{"id":412065,"date":"2025-09-10T03:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/412065\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T03:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:01:26","slug":"full-list-of-exhibitions-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/412065\/","title":{"rendered":"Full List of Exhibitions Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Portrait Gallery has been on an absolute roll over the last couple of years, not only opening its swanky new \u00a335 million Blavatnik Wing<\/a> back in summer 2023, but curating some truly unmissable temporary exhibitions since.<\/p>\n

And now, following on from last year\u2019s fabulous Francis Bacon\u00a0show<\/a>, and this year\u2019s brilliant offerings on 80s pop culture bible The Face Magazine<\/a> and British painter Jenny Saville<\/a>, the Trafalgar Square gallery\u00a0has announced yet more bangers for its 2026 season.<\/p>\n

National Portrait Gallery 2026 exhibition programme<\/p>\n

The year kicks off with the already-announced\u00a0Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting<\/strong> (Feb 12-May 3),\u00a0the first major UK exhibition focusing on the celebrated British portrait artist\u2019s works on paper. Encompassing drawings in pencil, pen, ink and charcoal, as well as etchings and a small selection of paintings that reveal the dialogue between Freud\u2019s practice on paper and canvas, the exhibition will feature a selection of recent acquisitions including an etched portrait of his daughter, the fashion designer Bella Freud.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nImage: Bella in her Pluto T-Shirt (etching), 1995 \u00a9 The Lucian Freud Archive, All Rights Reserved (2025) <\/p>\n

Next up in the gallery\u2019s 2026 schedule is the first major UK exhibition on Catherine Opie, the American photographer best known for her stylised, painterly portraits of queer communities that explore themes of belonging and identity. Catherine Opie: To Be Seen\u00a0<\/strong>(Mar 5-May 31)\u00a0will span the Ohio-born artist\u2019s three-decade career, from her first major series\u00a0Being and Having\u00a0(1991) to later photographs of\u00a0children, surfers, high school footballers and political crowds and her self-portraits.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nImage: \u2018Chloe, 1993\u2019 \u00a9 Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Thomas Dane Gallery <\/p>\n

Over the summer months, the Portrait Gallery will stage Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait\u00a0<\/strong>(Jun 4-Sep 6), a real blockbuster of an exhibition exploring the legacy of one of Hollywood\u2019s most alluring icons through works by some of the twentieth century\u2019s greatest artists and photographers, including Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, Marlene Dumas, Milton Greene and Eve Arnold.\u00a0This will feature alongside the 2026 edition of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award<\/strong> exhibition (Jun 25-Oct 7), featuring a selection of paintings shortlisted for the prestigious portraiture prize formerly sponsored by BP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Ian
\nPhotograph: \u2018Ian McKellen, Love, London\u2019 (2023) \u00a9 Tim Walker <\/p>\n

Autumn 2026 sees the gallery host Tim Walker\u2019s Fairyland: Love and Legends\u00a0<\/strong>(Oct 8-Jan 2027), the first major\u00a0show for the photographer since the V&A\u2019s acclaimed exhibition in 2019<\/a>. Best known for his eye-popping, fantastical fashion photography for titles including British Vogue, i-D, W,\u00a0Vanity Fair and\u00a0Another Man, the British photographer has spent the past five years photographing the nation\u2019s LGBTQ+ trailblazers in preparation for this exhibition, which will be accompanied by a book featuring contributions from Travis Alabanza, Russell T Davies, Shon Faye, Lisa Power and Joelle Taylor.<\/p>\n

The year concludes with the Portrait Gallery\u2019s longstanding photography competition, the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize<\/strong>\u00a0(Oct 28-January 2027), which returns for its 23rd edition in 2026.<\/p>\n

To say we\u2019re excited for such a jam-packed year of brilliant portraiture is an understatement. And with the London gallery scene\u2019s season announcements coming thick and fast, now would be a great time to make sure your memberships are up to date; 2026 is shaping up to be an excellent year for art in the capital.<\/p>\n

The Courtauld just announced its 2026 London programme, with exhibitions on Barbara Hepworth and Georges Seurat<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

London\u2019s National Gallery has announced the biggest transformation in its 200-year history<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up for our\u00a0<\/strong>free Time Out London newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Portrait Gallery has been on an absolute roll over the last couple of years, not only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,6419,393,4884,257,6420,6417,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-412065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-things-to-do","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news-city-life","14":"tag-things-to-do","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115177775846915895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}