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Our pick of the best exhibitions to see in London's galleries and museums opening in April 2025, plus a couple of cheeky additions outside the M25
Door to door: Do Ho Suh at Tate Modern
Navigate a maze of corridors made from different coloured fabrics, all based on buildings that Do Ho Suh has lived in — he's replicated the spaces down to the light switches and plug sockets. This survey covering 30 years of the South Korean's career includes reconstructions of older buildings, mosaics made from thousands of photographs and drawings created with thread.
The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House at Tate Modern. 1 May - 19 October, £20.
Japan & India: Hiroshige & Ancient India at The British Museum
It's double delight for visitors to The British Museum as two exhibitions open in May. Hiroshige's prints, drawings and books capture a time of great transformation in Japan as it opened up to the world. From fashionable figures and energetic city views, to remote landscapes and impressions of the natural world, it's all set out in fantastic detail. Meanwhile, Ancient India asks questions like: 'Where does the image of Ganesha, with his elephant head and rounded belly, originate?', 'What inspired the depictions of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain deities and enlightened teachers in the forms we're still familiar with today?' and 'How did these religions and their devotional art spread across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and along the Silk Roads to East Asia?' We're looking forward to both of these blockbusters.
Hiroshige: artist of the open road at The British Museum. 1 May - 7 September, £14.
Ancient India: Living Traditions at The British Museum. 22 May - 12 October, £16.
Tech meets nature: Jasmine Pradissitto at London Museum of Water & Steam
The world needs to find a balance between technology and nature, and that's exactly what the work of Jasmine Pradissitto does. She's a physicist and artist who has worked with pollution-absorbing ceramics, and as the first artist in residence of the London Museum of Water & Steam she's gone behind the scenes to combine rusted metal with organic elements, mechanical and natural objects to create works now on display in the museum — plus an atmospheric soundscape to accompany them.
Jasmine Pradissitto - Tender Machines: Holding Paradox at London Museum of Water & Steam. 3 May - 31 October, £11.50 (includes admission to the museum).
Trees and tech: Marshmallow Laser Feast at Kew Gardens
The technical wizards that are Marshmallow Laser Feast are at Kew Gardens, and thanks to them we can look inside Kew's massive Lucombe oak tree — seeing how water and oxygen flow through its roots and branches. It's watchable on an outdoor screen, thanks to some very fancy tech, and through QR codes we can access an online guided breathing meditation that will allow us to synchronise with the rhythms of the oak.
Of the Oak: Marshmallow Laser Feast at Kew Gardens. 3 May - 28 September, £22 (includes entrance to the gardens).
Statuesque: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha at Barbican
Alberto Giacometti's spindly figures are joined by the chunkier works of contemporary artist Huma Bhabha, to inaugurate a new, more intimate, exhibition space at Barbican. It spans nearly a century of artmaking, encompassing a range of media — plaster, bronze, terracotta — along with assemblage and found objects. It's the first of three exhibitions pairing artists with Giacometti's works.
Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha at Barbican. 8 May – 10 August, £8.
Art history glow up: Wonder of Art at The National Gallery
You may have noticed that one wing of the National Gallery has been closed for a while; that's because a major rehang is underway, plus they're sprucing up the entrance. Rather than telling a single story of the history of art, C C Land: The Wonder of Art, gives us themed rooms that tell us about the making of art, particular types of painting (like portraits or flower paintings), or an individual artist, and works paired together across centuries.
CC Land: Wonder of Art at The National Gallery. Opens 10 May, free.
Flowery photos: Cecil Beaton's Garden Party at Garden Museum
Sir Cecil Beaton is known for photographing the fashionable and famous, but did you know he was also passionate about flowers and gardens? Tracing Beaton's horticultural journey through his gardens in Wiltshire, the exhibition includes photographs, paintings, drawings, costume and set design. It will include Beaton's personal diaries, photographs of friends and family gathering in his gardens, opera and ballet costume sketches and dresses of his own design.
Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party at Garden Museum. 14 May – 21 September, £15 (includes admission to the museum).
Galactic: Space - Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? at Natural History Museum
Snap a selfie with a piece of Mars, touch a fragment of the Moon and lay your hands on the Allende meteorite, which — at 4.567 billion years old — is even older than Earth. Those are some of the highlights in an exhibition that looks at whether we can survive on other planets or moons as we guide a rover over the rocky Martian terrain in search of ancient life, decide what equipment to take on a space mission, listen to the sounds of the Red Planet and inhale the scents of outer space.
Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? at Natural History Museum. 16 May - 22 February, £14-16.50.
Wealth and power: Heiress - Sargent's American Portraits at Kenwood House
To mark 100 years since John Singer Sargent death, Kenwood House has gathered 18 portraits of women once dismissively dubbed the "Dollar Princesses" to tell their stories. Daughters of new money magnates who were married to British aristocrats in an exchange of money for titles, some of the women depicted went on to great achievements, such as piloting a helicopter or become the first sitting female MP. Like their subjects, many of these paintings have crossed the Atlantic, so here's a rare chance to glimpse them.
Heiress: Sargent's American Portraits at Kenwood House. 16 May - 5 October, £10.
War is hell: Unsilenced at IWM London
Sexual violence is commonplace in areas of conflict, and this exhibition features case studies from the First World War to today, examining how and why sexual violence is perpetrated, its impact on victims and survivors and the pursuit of justice and reconciliation. It includes testimonies and interviews with experts, and highlights the ongoing work of four NGOs working in the field of sexual violence.
Unsilenced: Sexual violence in conflict at IWM London. 23 May - 2 November, free.
Art from Brum: The Barber in London at The Courtauld
While the Barber Institute in Birmingham is undergoing a refurb, some of its masterpieces have gone on a road trip and stopped off in London. Ranging from the Renaissance to the 20th century, The Barber in London includes work by greats including Gainsborough, Reynolds, Turner, Degas and Monet. 18 masterpieces in landscape and portraiture mingle with The Courtauld's own superb collection for nine months.
The Barber in London: Highlights from a Remarkable Collection at The Courtauld. 23 May – 22 February 2026, £10 (includes admission to the collection).
The big stories: World Press Photo at Here East
What are the images that captured the big stories and events of the year? Which photographs are so powerful they make us feel joy or sadness just looking at them? World Press Photo showcases powerful and thought-provoking photojournalism and documentary photography on the key issues shaping our world from war and migration to natural beauty.
World Press Photo exhibition at MPB Gallery, Here East. 23 May - 25 August, £16.50.
Soot and smoke: Claudio Parmiggiani at Estorick Collection
It's a bookshelf, but all we can see are the outlines of the tomes made visible through soot and smoke. Claudio Parmiggiani grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War, and so these remnants of destruction feel all the more powerful. The exhibition features both monumental and more intimate works from this iconic series and these fragile and contemplative works ask us to think of memories lost.
Claudio Parmiggiani at Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art. 28 May – 31 August, £9.50.
Explosive: Leonardo Drew at South London Gallery
Here's an art exhibition you won't forget in a hurry — not least because it explodes all around you. This immense sculpture covers the walls and floor of the exhibition space with fragments of wood recalling the formation of extreme weather events and natural disasters. The installation takes the form of the crest of a wave on each side of the gallery, towering over visitors who are invited to walk through the work... and hope it doesn't collapse on them.
Leonardo Drew: Ubiquity II at South London Gallery. 30 May - 7 September, free.
Art fairs
There are a couple of art fairs this month as the Affordable Art Fair returns to Hampstead (7-11 May, £14+) for another edition of works starting at £100, whether you're looking for something small, or a larger centrepiece.
May also marks the return of Photo London to Somerset House (15-18 May, £20+). Bringing together over a hundred exhibitors from across the world, showcasing important works from across the globe from the dawn of the medium to today. Whether it's classic or contemporary photography that floats your boat, portrait or experimental, British or from further afield, this fair has you covered.
If you prefer seeing where the magic happens inside the artist's studio, head over to Wimbledon Art Fair (8-11 May, free), where you can snoop around the studios of over 180 artists and even buy an artwork direct from its creator.
Exhibitions outside London
Two of British history's greatest cultural heroes, Jane Austen and JMW Turner are united at Harewood House — a stately home just outside London (2 May - 19 October, £20.95 - includes access to the house and grounds). Rare books, manuscripts, period costume, fashion plates, artistic tools, oil paintings and watercolours animate the lives of Austen and Turner. It also covers Harewood's colonial connections alongside a contemporary response to the house's history.
"The subject of my paintings in its broadest sense is women's experience, whether that is the imagined interior life of a glimpsed shop worker, a closely observed portrayal of my mother working in the family home, or women I've had the privilege of spending time with, in their place of work." That is Caroline Walker's paintings in her own words — we've always been fans of her intimate artworks including her impressive use of light. There's a lot more of that in her exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire (17 May - 27 October, £13).
