For more from London's art world, sign up for our free newsletter: Londonist: Urban Palette.
We look ahead and pick the best exhibitions to see in London's galleries and museums opening in February.
Armour and honour: Samurai at The British Museum
Katana at the ready as we plunge into the truth behind the legendary samurai of Japan. This expansive show brings together 280 objects to chart how samurai transitioned from fearsome fighters to administrators, artists, and, later, global pop-culture icons. Highlights include a newly acquired suit of armour; a woman's firefighting jacket from Edo Castle, where fires were commonplace; and a portrait depicting a 13-year-old samurai who led an embassy to the Vatican in 1582. Contemporary fashion, film and gaming demonstrate that the samurai's influence is far from over.
Samurai at The British Museum. 3 February-4 May 2026, £17.
An ecological alarm: Water Pantanal Fire at Science Museum
The Pantanal in South America is the world's largest wetland, and it's now regularly burning during the dry season. Through over 60 photographs, the Science Museum presents water-drenched panoramas alongside heartbreaking documentation of the 2020 and 2024 fires. Jaguars, caiman and vast flooded plains give way to scorched earth and exhausted firefighters, a portrait of a biome pushed to breaking point. It's a haunting reminder of the impact that humans have had on the natural world.
Water Pantanal Fire at Science Museum. 6 February-31 May 2026, free.
Flower power: Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens
Elaborate floral constructions — including life-sized animals made from flowers — mean the annual Orchid festival at Kew Gardens is always enchanting. This year, it's inspired by China's biodiversity, heritage and history of scientific collaboration. Alongside Chinese orchids, there are dragons, koi carp and pandas constructed from blooms. Now in its 30th year, the festival continues to come out smelling of roses orchids.
Orchids: Inspired by the biodiversity of China at Kew Gardens. 7 February-8 March 2026, entry included with entrance to the gardens (£24).
International Botany: Seeds of Exchange at Garden Museum
Did you know there was a significant exchange of botanical knowledge between Canton (now Guangzhou) and London between 1766 and 1773? This exhibition will focus on this trade, displaying a collection of Chinese botanical art and research for the first time in Britain since it was commissioned 235 years ago. The exhibition also features 30 botanical paintings, maps, models, a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and watercolours and drawings of Canton from the V&A — as well as the earliest known Cantonese-English visual dictionary.
Seeds of Exchange: Canton and London in the 1700s at the Garden Museum. 11 February-10 May 2026, £16.
Freudian art: Lucian Freud at National Portrait Gallery
Lucian Freud was one of Britain's greatest painters, but as with almost all painters, he cut his artistic teeth with drawings. The National Portrait Gallery places Freud's sketchbooks and sketches alongside his paintings, demonstrating how his works evolved as he transitioned from paper to canvas. Alongside these are 48 well-thumbed sketchbooks, archival materials, and later works in which Freud drew inspiration from John Constable.
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting at the National Portrait Gallery. 12 February-4 May 2026, £23.
A grand day out: Inside Aardman at Young V&A
Adult or child, who doesn't love Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep? They're all, of course, the creation of Aardman Animations — and it's time to celebrate 50 years of their charming stop-motion genius. Over 150 objects from Aardman's archives go on display at the Young V&A, spanning models, sets and storyboards — many of which have never been seen by the public. Highlights include early character ideas for Wallace & Gromit, the duo's motorbike and sidecar from Vengeance Most Fowl (2024), and a hand-drawn storyboard from the train chase in The Wrong Trousers (1993) — as well as development sketches for that impish lump of plasticine, Morph. Make sure you put on the right trousers and have a grand day out.
Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends at Young V&A. 12 February-15 November 2026, £11.
A triumphant trilogy: Giacometti & Lynda Benglis at Barbican
We've enjoyed Barbican's series pairing artists with Giacometti's spindly sculptures. First came Huma Bhabha, then Mona Hatoum, and now we round out the trilogy with the works of US sculptor Lynda Benglis. This iteration of the show includes 30 previously unseen works by Benglis, made from handmade paper stretched over chicken wire. The twisting works are embellished with painted sparkles, keeping in line with Benglis' practice as she's known for works that are playful and visceral. It's a pairing of two sculptors who manipulate materials in very different ways.
Lynda Benglis Encounters: Giacometti at Barbican. 12 February-31 May 2026, £8.
Picturesque Pointillism: Seurat and the Sea at The Courtauld
Georges Seurat was a master of Pointillism, a technique that uses many dots to build up paintings of landscapes, both with and without people. This exhibition brings together around 23 paintings, oil sketches and drawings made by Seurat during the five summers he spent on the northern coast of France, between 1885 and 1890. He sought, in his words, 'to wash his eyes of the days spent in the studio [in Paris] and to translate in the most faithful manner the bright clarity, in all its nuances'. That's as good a reason we've heard of to create such vivid views of the English Channel.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea at The Courtauld. 13 February-17 May 2026, £18.
Underwater adventures: Voyage to the Deep at Horniman Museum
Get hands-on (deck) trying to navigate the Nautilus submarine from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, in this family exhibition. Explore uncharted waters, encounter fantastic sea creatures, and discover hidden wonders of life beneath the waves. There's a Captain Nemo's Bubbly Pipe Organ to play and a galley filled with unusual foods. It's an interactive reimagining of the classic novel — and a fun adventure for children and adults alike.
Voyage to the Deep – Underwater Adventures at Horniman Museum. 13 February-1 November 2026, Adult £9.80/Child £7.
Red threads: Chiharu Shiota at Hayward Gallery
When it comes to creating immersive art installations that you'll never forget, Chiharu Shiota rarely fails. In Threads of Life she weaves threads throughout a space and incorporates items within it, from keys and dresses to boats and doors. Shiota's work explores the body, memory, consciousness and the fragility of existence. Predominantly using red, black or white wool, she creates connections to manifest the intangible forces that govern our lives. Her first institutional exhibition in the UK, this is simply mind-blowing.
Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life at Hayward Gallery. 17 February-3 May 2026, £19.
Beds and bodies: Tracey Emin at Tate Modern
Contemporary feminist icon Tracey Emin presents four decades of work by an artist who has made candour her calling card. Bringing together paintings, neons, videos, textiles, writings and sculptures, this retrospective captures Emin's determination to turn the female body into a site of passion, pain and — increasingly — healing. From the explosive 1990s, when her unmade 'My Bed' ignited debates about what art could be, to the more contemplative works of recent years, the show reveals an artist who has never flinched from exposing her own life through her work. Her great strength lies in putting her vulnerability on show.
Tracey Emin at Tate Modern. 27 February-31 August 2026, £20.
Going underground: Jock McFadyen and Jem Finer at Guildhall Art Gallery
Jock McFadyen's substantial paintings of sections of the Tube (some measuring around two metres long) are soundtracked by creaks, groans and grinding — as recorded by Pogues musician Jem Finer. The paintings aren't the kind of pictures that tourists take; he focuses on people-less offcuts featuring oblique views of Central line ceilings, and an empty Aldgate East platform bathed in sickly yellow strip lights. Finer's sounds are the result of his field recordings of the Northern and Central lines, which aim to heighten McFadyen's paintings into 'living, breathing organisms'; the blasts of mechanical yet melodic sounds may well be the same as those you hear en route to the exhibition. Read our full preview here.
Jock McFadyen and Jem Finer: Underground (and Surface) at Guildhall Art Gallery. 27 February-20 September 2026, pay what you can.
Short-run exhibitions
Turquoise Mountain is a charity founded in Afghanistan by Charles III in 2006 to preserve traditional craft techniques and train local artisans in them across Afghanistan, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and the Levant. To celebrate its 20th anniversary, it is holding an exhibition featuring master artisans working in hand-woven carpets and textiles, embroidery, jewellery, hand-blown glass, woodwork, ceramics, tilework, stonework, miniature painting and lacquerware. The exhibition is at The Garrison Chapel in Chelsea (12-22 February, free).
Luxmuralis specialise in using projectors to turn grand spaces into immersive films on concepts such as history, time and space. It has brought back its popular Space experience to St Martin-in-the-Fields church (17-21 February 2026, ticketed). We see galaxies emerge and humanity’s ambition to venture into the unknown, projected onto the side of the church and within the Crypt. We've viewed several experiences by Luxmuralis, and they've always been spectacular.
Exhibitions outside of London
Dala Nasser invites us to step into a collective space of mourning and remembrance in Cemetery of Martyrs at Nottingham Contemporary (7 February–10 May 2026, free). Nasser has transformed the gallery space into a symbolic graveyard, featuring a collection of charcoal rubbings of graves of artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, historians and journalists from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and England. It honours those who fought for independence and freedom, but inviting us to walk beneath a canopy of graves. Audio features a voice that communicates between the realms of the living and the dead.
Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas' major exhibition at The Whitworth in Manchester (13 February-31 May 2026, free) will include the mural she created for Glastonbury. Her work mixes installation and embroidery with performance, mythical references, and pop culture and politics. Any exhibition of hers is a chance to get lost in its fold as we explore ideas around nationhood, belonging, gender and identity — including references to Le Bas' Romani heritage.
What can art and objects made in times of war reveal about the pain, peril and life-changing experiences of conflict, as well as our instincts to seek out hope and humanity through creativity and making, even in our darkest moments? That's the theme of the powerful exhibition, War Craft, at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (24 February-23 August 2026, free). It includes messages home, tributes to fallen comrades, coins, prints, and many other items that reflect different personal experiences of war.
