While nearly 300 galleries will flaunt their finest at Frieze and Frieze Masters this week, some of the most exciting art on view in London this fall can be found outside of the fairs at the city’s year-round institutions. From Renoir’s Impressionist daydreams at the National Gallery, to the raucous nostalgia of Edward Enninful’s retrospective on ’90s pop culture, we’ve curated the perfect slate of shows to see for those whose ideal break from the commotion of an art fair is, well, more art.
“Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends”
Where: National Portrait Gallery
When: Through Feb. 7, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: As an homage to the LGBTQ+ community, Tim Walker spent five years photographing queer British artists, performers, writers, and trailblazing activists. In the resulting body of work, now on view at the National Portrait Gallery, the renowned image-maker’s fantastical style, complete with floral collages and butterfly wings, imbues a sense of wonder, innocence, and freedom to each portrait.
Know Before You Go: A veteran fashion photographer known for staging romantic shoots for the likes of Vogue, Vanity Fair, and W, Walker has also lensed queer celebrities outside of his editorial work throughout the decades. Here, you’ll find portraits of Alexander McQueen, Hunter Schafer, Frank Ocean, Ian McKellen, and more.
“Change Ringing” by Justin Caguiat
Where: Serpentine, South Gallery
When: Through Jan. 10, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: A continuation of his spring installation “Zodiac Machine,” organized by the Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Madrid, “Change Ringing” sees interdisciplinary artist Justin Caguiat expand his exploration of Spanish architect Justo Gallego Martínez’s Catedral de Justo as a jumping-off point into a broader inquiry of materiality and memory. (Gallego Martínez, a former monk, built the cathedral without a single blueprint from recycled materials; he worked on the project for 60 years, until his death at the age of 96 in 2021.) From heat-sensitive paintings to flower-shaped bells, here Caguiat delivers a cache of new work as experimental as it is compelling.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition is not only site-specific, but site-responsive, as Caguiat built his works around the South Gallery’s existing architecture, even responding to its changing temperatures.
“Robert Ryman: The Real Thing”
Where: Barbican
When: Through Feb. 28, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: In a time of endless scrolling and short-form content, the Barbican’s retrospective of Robert Ryman encourages one to slow down, focusing instead on the detail of the late abstract artist’s masterful use of texture, brushstrokes, and paint throughout his storied 60-year-long career.
Know Before You Go: Although he’s become synonymous with his signature white-on-white canvases, Ryman’s original passion was for performance rather than painting. Having moved to New York in 1952 to pursue a career as a professional jazz musician, Ryman pivoted to the visual arts after working as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art.
“Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui”
Where: Tate Modern
When: Oct. 13, 2026 – April 11, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: For the 11th annual Hyundai Commission at the Tate Modern, the museum’s Turbine Hall hosts Lebanese sound and performance artist Tarek Atoui. The everyday sounds of London and the institution’s own echoey space serve as the instruments for the experimental composer’s new choral, site-specific installation. The inspiration, the artist has noted, was friends coming by his studio to improvise time and again ahead of the showing.
Know Before You Go: The heartbeat of the exhibition will be Atoui’s live performances. Opening week, Atoui is set to hold improvised sessions with a variety of London-based musicians and bands.
“Someone Like You” by Salman Toor
Where: Courtauld Gallery
When: Through Jan. 10, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: For his first European solo show, Pakistan-born, New York-based painter Salman Toor is showing his most iconic works from the past seven years. The artist’s scenes and subjects are seemingly quotidian yet deeply personal, an autofictional portrait of young queer and immigrant men drinking, dancing, and indulging with one another against the backdrop of a bustling metropolitan landscape.
Know Before You Go: Throughout his career, Toor has had a particular penchant for verdant color palettes—especially arsenic-green. He expands upon this monochromatic motif through exhibited works such as Ghost Ball, The Bar on East 13th, and more.
“Living Threads” by Cecilia Vicuña
Where: Whitechapel Gallery
When: Through Feb. 14, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: Spanning over six decades of Cecilia Vicuña‘s career, “Living Threads” is the first major exploration of the Chilean artist’s storied interdisciplinary practice in the U.K. Landing in London in the 1970s after fleeing Santiago during a military coup, Vicuña has long used painting, poetry, performance, and filmmaking to document the physical and mental tolls of violence, all while pulling from the Indigenous traditions and ecosystems of her homeland.
Know Before You Go: A firm believer that political action and artistic experimentation are intrinsically intertwined, Vicuña has folded materials and subjects from newspapers and zines into her sculptures, and collaborated with scientists and sex workers for her short films.
“The 90s: Art and Fashion”
Where: Tate Britain
When: Through Feb. 14, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: The Tate Britain’s highly anticipated homage to the 1990s and Cool Britannia is finally here, in all its edgy, rebellious, digitized glory. Investigating the singular rise of pop culture and art coming from Britain during the decade, the exhibition brings together defining ’90s iconography courtesy of photographers Juergen Teller and Corinne Day; artists Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas; designers Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano; and more.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition is curated by fashion visionary Edward Enninful OBE, who, during the ’90s, became the youngest-ever fashion director at i-D at the age of 18, and went onto stints leading W, British Vogue, and, since last year, his own EE72.
“Kibuuka Omumbaale” by Wakaliga Uganda
Where: Chisenhale Gallery
When: Through Dec. 6, 2026
Why It’s Worth a Look: Taking as its launching point the repatriation of Kibuuka Omumbaale’s sacred relics from England back to the Uganda Museum in 1961, this exhibition from Kampala-based collective Wakaliga Uganda traces the history and politics of British colonialism and restitution in the African country. A video commission takes the form of a subversive superhero film about Omumbaale, a mythological warrior-god of the Kingdom of Buganda, and a young boy who comes into contact with his remains.
Know Before You Go: The project was created collaboratively with individuals from Kampala’s Wakaliga neighborhood through a bricolage method. The film’s content, and its making, confront how power is inherited, retold, and subverted via contemporary collectives and media.
“Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art”
Where: V&A South Kensington
When: Through Nov. 15, 2026
Why It’s Worth a Look: This is your last chance to see a legendary fashion house’s first-ever British retrospective at the V&A. It spans from Elsa Schiaparelli’s origins as a surrealist designer in the 1920s to bold looks designed by current creative director Daniel Roseberry, and includes many of the house’s most iconic looks (including the skeleton dress, a 1938 collaboration between Elsa and Salvador Dalí).
Know Before You Go: During the early years of the house, Elsa forged deep ties with leading Surrealist artists, such as Dalí and Jean Cocteau, whose evening coat design is also on view at the V&A.
“Lie Down in Green Pastures” by Sabine Moritz
Where: The Garden Museum
When: Through Dec. 20, 2026
Why It’s Worth a Look: Tucked amidst the Garden Museum’s lush gardens are a host of works from Sabine Moritz. The painter’s abstract flowers and garden landscapes are a sweet reminiscence of her childhood in the countryside of East Germany.
Know Before You Go: Moritz began her artistic practice with a series of 150 monochrome pencil drawings of the satellite town she moved to as a teenager after the death of father. In much of “Lie Down in Green Pastures,” her first museum show in the U.K., she revisits her home in technicolor, and with newfound breadth.
“Renoir and Love”
Where: National Gallery
When: Through Jan. 31, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: At the peak of his career, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s focus lay firmly on the intimacy of love. Renoir’s Impressionist masterpieces are familial, platonic, and romantic in nature, from the leisure of Lunch at Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch), to his portrait Young Mother, to his iconic Dance at Bougival.
Know Before You Go: This exhibition presents 40 of Renoir’s most famous paintings, including his depictions of sunny gardens and jovial dance halls that helped usher in the Impressionist movement during the 19th century.
“A Hard Line to Bend” by Liz Larner
Where: Camden Art Centre
When: Through Jan. 17, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: Los Angeles-based artist Liz Larner’s experimental sculptures transcend the boundaries of ancient mythology and post-human thought, blending disparate influences into work that forces viewers to question the ways in which humans embody their own failing natural world.
Know Before You Go: While the exhibition spans three decades of the artist’s career, “A Hard Line to Bend” is anchored by a piece of the same name. Inspired by Lilith—Adam’s disobedient (and retrospectively feminist) wife before Eve in the Old Testament—Larner’s new work is one of self-determination and autonomy.
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