Art exhibitions opening in London in November 2024
November in London not only brings festive excitement but also marks the opening of several significant exhibitions. The Royal Academy will delve into the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo and their influence on Raphael, while the V&A Museum will explore the rich, international culture of Mughal Hindustan during the reigns of Emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. Meanwhile, the Saatchi Gallery will showcase works by Black artists, examining themes of community, identity, and power. Here is our guide to must-see art exhibitions opening in London this November.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and the Infant St John the Baptist (‘The Burlington House Cartoon’), c.1506-08. Charcoal with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. The National Gallery, London. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962.
#FLODown: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 at the Royal Academy of Arts, will explore the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo and their influence on Raphael. The exhibition will showcase over 40 works, including Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, Leonardo’s Burlington House Cartoon, and Raphael’s Bridgewater Madonna. It highlights the vibrant artistic atmosphere of Republican Florence, focusing on their preparatory drawings for unfinished murals. The exhibition will culminate in Raphael’s drawing that copies Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari.
Date: 9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025. Location: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Price: from £19. Concessions available. Book now.
The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence
Shah Jahan as the King of the World By Bichitr, c.1628- 30, the borders probably с.1640-50. Opaque watercolour and gold on paper. Folio from the Minto Album. © CC BY – 4.0. Chester Beatty, Dublin.
#FLODown: Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence showcases the rich and international culture of Mughal Hindustan during the reigns of emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. This exhibition presents a fresh narrative on the origins of Mughal art, highlighting the significant Iranian influence on the region’s craft traditions and the impact of Jesuit missionaries and European traders. Featuring a diverse array of Mughal court arts—including contemporary portraits, jewelled gold vessels, and exquisite carpets—the exhibition combines historical essays with object-focused texts to reveal the unique dynamics of each emperor’s reign and tell unexpected stories about this influential dynasty, renowned for commissioning the Taj Mahal.
Date: 9 November 2024 - 5 May 2025. Location: Galleries 38 &39, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Price: from £22. Concessions available. Book now.
Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious
Tirzah Garwood, Spanish Lady,1950, oil on canvas. Private collection.
#FLODown: Dulwich Picture Gallery will host the first major exhibition dedicated to visionary artist and designer Tirzah Garwood (1908–1951). Previously known primarily as the wife of Eric Ravilious and author of Long Live Great Bardfield, Garwood was a talented fine artist and printmaker. This retrospective will feature over 80 of her captivating works, providing a comprehensive view of her artistic output. The exhibition will also include 11 pieces by Ravilious, highlighting the thematic connections and distinct artistic identities of this remarkable couple.
Date: 19 November 2024 - 26 May 2025. Location: Dulwich Picture Gallery,London SE21 7AD. Price: from £18. Concessions available. Book now.
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic
Dawit L. Petros, Hadenbes, 2005.
#FLODown: Saatchi Gallery will open As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic in November, featuring works from African Diasporic culture selected from the Wedge Collection. Organised by Aperture and curated by Elliott Ramsey, the exhibition highlights Black artists from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, the Caribbean, and Africa. Established by Dr. Kenneth Montague in 1997, the Wedge Collection is Canada’s largest privately-owned collection dedicated to Black artists. The exhibition explores themes of community, identity, and power, showcasing renowned artists like Horace Ové and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside emerging talents like Texas Isaiah. The title reflects Dr. Montague’s father’s saying, “Lifting as we rise,” emphasising the importance of community empowerment and the diverse experiences of Black life through the mutual gaze of Black photographers.
Date: 5 November 2024 - 20 January 2025. Location: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Rd, London SW3 4RY. Price: from £6. Book now.
Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation
Anastasia Samoylova, Gator, 2017.
#FLODown: Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation at Saatchi Gallery is the first major survey of contemporary American photographer Anastasia Samoylova. The exhibition features works from five significant series: Landscape Sublime, Image Cities, FloodZone, Floridas, and Breakfasts, alongside previously unseen video work in the UK. Samoylova’s photography examines the environment’s adaptation to human intervention and the social and political resistance to change.
Date: 5 November 2024 - 20 January 2025. Location: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Rd, London SW3 4RY. Price: from £6. Book now.
Louis Blue Newby & Laila Majid: Inner Heat
Laila Majid & Louis Blue Newby, process image.
#FLODown: Goldsmiths CCA presents Inner Heat, the first institutional exhibition by artist duo Louis Blue Newby and Laila Majid. The show features new drawings and sculptural elements of public infrastructure, exploring the relationship between private image consumption and public space. Their work, which often reconfigures visuals from online forums and social media, engages with themes of gender fluidity and non-normative sexual practices. Central to the exhibition is the Contact series, where digital images are painstakingly translated into graphite drawings, creating a tension between the familiarity of the images and the labor-intensive process of their reproduction. Through this, the artists investigate how we engage with and interpret visual media.
Date: 8 November 2024 – 12 January 2025. Location: Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, St James's, London SE14 6AD. Price: Free. Book now.
Self-Made: Reshaping Identities
Renee So, Unknown Woman, 2019 © The Artist Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London. Photo Angus Mill
#FLODown: Self-Made is an exhibition of contemporary ceramics exploring the complexities of identity and self-creation through the transformative nature of clay. Featuring work by Phoebe Collings-James, Rachel Kneebone, Matt Smith, and Renee So, the show delves into how class, gender, sexuality, cultural heritage, and history shape identity. Each artist uses clay’s malleability to express narratives of transformation, reflecting on the ever-evolving nature of self. The exhibition highlights the challenging yet empowering process of shaping identity, drawing connections to the Foundling Museum’s themes of care, belonging, and reinvention.
Date: 15 November 2024 - 1 June 2025. Location: Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ. Price: from £12.75. Concessions available. Book now.
The 80s: Photographing Britain
Ting A Ling, from Handsworth Self Portrait, 1979 © Derek Bishton, Brian Homer & John Reardon.
#FLODown: Tate Britain will launch The 80s: Photographing Britain in November, a major exhibition featuring 350 works that capture the social and political upheavals of the 1980s. Showcasing images from over 70 photographers, the exhibition highlights iconic moments such as the miners’ strikes, social security offices, and portraits of Middle England. It also explores the role of photography in representing marginalised communities, with contributions from Black, South Asian, and LGBTQ+ photographers. The exhibition concludes by examining how underground club culture and fashion photography shaped British youth at the decade’s end. Click here for more.
Date: 21 November 2024 – 5 May 2025. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Price: £20. Concessions available. Book now.
Taylor Wessing
Photo Portrait Prize 2024
Warm Water Fish, 2023 from the series Hats It! By Toks Majek © Toks Majek.
#FLODown: The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize returns for its 17th year, highlighting contemporary photography from talented young photographers, amateurs, and professionals. The exhibition features a diverse range of portraits, from formal commissions to intimate, spontaneous moments. The 2024 edition will also showcase new work by an established photographer in the annual In Focus display, and the unveiling of a piece by 2023 commission prize winner Serena Brown for the Gallery’s Collection.
Date: 14 November 2024 - 16 February 2025. Location: National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Pl, London WC2H 0HE. Price: from £8.50. Concessions available. Book now.
Jameel Prize 7
Ajlan Gharem, Paradise Has Many Gates - Daytime, 2015, C-type photographic print on dibond © Victortia and Albert Museum, London.
#FLODown: The 2024 Jameel Prize, now in its seventh edition, will showcase contemporary artworks and designs inspired by Islamic art, culture, and ideas. Selected by an international jury, artists and designers will present moving images and new media such as film, video, installations, and emerging technologies. The finalists' works will be exhibited at V&A South Kensington.
Date: 30 November 2024 – 16 March 2025. Location: Victoria and Albert Museum,Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Price: Free. vam.ac.uk.
Electric Dreams
Samia Halaby Fold 2 1988, still from kinetic painting coded on an Amiga computer. Tate © Courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut : Hamburg.
#FLODown: Electric Dreams at Tate Modern will explore how artists used machines and algorithms to create mesmerising art from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Spanning op art to the dawn of the internet, it showcases optical, kinetic, programmed, and digital innovations. The exhibition features psychedelic installations from the 1950s, experiments with early digital tech in the 1970s and 80s, and offers a glimpse into artists' visions of future visual expression.
Date: 28 November 2024 – 1 June 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: £22 / Free for Members. Concessions available. Book now.
Vital Signs: another world is possible
Thermal imaging on London. Image credit Fado Fado for Science Gallery.
#FLODown: Vital Signs: another world is possible opens in November at Science Gallery London. This free multimedia exhibition presents hopeful approaches to the climate crisis through collaborations between artists, designers, and researchers. Key works include Ackroyd & Harvey’s grass banners inscribed with poetry by Sir Ben Okri, advocating a renewed relationship with nature; Gayle Chong Kwan’s bio-waste-based installations exploring human waste’s connection to the River Thames; Cathy Mager’s Night Bloom, an immersive piece using biodiversity to address the resilience of the deaf community; and Birungi Kawooya’s bark cloth sanctuaries promoting rest as resistance. Together with a Living Library and events programme, Vital Signs envisions collective action towards ecological and social justice, replacing fear with creativity and resilience.
Date: 13 November 2024 - 16 May 2025. Location: Science Gallery London, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9GU. Price: Free. london.sciencegallery.com.
Norberto Spina: Presente
All images © the artist, courtesy Cooke Latham Gallery. Photography by Jack Elliot Edwards.
#FLODown: Presente is the first UK solo exhibition by Italian artist Norberto Spina at Cooke Latham Gallery. Recently graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 2024, Spina’s exhibition features a series of works that explore themes of memory, presence, and identity, inviting viewers to reflect on their personal connections to the past and the passage of time.
Date: 15 November - 13 December 2024. Location: Cooke Latham Gallery, 41 Parkgate Rd, London SW11 4NP. Price: Free.
William Morris & Art from the Islamic World
From left to right: Peacock, c.1870, Iran, possibly Isfahan (Qajar), hollow brass with pierced decoration and turquoise. © The Society of Antiquaries of London (Kelmscott Manor); Wild Tulip, 1884, designed by William Morris for Morris & Co., block-printed wallpaper. © William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest.
#FLODown: The William Morris Gallery is hosting an exhibition on the influence of Islamic art on William Morris, a key figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. It will feature over 60 works, including Morris’s designs alongside Islamic textiles, ceramics, and manuscripts from major UK collections. Notable items include rare Turkish and Iranian textiles, and a 17th-century Ottoman velvet hanging used as Morris’s coffin pall. The exhibition will also highlight Morris’s role in promoting Islamic art in Britain and the contributions of his daughter, May Morris.
Date: 9 November 2024 - 9 March 2025. Location: William Morris Gallery, Forest Road London, E17 4PP. wmgallery.org.uk.
Temitayo Shonibare: FREE LOVE
When I ask my mummy to tell me she loves me, she tells me to go and fined a boyfriend (2024) C-Type print, steel frame 38 x 28.9 cm. Temitayo Shonibare.
#FLODown: Studio/Chapple will present FREE LOVE, the debut solo exhibition by British-Nigerian artist Temitayo Shonibare, which examines Nigerian, specifically Yoruba, wedding traditions through the lens of money-spraying culture, highlighting the ironic connection between money and respect. Shonibare critiques societal expectations of women as brides and mothers through new installations, including a kinetic sculpture featuring fluttering dollar bills that underscores the monetary focus of Nigerian weddings and societal pressures to marry. The exhibition engages viewers with sensory elements like camphor, Trap and Fuji music, and screen-printed diagrams, reflecting Shonibare’s personal experiences and the influence of older women in her life, while inviting contemplation of themes of marriage, respect, submission, and identity within Nigerian culture.
Date: 8 November - 14 December 2024. Location: Studio/Chapple, Enclave 7, 50 Resolution Way, London SE8 4NT. Price: Free. studiochapple.com.
Dian Joy: Alexandria’s Genesis
Alexandrias Genesis, Dian Joy. Arebyte Gallery 2024. Image Credit Devika Bilimoria.
#FLODown: Alexandria’s Genesis is an exhibition by British-Nigerian artist Dian Joy at arebyte Gallery. It explores the evolution of the internet myth of Alexandria’s Genesis—a fabricated genetic anomaly said to grant “perfect” human traits like violet eyes and flawless skin. First conceived as fanfiction in 1998, the myth later evolved into a viral meme, embodying societal fantasies of perfection and the pervasive influence of digital culture. Through a cinematic interplay of digital and physical spaces, Joy examines how the internet constructs and enforces such narratives. The exhibition delves into the ways these stories shape identity, fuel desire, and mirror deeper anxieties about power, social hierarchies, and cultural ideologies in the digital era.
Date: 15 November 2024 – 12 January 2025. Location: arebyte Gallery, Java House, 7 Botanic Square, London City Island, E14 0LG. Price: Free.
