Five London exhibitions to visit - August 2026
The five best London exhibitions to visit this month
This year seems to be flying by and we are already about to say goodbye to some of the biggest art shows in town, so this’ll is your last chance to catch them before they’re gone.
Here is our choice of the best shows to visit this month.
If a trip to London isn't on the cards, we have details about the accompanying exhibition catalogues, so you can enjoy the works and the themes explored in the shows from the comfort of your home.
1) Hepworth in Colour
Runs until 6 September
Tickets from £18.00
This gem of a show is the first to explore a less familiar aspect of Barbara Hepworth's work, the artist’s lifelong fascination with colour.
The exhibition unites for the first time her early innovative sculptures with colour of the 1940s, displayed alongside the most important drawings from that decade, and includes major examples of her work with colour from the 1950s and 1960s.
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), Drawing for Sculpture with Colour (Forms with Red and Blue), 1941, pencil and gouache on paper-covered board. Private Collection, Barbara Hepworth © Bowness, Image courtesy Bowness. Image taken from The Courtauld Gallery website.
The exhibition catalogue
The exhibition catalogue which is edited by Alexandra Gerstein and published by Yale University Press is a well-produced and reasonable priced book that addresses a gap noted by Hepworth herself—that her use of colour was accepted during her lifetime but never truly understood.
Around twenty sculptures and thirty drawings are reproduced well and discussed, the selection weighted toward the 1940s, when Hepworth was painting vivid blues and yellows directly into the hollows and onto the curves of her wood-and-stone carvings.
This is not a comprehensive introduction of Hepworth's career but a focused study that makes a compelling case that colour was never peripheral to Hepworth.
The catalogue is available for sale at Museum Bookstore.
2) Tracey Emin: A Second Life
Tate Modern
Runs to 31 August
Admission £22 (concessions available)
You only have a couple of weeks left to catch this excellent retrospective from one of Britain’s most inventive artists. The show traces 40 years of Emin’s groundbreaking practice with works ranging from the Turner Prize nominated My Bed, to her chaotic self-portraits and bold sculptures.
'Walking into Tate Modern’s huge Tracey Emin retrospective is like walking in on her crying, naked, sobbing and snotty, as if you have stumbled into something painfully private' - The Guardian
This is a raw show which demonstrates her ability to turn traumatic experiences into mesmerising art.
The exhibition catalogue
Edited by Maria Balshaw and Alvin Li, the companion book to the show offers a full presentation of the exhibition and is an excellent survey of Emin’s 40-year career. The book has essays by Josh Cohen, Johanna Hedva, Helen Laville, and Harry Weller.
The book is a worthy souvenir to a superb show.
The paperback and the hardback are available to purchase here
3) Zurbarán
National Gallery
Runs to 23 August
Admission from £20 (concessions available)
A peer of Murillo and Velázquez, Zurbarán is one of the great painters of seventeenth-century Spain and stands out for his drama, mystery and vision.
There has never been a show of this Spanish baroque genius in Britain before, so catch it while you can.
The exhibition brings together works from major galleries across Europe and the US that span Zurbarán’s career from his first religious commissions to paintings made for private devotion. The show has been a critical success with the Sunday Times critic describing it as 'One of the greatest shows I've ever seen'
The exhibition catalogue
The show's companion book is a handsome hardback published by Yale University Press London and edited by Francesca Whitlum-Cooper and Imogen Tedbury.
The publication features essays by experts in the field and new exciting new discoveries along with over 100 exquisite reproductions that bring to life the naturalism and the intensity of Zurbarán’s work.
Buy a copy of the book here
4) Anish Kapoor
Hayward Gallery
Runs to 18 Oct
Admission from £22 (concessions available)
This uplifting and joyous show brings together many of Kapoor’s greatest works: his concave mirrored surfaces that turn everything upside down, his playful inflatables and his disorientating Vantablack voids.
The show marks the artist's first major exhibition in the UK in almost 30 years, which was also held at the Hayward and is according to the Telegraph, 'a riveting feast for the eyes'
The exhibition catalogue
The catalogue, which was edited by the Hayward's director, Ralph Rugoff and published by the Hayward, offers a broad career retrospective of the artist and a handsome record of a spectacular show.
The book includes a career chronology and features texts by philosopher Julia Kristeva, art historians Nancy Spector and Sandhini Poddar, and an interview with Hayward Gallery Director, Ralph Rugoff. The highlight of the catalogue is the striking installation photography.
Find out more details about the book here
5. Hurvin Anderson
Tate Britain
Runs to 23 August
Admission from £18 (concessions available)
We are in the last weeks of this affecting and beautiful show which brings together more than 80 of Anderson's energetic paintings spanning the artist’s entire career.
The youngest of eight children, he was the first to be born in the UK after his family left Jamaica for Birmingham in the 1960s. His work
The works, defined by bold colour, reflect on his experiences of belonging and diaspora and zigzag between Handsworth, Birmingham and the Caribbean.
‘Country Club: Chicken Wire’ (2008) © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo Richard Ivey
The exhibition catalogue
The companion book to the Tate's show is a beautiful paperback edited by Tate curator, Dominique Heyse-Moore and published by Tate.
The book includes crisp reproductions of over 60 of his work together with thought provoking contributions by Eddie Chambers, Jasmine Kaur Chohan, Gillian Forrester, Roshini Kempadoo, Glenn Ligon, and Kobena Mercer.
Available now at Museum Bookstore
