Tabish Khan, the @LondonArtCritic, picks his top museum exhibitions to see across London in August. If you are looking for more exhibitions, check out his previous top 5.
This densely curated exhibition is filled with such powerful stories, including many that may be unknown to Western eyes. From the foundations of the Pan-Africanism movement, the significance of its colours, the first conference in London, and the incorporation of those colours into the US and UK flags by David Hammons and Chris Ofili. Plus, there are dozens of fantastic works by artists from the African diaspora. It’s thoughtful, impactful, and one of the best exhibitions of the year so far. Until 6th September, ticketed.
This is an extensive collection of the artist’s works filled with optical illusions, including birds that change colour halfway across the work, stairs that appear to be going up and down and many more impossible scenarios. There are also interactive elements, including an Ames Room that makes one person appear much larger and the other smaller, and clever technology that allows you to appear inside an Escher work. I’ve always been a big Escher fan, and this is a chance to see a fantastic array of the artist’s practice. Until 6th September, ticketed.
Would you know where a place is on a map if all the place names were blacked out? Would the world be a happier place if we removed all concept of certain people owning a plot of land or naming a place after them? Emilio Isgro handles these philosophical questions with sly humour as a Brexit letter from Theresa May is censored so only the words ‘with’ and ‘Europe’ remain – a remainer’s dream. I wasn’t familiar with this artist’s work, and it’s a revelation. Until 6th September, ticketed.
The Sun and Moon have been inspiration for artists for centuries, and this exhibition does a great job of juxtaposing this history with some fantastic contemporary artists. It contains a Dürer print and tapestries from India and Aboriginal cultures, but also Katie Paterson’s work that records every sunrise since the dawn of humanity in numbers, Ben Edge’s work that links celestial bodies to British folk rituals and Saad Qureshi’s sculpture of half of the moon. It means we can have snow goggles made from walrus ivory in the same room as prints by Yinka Ilori, and a blazing recreation of the sun by Luke Jerram that we can sunbathe under. Until 8th September, ticketed.
Gabriel Chaile, Whitechapel Gallery, 2026
It’s like stumbling upon a dig site in this one-room exhibition. We walk a path between two sides of rich orange-red Earth. In some places it’s been moulded into the shape of an adobe, a structure associated with indigenous communities in the artist’s home country of Argentina. In others, there are objects he’s found in Lisbon and London. It’s a great concept, and there are always new treasures to be spotted in the installation. Until 6th September, free.
All images are courtesy of and copyright of the respective institution and artist. Barbican photo: Thomas Adank. M.C. Escher photo: Stephen Chung. The Sun and the Moon photo: David Owens.
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Mark Westall has spent over thirty years creating platforms for culture. Since founding FAD Magazine in 2006, he’s dedicated his career to documenting, championing and questioning contemporary art through publishing, criticism and conversation. As founder and editorial director of one of the UK’s leading independent contemporary art publications, he has interviewed artists, reviewed exhibitions and covered the ideas shaping contemporary visual culture for more than two decades. He also founded Art of Conversation, Despoke and FAD Bazaar, and regularly serves as a judge for international art and photography awards.