Amongst the many cultural offerings across our capital city, the free exhibitions in London are definitely worth bookmarking. Many of this season’s must-see shows don’t have an admission charge, meaning you can marvel at a Victorian masterpiece at the Royal Academy, see Yinka Shonibare’s latest body of work at the Serpentine and contemplate Caravaggio’s final masterpiece at the National Gallery – all without paying a thing. Here’s our guide to the best free exhibitions in London this summer.
Free Exhibitions in London
Metamorphosis: Innovation in Eco-Photography and Film
Saatchi Gallery
26 May – 28 July
If you’re looking for free exhibitions in London this summer, this latest offering at the Saatchi Gallery should be high on your list. Metamorphosis brings together four award-winning photographers and filmmakers, who have all undertaken ground-breaking work in their practices of eco-conscious photography and film. With a particular focus on each artist’s relationship with materials, process and methodologies, the works on show marry both the political and the poetic to dramatic effect.
Almudena Romero’s work focuses on how art shapes perception, while Edd Carr’s films comment on the human relationship to the current ecological crisis. Hannah Fletcher works with organic matter such as soils, algae and mushrooms, which she then transforms into photographic mediums, and Scott Hunter‘s practice fuses photography, sculpture and installation to create something entirely new. Together, their works make for powerful and evocative viewing.
Andrew Pierre Hart: Bio-Data Flows and Other Rhythms – A Local Story
Whitechapel Gallery
Until 7 July
London-based interdisciplinary artist and experimental music producer Andrew Pierre Hart is known for his work exploring connections between sound and painting. In what promises to be one of the best free exhibitions in London this spring, this new show at Whitechapel draws on the gallery’s longstanding history as a home for migrant and diasporic communities.
Bio-Data Flows and Other Rhythms – A Local Story features a series of six new oil paintings, a site-specific mural and a bamboo sculpture, as well as a sound composition and a film shot in the streets surrounding Whitechapel Gallery. The film features three dancers who navigate the gallery and surrounding streets, interpreting the area through their movements, while several of the paintings depict people who live and work locally. According to Hart, the works have been created to capture “the quotidian rhythm of Whitechapel… its vibrant rumble and dissonant past”.
Fanciful Figures
Sir John Soane’s Museum
Until 9 June
As well as being the house and museum of the British architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837), Sir John Soane’s Museum puts on excellent temporary exhibitions. In March that will be Fanciful Figures, which explores the history of the figures used in architectural drawings – known as ‘staffage’ – and will be the first ever exhibition dedicated to these eye-catching characters.
The popularity of these figures dates back to the Georgians, who placed them into their drawings to animate and enhance their designs. Between the city traders and happy families, street-side boxing matches and children riding in dog-carts, the figures celebrated in the exhibition help piece together a vibrant picture of both urban and rural life during Soane’s lifetime and earlier.
Andrew Pierre Hart: Bio-Data Flows and Other Rhythms – A Local Story
Whitechapel Gallery
Until 7 July
London-based interdisciplinary artist and experimental music producer Andrew Pierre Hart is known for his work exploring connections between sound and painting. In what promises to be one of the best free exhibitions in London this spring, this new show at Whitechapel draws on the gallery’s longstanding history as a home for migrant and diasporic communities.
Bio-Data Flows and Other Rhythms – A Local Story features a series of six new oil paintings, a site-specific mural and a bamboo sculpture, as well as a sound composition and a film shot in the streets surrounding Whitechapel Gallery. The film features three dancers who navigate the gallery and surrounding streets, interpreting the area through their movements, while several of the paintings depict people who live and work locally. According to Hart, the works have been created to capture “the quotidian rhythm of Whitechapel… its vibrant rumble and dissonant past”.
Flaming June
Royal Academy
Until 12 January 2025
First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895, Flaming June is one of the most important works by Frederic, Lord Leighton PRA (1830–1896). Now, almost 128 years later, the Victorian masterpiece has returned to Piccadilly, on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.
The captivating painting will be shown alongside works from the RA collection, including other pieces by Leighton and his contemporaries, as well as those who inspired him – keep an eye out for Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo. Set to be one of the most talked about free exhibitions in London this year, it’s a fantastic opportunity to see this iconic work in the flesh.
Lina Iris Viktor: Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings
Sir John Soane’s Museum
10 July 2024 – 19 January 2025
As well as being the house and museum of the British architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837), Sir John Soane’s Museum puts on excellent temporary exhibitions. In the second half of this year that will be Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings, a collaborative exhibition between Liberian-British multimedia artist Lina Iris Viktor and the Museum.
Viktor uses a range of different techniques in her artworks to meld sculpture, painting, photography and water-gilding, typically using materials such as gold, marble, and volcanic rock. For the show a group of new sculptures, made in response to the Museum, will be viewed in dialogue with Soane’s own collections of ancient and modern sculptures, offering up a striking new perspective.
Yinka Shonibare: Suspended States
Serpentine South
Until 1 September
This free exhibition at Serpentine South marks Yinka Shonibare CBE’s first solo institutional exhibition in London in over 20 years. Suspended States also heralds a welcome return to the gallery for the British Nigerian artist, who first exhibited here in 1992 as a finalist in the Barclays Young Artist Award.
The exhibition showcases a range of installations, sculptures, pictorial quilts and woodcut prints, all of which explore how systems of power affect sites of refuge and offer up debates on public statues, as well as the ecological impact of colonisation. Shonibare incorporates his signature use of Dutch wax print throughout the show, the brightly coloured batik-like fabric which symbolises the tangled relationship between Africa and Europe.
Jason and the Adventure of 254
Wellcome Collection
Until 12 January 2025
This interactive exhibition, a riot of kaleidoscopic colours and cartoonish magic realism, promises to be one of the best free exhibitions in London to see this summer. Presented by artist Jason Wilsher-Mills, Jason and the Adventure of 254 marks his largest and most personal commission to date, drawing on his experience of becoming disabled as a child.
Reimagining the gallery space as a hospital ward, the oversized sculptures, illustrations and interactive dioramas offer up a joyful exploration of the human body while challenging societal perceptions surrounding disability and medicine. Everything in the exhibition can be touched, while many of the playful installations come with interactive push-button lights, making this tongue-in-cheek show a great option for the whole family.
Contemporary Collecting: David Hockney to Cornelia Parker
British Museum
Until 29 September
The British Museum might be famous for its world-class antiquities, but did you know it also houses a significant collection of contemporary British art? This new exhibition presents a selection of around 100 prints and drawings taken from that collection, dating from 1960 to the present day.
Among them you’ll find prints by David Hockney, Michael Craig-Martin, Cornelia Parker and Yinka Shonibare CBE, as well as drawings by Richard Deacon, Celia Paul and Soheila Sokhanvari. The selection also features a range of works by contemporary artists who continue to engage with political and social issues, such as Joy Gerrard’s Vigil/Protest (Westminster 14th March 2021), an ink drawing depicting a vigil following the murder of Sarah Everard in London in 2021.
Rediscovering Gems
British Museum
Until 2 June
Delve into the archives at the British Museum with this free exhibition on classical gems. Depicting deities, famous individuals, animals, objects and scenes from myth or daily life, these pieces have been highly prized by collectors from the Renaissance onwards, but never more so than in 18th-century Europe. Rediscovering Gems explores the enduring appeal of these delicate pieces.
Used as seals, worn as jewellery or merely collected as objects of beauty, it took phenomenal skill to carve these miniature designs, which swiftly became sought-after luxury objects and status symbols among the aristocracy. What’s more, ten of the engraved gems on show are ones that have been recently recovered, after being taken as part of the Museum’s theft scandal last August.
Art Now: Zeinab Saleh
Tate Britain
Until 23 June
While some of the exhibitions at the Tate Britain come with ticket prices, there are always plenty of free shows to catch too. Right now, that includes a showcase of works by young London-based, Kenyan-born artist Zeinab Saleh. The evocative series of paintings and drawings on display were created specifically for this exhibition, using acrylic paint, charcoal and soft pastels.
Saleh’s pieces are inspired by everyday experiences, personal encounters and memories, and evoke a dreamlike quality. Picked out in a soft colour palette of pale blues, pinks and white, the works invite calmness and contemplation, and offer a welcome respite from the hectic world around us.
Double Exposure: David Bailey & Mary McCartney
Claridge’s ArtSpace
14 May – 19 July
One of the most exciting new free exhibitions in London is being held at Claridge’s ArtSpace and brings together two major British photographers: David Bailey and Mary McCartney. Curated by Brandei Estes, the exhibition spans photographs from the 1960s to the present day and marks the first time Bailey has ever shown with another photographer in London.
Many of the photographs on show reveal Bailey’s more playful side. Highlights to look out for include a portrait of Jean Shrimpton with her face painted by David Hockney and a shot of Jerry Hall with her head thrown back in laughter, resting her high-heeled shoe in Helmut Newton’s hand. Following suit, McCartney’s images also feature the celebrities of her generation, including a triptych of Kate Moss and a photograph of Harry Styles. Described as “unfolding like a conversation between two friends”, this is a fun, theatrical show that’s not to be missed.
The Last Caravaggio
National Gallery
Until 21 July
While some of the exhibitions at the Tate Britain come with ticket prices, there are always plenty of free shows to catch too. Right now, that includes a showcase of works by young London-based, Kenyan-born artist Zeinab Saleh. The evocative series of paintings and drawings on display were created specifically for this exhibition, using acrylic paint, charcoal and soft pastels.
It was only two months after he painted this work that Caravaggio died in mysterious circumstances, and so this painting – which shows violence at uncomfortably close quarters – is uniquely placed to tell the story of the artist’s tumultuous final years. The painting will be displayed alongside the letter that describes its creation and the gallery’s own late Caravaggio, Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (about 1609–10).
