition of Fashion Text at the Fashion Research Library, Oslo

Closing 1 October

Not in London, (or anywhere near for that matter) but who cares? Curated by Jeppe Ugelvig & Laura Gardner, Writing Clothes: An Exhibition of Fashion Text is everything you want from a fashion academic exhibition and more. Excluding any kind of emphasis on the importance of tactility when it comes to clothes, the exhibition instead chooses to hone in on the written word. Arguing fashion writing as an art form in its own right, propelled by the physical embodiment of garments but no lesser an art without it, Writing Clothes makes a point of focusing on a long tradition of poetic and experimental writing in the work of designers, academics, and art critics. Surveying historical and contemporary texts that take fashion as their subject (from Stéphane Mallarmé to Shanzhai Lyric, Eduardo de Costa to Balenciaga), the exhibition acts as a much-needed tribute to the power of the text and language.

Now You See Us: Women Artists In Britain 1520 - 1920 at Tate Britain

Closing 13 October, 2024

Unlike Tate Britain's previous exhibition that put women at the centre Women In Revolt - spotlighting the activist-led art of the 60s, 70s and 80s - Now You See Us: Women Artists In Britain encompasses a much broader period in history: 400 years, to be exact. From Tudor times to the First World War, this exhibition follows women on their journeys to becoming professional artists while shining a light on how creatives like Mary Beale, Angelica Kauffman, Elizabeth Butler and Laura Knight paved a new artistic path for generations of women artists.

Imaginary Conversations: An Erdem Collection Inspired By Duchess Deborah at Chatsworth House

Closing 20 October

Erdem taking inspiration from the English aristocracy is nothing new but the designer revealing his love of Britishness - particularly channeled through a spotlighted lens on his admiration for the late Duchess Deborah in a public exhibition - is. The culmination of months of research, Imaginary Conversations: An Erdem Collection Inspired By Duchess Deborah, is, by any standards, a glorious exhibition, made all the more wonderful by its final room - a total recreation of Erdem's own studio, which his S/S 25 collection was made in. Featuring a variety of bejewelled insect-inspired brooches, 1940s full-skirted silhouettes and a collaged wall honouring Duchess Deborah (nothing short of a sprawling shrine), this exhibition acts as a touching tribute from Erdem to Chatsworth while conjuring an imaginary conversation between the Late Duchess and designer himself.

NAU, NAU, DOH, CHAAR at Tŷ Pawb Art Gallery

Closing 2 November

We did mention there would be a few London exceptions in this guide and Welsh multidisciplinary artist Liaqat Rasul's homecoming NAU, NAU, DOH, CHAAR, at the Wrexham-based Tŷ Pawb Art Gallery is one of them. Marking a significant milestone in Rasul's career by reconnecting him with his roots and early experiences, the exhibition taps into the notion that we are all our younger child at heart, Rasul, in particular. Offering a small peep into the kaleidoscope of references Rasul pulls from to enhance his own creative spirit, the exhibition explores the art of South Asian textiles, a main inspiration for Rasul as seen via the vivid colours and narratives embedded in his work.

Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body at The Fitzwilliam Museum

19 July - 3 November

Looking at why the 1924 Olympics served as a cultural breakthrough as well as a sporting one, Cambridge's Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body exhibition conducts a deep dive into how the games affected body image, identity, class, race and gender. Modernist paintings by the likes of Robert Delaunay, Gino Severini, Pablo Picasso and André Lhote will be on show as will many other uniquely rare artefacts. At the heart of the exhibition is an exposing of truth that the Paris 1924 Olympics contributed to the modernity outburst which took the city by storm throughout the 1920s, placing the sporting event at the centre of a rapidly developing developing visual culture that continues to inspire artists today. To find out more about the exhibition, read our previous coverage here.

Hany Armanious: Stone Soup at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds

12 July - 3 November

In July, the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds will reopen following the first major refurbishment in its 30-year history. The artist tasked with its opening exhibit? One of Australia’s leading sculptors Hany Armanious, whose show Stone Soup features works made over the past 30 years including nine brand new sculptures. Armed with a practice reflecting on Armanious’ own history which traces the artist's idiosyncratic ways of conversing with the world, the secret to understanding this artist's impressive masterpieces lies in the simplicity of the joys felt when beholding objects for the very first time, while unravelling any certainty of knowing the world through its objects.

Marlene Dumas: Mourning Marsyas at Frith Street Gallery

20 September - 26 November

Marking painter Marlene Dumas' first solo exhibition in the UK since 2015, Mourning Marsyas is, above all things, a force of a show to be reckoned with, (Dumas is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary art, after all). Drawing upon a range of different traditions, from the gestural language of expressionism to the critical distance of conceptual art, Dumas' fearless gaze is as strong as ever - looking, absorbing, and regurgitating - as her soft and almost ghostly pale hues combine to depict her subjects in a signature style that will always remain undoubtedly and uniquely hers.

Artist Rooms: Art and Text at Tate Modern

Closing 8 December, 2024

Bringing together a vast array of text-based works produced in the last 50 years in Europe and the USA, this Artist Rooms installation at Tate Modern takes a pensive look at the importance of language in art while spotlighting ingenious creations by the likes of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Jenny Holzer, both of whom have repeatedly championed the use of concrete poetry in their art. The message at the heart of the free show? Writing is more than just being that, it's a form of making: inscribing, painting, carving, scribbling, typing or embroidering words as personal, meditative and poetic acts.

Fragile Beauty: Photographs From the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection at V&A

Closing 5 January, 2025

What do Chet Baker, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, Richard Avedon and Marilyn Monroe all have in common (apart from their celebrity status)? They're all involved, in some way or another, in the V&A's latest exhibition Fragile Beauty: Photographs From the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection which brings an unparalleled selection of the world's leading photographers, covering a myriad of subjects including fashion, celebrity, reportage and the male body. This exhibition is bigger than you can possibly imagine, including everything from Goldin's Thanksgiving series in its entirety to that image from 9/11: The Falling Man. To find out more, read our previous coverage here.

Zanele Muholi at Tate Modern

Closing 26 January, 2025

When it comes to documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities, nobody does it with as much tenderness and reverence as Zanele Muholi - whose intimate portraits of the country's LGBTQIA+ community (many of whom face daily threats of violence and prejudice) have found a home at Tate Modern until next year. Images on show are accompanied by testimonies that uncover the harsh realities that come with simply trying to live your life as authentically as possible in the face of oppression and discrimination.

Alvaro Barrington: Grace at Tate Britain

Closing 26 January

Not an exhibition but more of a commission of sorts, we couldn't miss giving a shout out to fashion's favourite artist Alvaro Barrington whose latest Tate installation is supported by Bottega Veneta (and features a collaboration by Fashion East alum Jawara Alleyne. The commission is just one example of luxury fashion brands continuing to put their money where their mouths are and sponsor art's latest endeavours. Marking Barrington's largest show to date, GRACE draws on the history of painting and the Caribbean diasporic experience to expand the artist’s own language of making, exploring the grace of the women in Barrington's life. Colourful and larger than life (or at least a human being) the show presents a sumptuous tapestry of colour, material and texture. For more information, read our previous exhibition coverage here.

NAOMI at V&A

22 June 2024 - 6 April 2025

If we were sure about one thing and one thing only this summer, it's that Naomi Campbell's icon status was firmly cemented long before the turn of the century, which makes it only natural that she stands at the centre of the V&A's latest blockbuster exhibition NAOMI, (no surname needed, of course). The exhibition will include around 100 looks and accessories from the best of global high fashion, chronicling Campbell's years in the industry while exploring her collaborations with leading photographers such as Nick Knight, Peter Lindbergh and Steven Meisel. The best part? Naomi isn't just the subject of the show, she's the exhibition's main collaborator too, with the show being produced in partnership with her thanks to her extensive involvement throughout the entire curatorial process.