Must-See Exhibitions in London 2025
By Emily Breakell
ANGELA SANTANA
- Saatchi Yates
15 January - 20 February
‘Speaking in Tongues’, 2024
Oil on canvas, 166.4 x 294.6 cm
Angela Santana is known for her vibrant large-scale oil paintings of the female form. Her work reimagines traditional depictions, exploring themes of identity, transformation, and the body’s representation in the digital age. She rejects classical styles and challenges painting norms by deconstructing digital media into layers, transforming them into works of art.
The show will feature a new body of Angela Santana’s that redefines the representation of the female body in contemporary art, drawing inspiration from the internet as her modern-day muse.
VERONICA FERNANDEZ
- Pippy Houldsworth Gallery
17 January - 15 February
‘The Years’, 2024
Oil on canvas, 198.1 x 213.4 cm
Veronica Fernandez’s work provides dreamlike glimpses into childhood memories, blending anxieties with moments of joy and innocence. She connects these emotional experiences to the natural cycles of life, reflecting the changing rhythms of both personal struggles and the surrounding environment.
In this exhibition, Veronica Fernandez depicts children navigating financial struggles and life in temporary housing. Her paintings reveal the emotional ups and downs of childhood, as they learn to care for themselves and each other in the absence of support.. She invites viewers to reflect on the resilience of these children and the profound impact of neglect on their lives.
DERRICK ADAMS
- Gagosian
13 February - 22 March
‘Only Happy Thoughts’, 2024
Acrylic and Fabric Collage on Wood Panel, 153.4 × 153.4 cm
Derrick Adam’s work explores and celebrates contemporary Black life. Using various forms, including painting, sculpture, collage, performance, video, and public projects, he blends realistic imagery with Cubist-inspired design to showcase the richness of the Black experience.
This exhibition features Adams's brightly coloured paintings, showing everyday moments of leisure and individuality in Black American life. Inspired by sitcoms and movies, his work blends humuor and seriousness, highlighting how pop culture and comedy shape modern living. Each piece tells a story with imagined characters, juxtaposing funny situations with deeper reflections on joy and contradiction.
YOSHITOMO NARA
- Hayward Gallery
10 June - 31 August
‘Midnight Tears’ , 2023
Acrylic on Canvas, 240.5 x 220 cm
Yoshitomo Nara is known for his striking portraits of children with large eyes that engage viewers. His characters reflect his inner thoughts and emotions, inspired by childhood memories and life experiences. His work explores themes of defiance, isolation, and freedom, while reflecting on our connection to home and nature.
This exhibition features a range of works, from drawings to painting to sculpture to ceramics, all reflecting his response to the people and places that have influenced his life.
RACHEL JONES
- Dulwich Picture Gallery
10 June - 19 October
‘SMIIILLLLEEEE’, 2021
Oil Pastel, Oil Stick on Canvas, 160 x 250 cm
Rachel jones explores identity and the inner self, using abstraction and colour to create sensory landscapes that express emotions felt in the body and the unspoken. Her compositions feature motifs of teeth, using the mouth and teeth’s sensual and symbolic power to express her ethnicity and her experience as a Black woman in the world today.
This exhibition features a series of newly commissioned works celebrating her exploration of the self, inviting people to interpret them based their own personal experiences.
JENNY SAVILLE
- National Portrait Gallery
20 June - 7 September
‘Drift’, 2020-22
Oil and Oil Stick on Canvas, 100 × 120 cm
Jenny Saville is known for her large layered paintings of the female figure, blending classic representation with modern abstraction to create raw, unidealised images.
This exhibition will showcase her work throughout her career, highlighting her connection to art history and her challenge to traditional ideas of female beauty. Drawing on this, she presents bodies that reflect the contemporary moment.
DENNIS MORRIS
- The Photographers Gallery
27 June - 21 September
‘Babylon by Van, 1973
Dennis Morris is a groundbreaking photographer, designer and art director, known for his iconic images of musicians such as Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols and Radiohead.
Alongside his renowned music photography, this exhibition will feature rare and never seen images from his archives and his early documentary work, including work that explores race and cultural identity, drawing on his experiences as a Black teenager growing up in 1970s Britain.