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We look ahead and pick the best exhibitions to see in London's galleries and museums, opening this October.
K-culture: Korea at the British Museum
2,000 years of Korean creativity is celebrated at this exhibition charting the country's evolution from 200 BC to today — via sculpture, painting and decorative arts. There are ancient gold body ornaments and Buddhist icons, 12th and 13th century stoneware, ink landscapes and contemporary works responding to the turbulence of the 20th century. A rare chance to see such a span of Korean culture.
Korea at The British Museum. 1 October 2026-31 January 2027, £18.
Sun, sea and sand: Painting the French Riviera at Royal Academy of Arts
An azure sea, sand between your toes, favourite drink in hand. Who wouldn't want to be on the French Riviera right now? Unsurprisingly, this stretch of coastline was an inspiration to many artists, including Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Yves Klein. The Royal Academy charts the Côte d'Azur's influence on Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists, before it became a travel destination/favoured film set. The story is told through more than 160 works, including paintings, sculpture, travel posters and film, from the 1870s to the 1960s.
Painting the French Riviera at Royal Academy of Arts. 2 October 2026-31 January 2027, £24-£26.
Other worlds: Es Devlin at Design Museum
She has created unforgettably immersive public artworks, and won Tony and Emmy awards for her stage sets. Now we're invited into Es Devlin's world-building workshop; she's moved her studio and her 30-year archive into the Design Museum, to guide us through her creative process/past projects and to share what makes her tick. Art, activism, poetry, sculpture, music and architecture combine in this look-back over Devlin's extraordinary career to date.
Es Devlin: Other Worlds at Design Museum. 2 October 2026-4 April 2027, £17.
Peak Impressionism: Renoir and Love at the National Gallery
Renoir is perhaps the most divisive of the Impressionists: some love his vivid colours; others consider his works too chocolate-boxy. Here's a chance to make your own mind up, through a collection of 40 paintings that whisk you into sun-dappled gardens and swirling Parisian dance halls. We're also fans of the National Gallery's one-room displays, and this time it has paired contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare, who addresses colonial legacy in his work, with 18th century master landscape and portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough.
Renoir and Love at The National Gallery. 3 October 2026–31 January 2027, £20-£25.
Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation at The National Gallery. 15 October 2026‒7 February 2027, free.
Feminine Strength: Gabrielle Goliath at Ibraaz
Gabrielle Goliath's work at this year's Venice Biennale was one of the most powerful, and now there's a chance to see/hear it in London. Find yourself surrounded by video screens where women hold a single note; just as their breath gives out, they are replaced by the next woman in line. It's a work about solidarity and women's rights, addressing femicide in South Africa and the genocide in Palestine. As the sound echoes around you, it makes for an extremely moving artwork.
Gabrielle Goliath: Elegy at Ibraaz. 8 October 2026–17 January 2027, free.
Fairy tale fashion: Tim Walker at National Portrait Gallery
Straddling the border between fashion and art, Tim Walker's photographs are pure escapism. Inspired by fairy tales, he creates spectacular fantasy worlds that have featured celebrities ranging from Chappell Roan to Miriam Margolyes, and often found themselves on the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair. This exploration of queer identity, community and love offers us all a chance to escape into Walker's fairy tale world.
Tim Walker's Fairyland: Love and Legends at National Portrait Gallery. 8 October 2026-7 February 2027, £23-£25.
Pure nostalgia: The 90s at Tate Britain
Remember the 1990s? For many of us, it seemed a more positive, if naive, era. For younger people, it's a world only recognisable through films, TV and music. Tate Britain takes us back to a time when Britain began to emerge from recession, and a new dawn of optimism, freedom and rebellion materialised. Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen appear. Prepare for nostalgia overload. If you're old enough.
The 90s: Art and Fashion at Tate Britain. 8 October 2026-14 February 2027, £22.
Future ruins: Michael Landy at John Soane's Museum
What will the world look like in the future? Will nature have taken it all back, leaving only ruins to signify humanity's existence on this planet? Michael Landy's drawings imagine such a future, in which the Bank of England lies in ruins. Landy's comment on capitalism and consumerism also shows nature reclaiming Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, as well as Rome's Palazzo della Civiltà — Mussolini’s fascist monument to himself. It's dark, dystopian, yet uplifting — and we're here for it.
Michael Landy: Future Ruins at Sir John Soane's Museum. 14 October 2026-17 January 2027, free.
Early photography: Light and Magic at Tate Modern
When a new technology emerges, artists are often among the first to embrace it, and test its limits. Such was the case with photography, and this Tate Modern show brings together over 200 rare prints by more than 80 artists — from Seoul to Sydney, New York to Cape Town, and Brazil to Singapore — to show what's possible in the darkroom. It's also time for a new Turbine Hall installation; it's the turn of artist and composer Tarek Atoui, whose installations explore and challenge perceptions of sound. They've given him the right space to work with.
Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography at Tate Modern. 14 October 2026-21 February 2027, £20.
Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui at Tate Modern, Turbine Hall. 13 October 2026-11 April 2027, free.
Making waves: Hokusai at Dulwich Picture Gallery
Japanese printmaker Hokusai is best known for his print The Great Wave, but did you know this iconic work is part of a series of 36 woodblock prints of Mount Fuji? Dulwich Picture Gallery brings them all together — the first time this has happened in the UK. Talk about making waves.
Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from the Iuchi Collection at Dulwich Picture Gallery. 20 October 2026-17 January 2027, £21.50.
Science and exploration: Becoming America at the Science Museum
The USA may not be in the news for the right reasons at the moment, but the Science Museum is marking the country's 250th birthday with a look back to uncover the science that shaped — and was shaped by — its land. Spanning from the 1760s to the first US presidency in the 1790s, Becoming America examines the contribution of Indigenous science and the stories of enslaved and free African-descended peoples. There are maps, paintings, musical instruments and a rare surviving 1776 print of the Declaration of Independence.
Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation at the Science Museum. 23 October 2026-25 April 2027, free, ticketed.
Murder She Wrote: Agatha Christie at The British Library
Agatha Christie's prodigious output is almost unrivalled, and the British Library is giving us a chance to step into a creative process that produced Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and countless other novels. Learn how the author was inspired by crossing continents by train and navigating archaeological digs. Christie fans (and who isn't one?) will feel a shiver down their spine as they pore over typewriters, notes for stage adaptations, family photos and personal letters.
Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery at the British Library. 30 October 2026-20 June 2027, £20-£25.
Short-run exhibitions and art fairs
London becomes overrun with art fairs in October, the grandaddy being Frieze London in Regent's Park (14-18 October, £59+) for the latest in contemporary art, with over 160 galleries from more than 40 countries. At the other end of the park, and almost as large, is Frieze Masters (14-18 October, £48+, combined ticket £92+), spanning 6,000 years of art history and featuring antiques to post-war artists.
More bite-sized specialist fairs include the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House (15-18 October, £32+), which hones in on African artists and those from the diaspora, and the Focus Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery (15-18 October, £19+), which specialises in Asian galleries and artists. PAD London in Berkeley Square brings together art and design under a rather luxurious marquee (13-18 October, £30). If you want an art fair that doesn't particularly feel like one, make for Minor Attractions at the Newman Hotel (13-17 October, free), where galleries show their works in hotel rooms. The Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair has been reborn at Imprint Art Fair (29 October-1 November, £20+), with a more central location at Lawrence Hall, and prints are usually available at affordable prices.
The Other Art Fair at Truman Brewery (8-11 October, £20+) invites you to deal directly with artists, and the founder of that fair has now set up his own artist-led fair, Fair Play Art Fair at One Marylebone (15-18 October, £24+). Great art and bargains can be found at both. Likewise, at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea (14-18 October, £15+) where all works are priced below £10,000 (some are way under this), it's great for those looking to spruce up their home, plus there's a showcase of the best graduate works, curated by Jo McLaughlin.
If you're looking for exhibitions, head to the atmospheric chapel in Old Brompton Cemetery, where artists Anna Blom and Alex Mills have designed an installation to help us reconnect with nature (3-4 October, free). Over in Deptford, at APT gallery, Clay in Vivo brings together 12 artists who push the boundaries of what can be sculpted out of clay (8-18 October, free).
Designer Vikram Goyal is turning a Mayfair home into a fantastical interior, with a collection of furniture and design inspired by the natural world and mythical creatures in 'Wings and Tales' (12-17 October). Nearby, Mount Street is hosting an arts festival (12-17 October) that includes talks, publishers, art and a chance to have your portrait taken by photographer Miles Aldridge.
Exhibitions outside London
If you missed Nancy Cadogan's tribute to lost trees when it was shown in London at the Garden Museum, here's your chance to catch it again at Compton Verney in Buckinghamshire (2 October-22 November, £22.50). Nancy Cadogan has gathered the stories of 20 felled trees and created 'portraits' of them, revelling in their former glories. The project was sparked by the felling of trees in Cadogan's area to make way for HS2, and the loss felt by the local community.
What does paradise mean to you? Saad Qureshi asked this question and took the responses to create fantastically detailed miniature worlds, which he calls sculptural landscapes, at the Schwartzmann Centre in Oxford (2 October-6 December, free). Rendered in a uniform grey, reminiscent of the light before dawn, they are the translation of these dreams into sculptures and drawings. Some are in wheeled drawers, referencing the way we carry our personal utopias in our heads.
It's 50 years since the death of the great industrial painter L.S. Lowry, and here's an opportunity to look back across his wider practice in an exhibition at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes (24 October 2026-28 February 2027, £15.95). He may be best known for his crowds of people going to work/football matches, but this exhibition also brings seascapes, landscapes, portraits and more surreal works to our attention.
