Iconic art shows to see now
An installation view of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley's Best Femmes Forever. Image courtesy of Pilar Corrias
Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley Best Femmes Forever: Pilar Corrias, London, UK
The New York-based husband-and-wife artist team creates video works that combine painting, performance and poetic verse to reinterpret historical and mythological characters. Their images are satirical and surreal, sometimes ribald and disturbing. In this exhibition, we meet Queen Marie Antoinette, her best friend the Princesse de Lamballe, and King Louis XV’s mistress Madame du Barry, all of whom met their brutal demise during the French Revolution. The four-channel video installation uses satirical, high-contrast black-and-white, pun-rich narratives to re-examine women's overlooked roles in history and highlights the scarcity of women's voices in historical record. There are also four new oil paintings by Mary reviving the still-life tradition of “letter rack” painting – a series of trompe-l'œils that deceive the eye. Until 7 March, Pilar Corrias Conduit Street , London W1S 2YT, pilarcorrias.com
Richard Avedon Joe Dobosz, uranium miner, Church Rock, New Mexico, June 13 1979. @The Richard Avedon Foundation. Image courtesy of Gagosian
Richard Avedon: Facing West: Gagosian, London, UK
The late American fashion and portrait photographer joined a camera club aged 12, later enlisting in the armed forces during World War II, where he served as Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the U.S. Merchant Marine. At 22, he began working as a freelance photographer and, unable to use a studio, captured models and fashions on the street and other settings, developing a style that instilled movement into his pictures of fashion, theatre and dance. His work was transformative, bridging the gap between high-fashion commercial work and raw, psychological portraiture, which revealed the inner vulnerability of his subjects, from celebrities to ordinary people. The rare prints in this exhibition are taken from Avedon’s photographic series In the American West (1979 to 1984), which includes images that have not been shown since their debut in 1985, and represent an evolution in the photographer’s work when his interest shifted to photographing working-class America. Avedon travelled to 21 US states and conducted more than a thousand sittings, finally producing 126 editioned images. 21 of those photographs are on view in London. Until March 14, Gagosian Grosvenor Hill London W1K 3QD; gagosian.com
Seurat, The Lighthouse at Honfleur, 1886, Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Image courtesy of The Courtauld
Seurat and the Sea: The Courtauld, Somerset House, London
The first ever exhibition dedicated to the seascapes of the French artist Georges Seurat (1859–1891) also boasts the largest group of such works ever assembled. It charts the development of the artist’s Pointillism technique through his depictions of the sea – a voyage of discovery that is a counterpoint to his better known urban work in Paris. Between 1885 and 1890, Seurat spent five summers on the northern coast of France (including Honfleur, Port-en-Bessin, and Gravelines), where he produced numerous seascapes, paintings of ports and ships. He aimed to "wash his eyes" of the studio, focusing on the light and clarity of the seaside. This Griffin Catalyst exhibition brings together 26 paintings, oil sketches and drawings made by Seurat during this time. Until 17th May, Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, Floor 3, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN; courtauld.ac.uk
David Hockney, 2002 (oil on canvas) ©The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2025 / Bridgeman Images. Private Collection. Image courtesy of National Portrait Gallery
Lucian Freud Drawing into Painting: National Portrait Gallery
A spotlight is shone on the artist's works on paper, including some on display for the first time. Spanning sketches, drawings in charcoal and pastel and etchings they reveal the intensely observational and highly personal nature of Freud's creative process. His "drawing into painting" approach, in which paper allowed him to experiment with composition, line and volume, served as an independent and sometimes more intimate extension of his painted oeuvre. This exhibition explores the artist’s lifelong preoccupation with the human face and figure from the 1930s to the early 21st century – and “the dynamic dialogue between his practice on paper and on canvas”. Until 4 May,National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE; npg.org.uk
Tracey Emin My Bed 1998 ©Tracey Emin. Image Courtesy The Saatchi Gallery, London / Photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
Tracey Emin A Second Life: Tate Modern, London, UK
Tracey Emin is celebrated for her raw, unflinching and unapologetic exploration of the female experience, transforming autobiography into a language of emotion, trauma and resilience. As a central figure in the Young British Artists (YBA) movement of the 1990s, she dismantled the boundaries between personal and public art, establishing a "confessional" style that challenged conventions of taste and the role of women in art. This exhibition surveys 40 years of her oeuvre through painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture and installation, demonstrating her commitment to painting, and presenting her recent work “as the culmination of the ways she has channelled her life into her art”. From 27th February to 31 August, Tate Modern Bankside London SE1 9TG; tate.org.uk
Yinka Shonibare's African Flower Magic I, 2025. Relief print with woodblock and batik fabric collage on Somerset Tub Sized Satin Radiant White 410gsm paper
Yinka Shonibare: Patterns of Power: The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester, UK
The British-Nigerian artist is renowned for exploring colonialism, post-colonialism, race and cultural identity through an often ironic, post-colonial perspective. His work in sculpture, painting and film is defined by the use of vibrant, "African" Dutch wax-printed fabrics to subvert Western art history and examine the connection between Africa and Europe. This show features over 40 artworks spanning 20 years of the artist’s career, including Shonibare’s recent woodblock project Ritual Ecstasy of the Modern, and a new series of screenprints, African Flower Magic (2025) on loan from Cristea Roberts Gallery, London. The centrepiece of the display will be The Crowning, (2007), an early, large-scale sculpture on loan from the Arts Council Collection. Until 3 June, The Gallery at The Arc, Jewry St, Winchester SO23 8SB; hampshireculture.org.uk
Kiefer's painting Caterina Sforza will be displayed from February 9th to June 30th, 2026, at the Unipol Tower in Milan (Piazza Gae Aulenti), in another version specifically conceived by Kiefer. It is free to visit via: https://www.cubounipol.it/it/servizi/visita-guidata-milano
Kiefer: The Women Alchemists: Palazzo Reale, Milan
The renowned German painter and sculptor’s beguiling, large-scale tactile works confront Germany’s dark history while exploring memory and cultural identity. In Milan, the 80-year-old artist pays homage to female alchemists with a series of 42 monumental canvases conceived specifically for the city’s Palazzo Reale. The works engage with the architecture of the Sala delle Cariatid, (Hall of the Caryatids), the palace’s neoclassical former ballroom, which was preserved in a state of intentional ruin as a memorial to the 1943 Allied bombing of World War II. Within the ruins were the remains of 40 sculptures of the women of Caria that once supported the room’s perimeter balcony, which have become part of the exhibition – Kiefer's zigzagging canvases interact with the original wall mirrors and the ruined statues. The historical women in his painting were involved in alchemy, proto-science and medicine but were largely forgotten or overlooked, and are brought to life in works that are “alchemical laboratories”. Lead, sulfur, oxides, gold, flowers and ash transmute into artworks; the faces and bodies of the women appear through the violence of the blowtorch and from dense matter. The exhibition is part of the cultural program for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, until September 27th, Piazza del Duomo, 12, 20122 Milano; palazzorealemilano.it
An Installation view from Kiefer's The Women Alchemists. Milano, Palazzo Reale, Sala delle Cariatidi. Image courtesy of Milan, Palazzo Reale
