London Art Guide March 2026.
- Rebecca Lethbridge
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
As we approach the middle of March 2026, it’s time to discover what exciting art exhibitions Spring has in store. From Lucian Freud and Sarah Morris to WangShui, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Why not plan an inspiring day out in London with friends and family, exploring both famous galleries and smaller galleries to experience these remarkable artists’ work?
National Portrait Gallery: Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting (12th February – 4th May 2026).
This is the first exhibition in the UK to focus on Freud’s artwork on paper, showcasing his range of skills from pencil and charcoal drawings to ink and etching. It explores Freud’s work from the 1930s to the early 21st century, looking at his fascination of human figures and portraiture, emphasising the relationship between his preparatory drawings and completed artwork. The exhibition includes both well-known and rarely seen works, including recent acquisitions from the Freud estate such as etching and trial proofs. Among the highlights is an etching of his daughter, fashion designer Bella Freud, presented alongside archival research and previously unseen materials[i].
The National Portrait Gallery is open daily from 10:30-18:00, and 10:30-21:00 on Friday and Saturday. With a National Art Pass you can get 50% off the exhibitions.
Young V&A: Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends (From 12th February 2026 until 15th November 2026).
Next up we have an exhibition at a lesser well-known gallery which is celebrating Aardman’s 50th anniversary. This exhibition allows viewers to see behind the scenes of the studio’s most cherished stop-motion animations. Viewers can discover more than 150 objects, including previously unseen models, sets, storyboard, sketches and props from Aardman’s archives, coming face to face with much loved characters from popular productions, such as Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Morph and Chicken Run.
This exhibition emphasises the techniques, materials and craftmanship behind Aardman’s creations, tracing the animation journey from the initial concept and storyboarding to model making, filming, production and post-production. Highlights include early development designs for Wallace & Gromit, alongside a wide range of works spanning the studio’s career[ii].
The gallery is open 10:00-18:00 Monday to Wednesday, 10:00-20:00 Thursday and Friday, 10:00-18:00 Saturday, 11:00-18:00 Sunday. With a National Art Pass you can see this exhibition for £5.50 instead of £11 (50% off).
Design Museum: Wes Anderson: The Archives (Until 4th May 2026).
Another gallery is the Design Museum where the Wes Anderson: The Archives exhibition is currently happening. Wes Anderson is a film director, and this exhibition showcases his journey through his photography spanning from early work in the 1990s to Anderson’s Oscar-winning masterpieces. Viewers are able to see original costumes and props as well as a look behind the scene, allowing viewers to see the craftmanship and creativity.
This exhibition allows you to discover the striking visual artistry and emotional depth that have defined his films as truly iconic, while celebrating his lasting influence on contemporary cinema. Enjoy an unmissable experience for admirers of his imaginative, intricately crafted worlds[iii].
The Design Museum is open from 10:00-17:00 Monday to Thursday and 10:00-18:00 on Friday to Sunday. With a National Art Pass you can get 50% off the exhibitions.
White Cube: Sarah Morris: Snow Leopards and Skyscrapers (Until 9th May 2026).
Contemporary artist Sarah Morris currently has a solo exhibition at the White Cube gallery to celebrate 30 years of collaboration with the White Cube gallery. The exhibition showcases new paintings, drawings and film, and furthers Morris’s engagements with networks, typologies, globalisation, architecture and the metropolis. Through her exploration into reality and abstraction, Morris creates a new language of place and politics. She sees her paintings and films as self-generating and open to interpretation, motion and change, giving the viewer a heightened sense that they are part of a larger system.
White Cube: WangShui Night Signal (Until 29th March 2026).
In Night Signal, WangShui presents new artworks inspired by dreams. The exhibition explores how dreaming connects to ideas about the mind, the way we see the world, and technology. Instead of thinking of paintings as flat pictures, WangShui creates works that shift and feel different depending on light, movement and the viewer’s experience.
The exhibition also suggests that dreams and machine learning work in similar ways. Both use patterns, memory and repetition to create new meanings over time[iv].
White Cube: Klára Hosnedlová Echo (Until 29th March 2026).
Klára Hosnedlová’s exhibition Echo fills the gallery with immersive scenes that feel like stepping into another world. The show is mainly about time. In the large, industrial space of White Cube Bermondsey, big man-made structures look as if they have been left behind and slowly taken over by natural, plant-like forms.
Hosnedlová explores the idea of time as something that repeats and leaves traces. The spaces she creates feel like future ruins—places where change happens slowly and the effects of time can be seen all around[v].
Tache: Introspect (Until 9th April 2026).
Breanna Gordon is a Canadian-British artist who was born in 1999. This is Gordon’s debut solo exhibition which will showcase 14 new and recent paintings, and her work explores mental health as a lived condition as well as a theme, along with other themes of anxiety, the double self and memory. Her paintings are dense and intricately patterned, immersed in shadow. Her use of dark colour palettes and decorative surfaces turn into emotional spaces[vi].
Opera Gallery London: Dreaming in Colour (Until 6th April 2026).
The ‘Dreaming in Colour’ exhibition shows art from more than 20 emerging artists from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, helping to highlight the next generation of artists. This exhibition explores the theme of dreams as a method and a subject. Artists exhibiting include Thomas Dillon, Gustavo Nazareno, Cristina Babiloni, Andy Dixon and Adrián Navarro[vii].
Saatchi Gallery: Spectral Interference (Until 6th May 2026).
This is a solo exhibition by Anna Liber Lewis (who is a London based painter) presented with Hannah Payne Art. This exhibition includes a new group of works that breaks away from her earlier grid-based paintings and moves towards abstraction as a space for risk, physical presence, and shifting perception[viii].
Tate Britain: Hurvin Anderson (26th March – 23rd August 2026).
Hurvin Anderson’s first major solo exhibition brings together more than 80 vibrant paintings from throughout his career, from his student days to new, never-before-seen works. Through richly coloured landscapes and interiors, he moves back and forth across the Atlantic between the UK and the Caribbean. His paintings often include family members, memories from his youth, and places of personal and cultural importance, such as the barbershop. By revisiting certain elements and sometimes layering one location over another, he explores the unreliability of memory and the tensions surrounding cultural heritage[ix].
Serpentine North Gallery: David Hockney (Until 23rd August 2026).
David Hockney’s first exhibition at Serpentine features new paintings that celebrate the beauty of everyday life and continue his long-standing focus on the act of looking. This show also presents his ninety-metre frieze ‘A Year in Normandie’, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, capturing the changing seasons at his former Normandy studio[x].
I hope you enjoyed this London Art Guide – stay tuned for more!
References:
[i] Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting. (2026, February 12). Art Fund. https://www.artfund.org/explore/exhibitions/2026/02/12/lucian-freud-drawing-into-painting
[ii] Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and friends. (2026, February 12). Art Fund. https://www.artfund.org/explore/exhibitions/2026/02/12/inside-aardman-wallace-and-gromit-and-friends
[iii] Wes Anderson: The Archives. (2025, November 21). Art Fund. https://www.artfund.org/explore/exhibitions/2025/11/21/wes-anderson-the-exhibition
[iv] WangShui, Bermondsey (2026) | White Cube. (2026, February 10). White Cube. https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/wangshui-bermondsey-2026
[v] Klára Hosnedlová, Bermondsey (2026) | White Cube. (2026, February 19). White Cube. https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/kl%C3%A1ra-hosnedlov%C3%A1-bermondsey-2026
[vi] Plugged, A. (2026, February 23). Breanna Gordon: Introspect. Art Plugged. https://artplugged.co.uk/breanna-gordon-introspect-tache/
[vii] Plugged, A. (2026b, February 26). Dreaming in colour. Art Plugged. https://artplugged.co.uk/dreaming-in-colour-opera-gallery-london/
[viii] Saatchi Gallery London. (2026, February 25). Spectral interference » Saatchi Gallery. Saatchi Gallery ». https://www.saatchigallery.com/exhibition/spectral-interference
[ix] Tate. (n.d.). Hurvin Anderson | Tate Britain. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/hurvin-anderson
[x] Serpentine Galleries. (2026, February 23). David Hockney | Exhibition | Serpentine Galleries. https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/david-hockney-a-year-in-normandie-and-some-other-thoughts-about-painting-exhibition-serpentine-galleries/
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