5 Must-See Exhibitions in London This Month:
London’s art scene is buzzing with energy this month, offering a mix of bold debuts, landmark retrospectives, and exhibitions that challenge how we see culture, history, and ourselves. From intimate explorations of identity to large-scale celebrations of collective creativity, these shows span painting, photography, sculpture, and performance, each offering something distinct. Here are five exhibitions you won’t want to miss in London right now.
ROBYN KAHUKIWA
PHILIDA REID GALLERY
Phillida Reid presents Robyn Kahukiwa, a landmark exhibition honouring the late Aotearoa New Zealand artist (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare, 1938 –2025), assembled according to her wishes with the support of her daughter, Reina Kahukiwa. Bringing together works from the 1990s to 2025 drawn from collections and the artist’s estate, the exhibition marks her first London showing since 1999 and follows her inclusion in the Sharjah Biennial (2023). Grounded in whakapapa and connection to Tūpuna Māori, Kahukiwa’s art powerfully asserts the beauty, strength, and mana of Māori people while affirming resilience, cultural continuity, and ancestral wisdom.
On view until 1 November 2025.
THE ABSENCE THAT WE ARE | VICTOR MAN
DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY
Victor Man’s exhibition The Absence That We Are at David Zwirner, London, presents paintings that embrace concealment as much as revelation, evoking silence, ambiguity, and slow time. Drawing on the spectral tones of green, violet, and midnight blue, his figures hover between visibility and obscurity, recalling Flemish portraiture, Symbolism, and Christian iconography while resisting direct narrative. Inspired by Rilke’s poetry and accompanied by texts from Georg Trakl and Karl Holmqvist, the works operate like apparitions, dense, veiled surfaces that collapse memory, ritual, and atmosphere into images that feel both timeless and untethered. Rather than resolving meaning, Man’s canvases dwell in suggestion and inwardness, inviting viewers into a space where absence itself becomes a presence.
On view until 31 October 2025.
LMK WHEN YOU REACH | BERNICE MULENGA
AUTO ITALIA PROJECTS
Auto Italia presents LMK WHEN U REACH, the first major institutional solo exhibition by British-Congolese artist Bernice Mulenga, celebrating a decade of their ongoing series #friendsonfilm. This expansive photographic archive honours Black queer life and LGBTQ+ BIPOC communities, documenting club nights, intimate rituals, and collective spaces of celebration as vital sites of solidarity, resistance, and self-determination. Rooted in queer, postcolonial, and critical race theory, Mulenga’s practice challenges the marginalisation of racialised communities in art and education while offering photography as a tool of trust, connection, and mutual affirmation. Combining dynamic documentation with reflective self-portraiture, the exhibition affirms nightlife and community as powerful cultural and political arenas, foregrounding overlooked stories and insisting on the importance of visibility, presence, and care.
On view until 26 October 2025.
INCANTATIONS | KUDZANAI-VIOLET HWAMI
VICTORIA MIRO GALLERY
Victoria Miro presents Incantations, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, featuring new paintings, large-scale photographic wall vinyls, and her first bronze sculptures. Rooted in fragmentation and transformation, Hwami draws on personal photographs, digital imagery, and mythological and religious references to explore identity, spirituality, and the body within complex social realities. Central to the show are her Atom paintings, inspired by Walt Whitman’s vision of interconnectedness, where layered motifs from Persephone to fallen angels, interweave with vivid painterly gestures and digital processes. Oscillating between autobiography and collective experience, Hwami’s works function like spells, conjuring forces of chaos, seduction, and liberation while opening imaginative spaces for rethinking selfhood, history, and belonging.
On view until 1 November 2025.
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! | ALEXANDRE DIOP
STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY
Stephen Friedman Gallery presents Run For Your Life !, Alexandre Diop’s debut London solo exhibition and first with the gallery, showcasing new mixed-media paintings that merge history, archaeology, and socio-political commentary. Drawing on his background as a dancer, musician, and visual artist, Diop transforms found materials; scrap metal, wood, textiles through processes of layering, burning, and collaging, creating works that blur painting, sculpture, and relief. Figures and symbols emerge from these textured surfaces, reflecting themes of migration, movement, and resilience while engaging with both West African traditions and European art histories from Dada to Expressionism. Urgent and physical, the works invite viewers to confront global crises while embodying transformation, rhythm, and the possibility of change.
On view until 1 November 2025.And here’s a bonus pick, because London always has more to offer…
DON’T LOOK BACK
UNIT GALLERY
Unit presents Don’t Look Back, a dynamic exhibition curated by Beth Greenacre and Sigrid Kirk that revisits the rebellious energy of the 1990s and early 2000s through a contemporary, inclusive lens. Featuring painting, sculpture, performance, and installation, the show channels the urgency, humour, and DIY experimentation of that era while foregrounding queer voices, female identities, and diverse forms of self-expression. Staged like a multi-gig event, it captures the restless momentum of collective creativity, moving between raw defiance and moments of introspection. Rather than indulging in nostalgia, Don’t Look Back explores the evolving legacies of ‘90s and Noughties art, celebrating their impact while reimagining them for today’s cultural and political realities.
On view until 25 October 2025.