Exhibitions to see this summer

In the major exhibition, Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams, The Courtauld have brought together three pioneering artists of the 20th century who, in 1960s New York, produced startling new bodies of work.

Prior to the emergence of the women’s movement, these artists engaged with a feminist politics of the body with their visceral, playful, and abstract forms in materials such as latex, expanding foam, string, and plaster. Expect gallery spaces filled with abstract sculpture installed in bold and unconventional ways.

To coincide with this ambitious exhibition, Louise Bourgeois: Drawings from the 1960s is on display in The Courtauld’s Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery—entry included with your purchase of the Abstract Erotic ticket.

This focused display will present a group of drawings by Bourgeois from the 1960s, mostly on loan from The Easton Foundation of New York. These dreamlike works illustrate the central role of drawing in her work and the way it intertwined with her sculptural practice during those years. Learn more

The National Portrait Gallery has put on a must see exhibition this summer that has received numerous 5 star reviews. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting is the largest major museum exhibition in the UK dedicated to one of the world’s foremost contemporary painters. Bringing together 45 works made throughout the artist’s career, the viewer is invited to trace the development of her practice through this chronological display. Her works, which range from charcoal drawings to monumental nudes, and new works on display for the first time, question the historical notion of beauty.

Whilst you’re there: Open from 10th July – 12th October, the prestigious Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award returns to showcase this year’s selection of captivating portrait paintings by 46 contemporary artists. Learn more about both exhibitions here

The V&A’s brand new venue, V&A Storehouse, which opened its doors on 31st May, invites visitors to come and see over 250,000 objects in the brand new archive, in a brand new approach to viewing museum collections. 

The large Storehouse is spread over three floors with full views around the expansive, eclectic space considered in its design through features including metal grid flooring and glass balustrades, enabling you to view the artefacts and artworks on the levels beneath from a birds eye perspective.

If you would like to view a particular object up close and skip the queues, you can book to see an item no less than 2 weeks in advance in the dedicated study centre if the object is small enough to transport, or for larger items you will be taken to their location within the archive. 

Further to this, V&A Storehouse has changing curated mini displays on all three floors as well as the Conservation Overlook room/area, where you’ll get the opportunity to watch their team of conservators at work in the conservation studio via a glass overlook balcony and a live feed screen. 

Located in Hackney Wick, V&A East Storehouse is open daily from 10am–6pm, with the exception of Thursdays and Saturdays which offer evening access, closing at 10pm. General admission is free, with no booking required. Learn more

Fine art is shown with counterculture and pop in this vibrant exhibition revealing how artists of very different kinds responded to the crises of their day through their relationships to Sussex and to the many different movements of modernism.

Running until 28 September, Towner Eastbourne’s Sussex Modernism exhibition combines works spanning from the late nineteenth century to the present, including a vast seven-metre-long painting by Ivon Hitchens.

The first international solo exhibition dedicated to the artist and Indigenous leader of the Uitoto people, Santiago Yahuarcani. The exhibition brings together almost 30 works from 2010 to the present day, showcasing Yahuarcani’s narrative-rich artistic practice and profound cultural resistance over the last fifteen years. Organised thematically, the exhibition presents new paintings as well as loans from major international collections.

• Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur at The Wallace Collection: 28 March – 26 October 2025
• Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party at the Garden Museum: 14 May – 21 September 2025
• Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons at Dulwich Picture Gallery: 10 June – 19 October 2025
• Felicity Aylieff: Expressions in Blue at Yorkshire Sculpture Park: Sat 5 April – Sun 14 September 2025
• Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures at The Hepworth Wakefield: 17 May – 26 October 2025
• Edward Burra — Ithell Colquhoun at Tate Britain: 13 June – 19 October 2025
• Louise Bourgeois | Helen Chadwick | Robert Mapplethorpe at National Galleries Scotland, Modern One, Edinburgh: Open from 12 July 2025