London Art Guide+ June 2025
- Eleni Doulgeraki
- Jun 4
- 7 min read
We’ve entered the most beloved and beautiful season of all — summer. London is becoming more vibrant by the day: parks are buzzing with picnickers and performers, rooftops are alive with conversations, and gallery doors stand wide open, welcoming curious minds and wandering souls. The sun is either shining brightly or playing its usual game of hide and seek — but rain or shine, the city’s cultural scene never slows down. From blockbuster exhibitions to hidden gem installations tucked away in unexpected corners, this is the time when London’s art world truly comes alive. Whether you're looking to escape the heat in a cool museum, discover new talent in an independent gallery, or stumble across a street art mural on your afternoon walk, there’s something for everyone.
Oh — and I shouldn’t forget: it’s degree show season. Art schools across the city are throwing open their doors, offering a rare glimpse into the next generation of creatives. These shows are raw, exciting, and full of fresh perspectives — a perfect reminder of why London continues to be one of the most inspiring places to experience art. In this guide, we’ll take you through the highlights of the season — the must-see shows, the under-the-radar spaces, and the outdoor art experiences that make summer in London unforgettable. Let art be your companion this season, wherever the city takes you.
Tate Modern, ''The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House'' open until 19 October 2025.
Well I am sure you have seen it all over tik tok but Do Ho Suh is creating a unique vibe here! At Tate Modern, Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh invites us to step into a world where memory, architecture, and identity intertwine.
What does it mean to belong? Is home a place, a memory, or something we carry within us? Through translucent corridors, fabric walls, and ghostly thresholds, Suh’s large-scale installations and intimate works gently explore these questions — asking how we move through the world and how the world moves through us. Spanning three decades of practice, the exhibition is both a journey and a meditation. We drift between Seoul, New York, and London in full-scale recreations of Suh’s past homes. We pause at the edges of belonging, disconnection, and collectivity. Sculptures, videos, and delicate works on paper invite us to consider the spaces we inhabit — and those that inhabit us.
Why do flowers still move us? Is it their fleeting beauty, their quiet symbolism, or the way they’ve long mirrored our emotions and desires? Flowers Forever sprawls across two floors of the Garden Museum, offering not just an exhibition but a sensory journey — through petals, pigment, memory, and meaning.
With over 500 works spanning fashion, photography, design, and installation, this show reminds us that flowers are far more than decoration. They are signs of life, of mourning, of protest, of celebration — a language in themselves. Highlights include Rebecca Louise Law’s suspended universe of 100,000 dried flowers and a digital dreamscape by Miguel Chevalier.
If you’ve ever paused at a bloom and felt something stir — joy, grief, longing — this show will speak to you. A must-visit for anyone who believes beauty is never just surface deep
Some artistic conversations unfold across centuries. This summer, the Royal Academy invites us into one such dialogue — between Vincent van Gogh and Anselm Kiefer.
In three quiet rooms, paint, time, and memory converge. Van Gogh’s luminous final works meet Kiefer’s vast, brooding visions — shaped by war, myth, and the long shadow of history. It’s less a comparison than an echo: two artists separated by decades but bound by the same fierce devotion to truth, beauty, and the unknowable.
A rare chance to witness how one visionary life continues to bloom inside another. Also, the exhibition developed in close collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Step inside, and the walls feel like they’re breathing. This summer, American artist Leonardo Drew transforms the South London Gallery into something raw, weathered, and alive — a space where sculpture meets storm.
In his first London institutional solo show, Drew offers not objects, but experiences: fractured wood, layered time, and the quiet violence of transformation. His process is ritualistic, almost devotional — a meditation on chaos, erosion, and rebirth. He doesn’t name his works; he lets them speak in splinters.
This isn’t an exhibition you stroll through — it’s one you inhabit. For anyone drawn to the poetry of ruin, the rhythm of repetition, and the beauty found in what breaks down, this is not to be missed.
What if art could speak without sound — not shout, but shimmer — just enough to be felt beneath the skin? Telepathy and the Unseen brings together ten artists whose works operate on that quieter frequency, where thought, memory, and sensation flicker just out of reach.
Here, paintings breathe, linger, and almost listen. Surfaces are layered like half-forgotten dreams. Bodies appear and dissolve. Meaning isn’t handed to you — it’s intuited, as if passed along an invisible thread.
This is an exhibition for those who appreciate stillness, subtlety, and the charged spaces between language. It doesn't ask to be understood all at once — it invites you to tune in.
In his haunting UK debut, Vienna-based artist Simon Lehner peers into the digital psyche — where avatars, algorithms, and hyper-masculine ideals blur the lines between self and simulation.
Through animatronics, manipulated images, and eerily carved paintings, Lehner unpacks how identity is shaped — and warped — in the echo chambers of the internet. At the centre: a sculpted figure, breathing softly in exile, both subject and product of our image-obsessed age.
A must-see for those drawn to the uneasy beauty of what’s real, what’s made-up, and what we’re becoming.
Step into the rich, layered worlds of Shyama Golden, where myth, memory, and the unseen selves we carry come alive in vibrant, haunting paintings. Drawing on Sri Lankan traditions and personal histories, Golden opens portals to stories that fold time, identity, and fate into one.
Her masked figures—both mystical and deeply human—invite us to question the boundaries of life’s beginnings and endings, and to recognize the cycles we all move through, whether seen or hidden.
This is art that whispers across lifetimes, reminding us that our stories are never just one, but many, unfolding in unexpected, beautiful ways.
Michaela Yearwood-Dan creates more than art — she builds havens of joy, community, and resilience. Her London debut unfolds through sweeping landscapes, intimate ceramics, and vibrant murals, all steeped in quiet femininity and queer spirit.
A new soundscape by composer Alex Gruz wraps the space in a lyrical embrace, inviting us to feel the music within the paint.
“No Time for Despair” is a bold reminder — even in dark moments, art calls us to connect, celebrate, and keep hope alive.
It's Degree Shows Time...!
Central Saint Martins (UAL)
Dates: Undergraduate: 19–22 June; Postgraduate: 2–6 July
Location: 1 Granary Square, King's Cross, London N1C 4AA
Details: A vibrant mix of disciplines, from Fine Art and Graphic Communication to Performance and Biodesign. Expect bold ideas and boundary-pushing installations.
2. Goldsmiths, University of London
BA Fine Art & History of Art: 19–23 June
Postgraduate (MFA, MA, Grad Dip): 17–22 July
Location: Goldsmiths campus, New Cross, London SE14 6NW
Details; Expect politically charged, socially engaged work from one of London’s most radical art schools.
3. Royal College of Art (RCA)
Dates: 19 June – 22 July (various schools and campuses)
Locations: Battersea, Kensington, and White City campuses
Details: Showcases work from the Schools of Arts & Humanities, Design, Architecture, and Communication .
4. Slade School of Fine Art (UCL)
BA/BFA Show: 23–29 May
MA/MFA Show: 14–22 June
Location: Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Details; Known for its rigorous conceptual approach, Slade’s shows are a must for those seeking thoughtful, experimental work.
5. City & Guilds of London Art School
Dates: 21–27 June
Private View: 20 June, 6–9pm
Location: Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4DJ
Details: An intimate show featuring fine art, conservation, and carving — a rare glimpse into traditional techniques and contemporary interpretations
6. Chelsea College of Arts (UAL)
Undergraduate Show: 12–20 June
Private View: 12 June, 6:30–9pm
Location: 16 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4JU
Detals; A strong focus on materiality and spatial practice, Chelsea’s show is a treat for sculpture and installation lovers.
7. London College of Communication (UAL)
Dates: Various dates throughout the summer
Location: Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB
Details: Features work from Design, Media, and Screen courses.
8. University of Westminster
Dates: 6–21 June
Location: London Gallery West and Project Space, Harrow Campus
Details:A dynamic mix of painting, sculpture, video, and performance from 44 emerging artists.
9. Kingston School of Art
Dates: 7–13 June
Opening Celebration: 7 June, 1–7pm
Location: Knights Park, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2QJ
Details: Features work from Foundation, Undergraduate, Grad Dip Creative Practice, MFA Fine Art, MA Photography, and MArch Architecture students.
10. Camberwell College of Arts (UAL)
Dates: Specific dates to be confirmed
Location: 45–65 Peckham Road, London SE5 8UF
Details: Part of the University of the Arts London, offering shows in Fine Art, Design, and Conservation.
That's all for now folks...I am sure June will involve into a busy art month for all of us - stay tuned to see how July will find us!
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