London Art Guide May 2026 – quick links
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Join New York’s hilarious all-male comedy dance company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, on their 50th Anniversary tour. See ‘The Trocks’ live on stage at Sadlers Wells and be impressed by their fabulous sense of fun, daring physicality, dazzling theatrical flair and brilliant dance routines.
These performances feature excerpts from classic and modern works including Swan Lake, Paquita and the UK premiere of Metal Garden. There are three performances in London, on 5 and 6 May, before The Trocks tour nationally over May and June.
Ceramic Art London
A showcase of studio ceramics, Ceramic Art London celebrates the diversity of makers now working today in Britain and around the world. Curated by the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain, Ceramic Art London is an event for everyone from first-time buyers to serious collectors, curators and galleries, presenting bold, original works of the highest quality.
This is the place for anyone with a passion for clay, from students and enthusiasts to interior designers and collectors. Whether you’re spending £50 or £10,000, there’s a piece for you at Ceramic Art London.
Ceramic Art London is at Olympia, Kensington from 8 to 10 May.
Photo London
Also at Olympia this month is Photo London, the UK’s leading international fair for photography and image-based art. See the world’s most acclaimed photographers, galleries and curators alongside a new generation of emerging talent.
Following a landmark tenth anniversary in 2025, Photo London has moved to its new home in Olympia for the next era. Alongside the fair, there’s also an expanded publishing section celebrating the photo book as a central part of the photography ecosystem; a talks program curated by Thames & Hudson; and the presentation of numerous awards including the Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer of the Year and Photo London Student Award.
Photo London is at Olympia, Kensington from 14 to 17 May. The VIP Preview takes place on 13 May.
London Gay Men’s Chorus: MOMENTus
Share in the glorious 35th anniversary of the London Gay Men’s Chorus, Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ choir. This remarkable choir was born in the midst of the AIDS crisis, when nine friends sang carols at Angel Tube Station to raise money for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
MOMENTus is a special celebration of music, community and performance that will move and inspire audiences. It features a fabulous range of music that has shaped the choir’s journey over the years, and is about looking back with pride and looking forward with hope. Join the choir for MOMENTus in the elegant ballroom of the Pan Pacific Hotel, London from 22 to 24 May.
London art fairs
See what’s happening in contemporary art and add to your art collection at one of three major art fairs coming to London this May. The month starts with the Spring edition of the Affordable Art Fair, which returns to the picturesque Hampstead Heath from 6 to 10 May. This fair brings together over 100 galleries from across the UK and around the world. As the name says, the focus is on works that are affordable, with pieces beginning at just £100.
London Craft Week runs 11 to 17 May, bringing together over 1000 makers, designers, brands and galleries from around the world for exhibitions, talks, and special events. This is a curated selection of established and emerging artisans and galleries exhibiting at venues across the city.
The same week, the artist-led Wimbledon Art Fair introduces more than 180 artists based at Wimbledon Art Studios in Riverside Yard. You can meet with the artists, see their creative processes and discover artworks in every style and medium, including painting, ceramics, sculpture, jewellery, and printmaking. It’s free to enter with some special little perks if you pre-book your ticket online. The fair runs 14 to 17 May, with a launch party on 14 May with live music and a complimentary bar.
European Writers’ Festival
The British Library hosts The European Writers’ Festival this month where leading and emerging writers from 26 countries will gather to discuss love, war, humour, nature, crime, myth, memoir and the power of literature help navigate the challenges facing Europe today.
Among the featured authors is novelist, poet and journalist Jáchym Topol, one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Czech literature. Topol will take part in the Stranger Things panel with Anne-Marie Reuter and Sara Stridsberg. These three writers are known for their bold, unconventional storytelling exploring the boundaries between reality, fiction, and imagination.
The European Writers’ Festival is at the Pigott Theatre, British Library from 16 to 17 May.
Brighton Fringe and Festival
Now in its 21st year, the Brighton Fringe offers a packed program of comedy, theatre and dance from local, national and international performers. As the third-largest fringe festival in the world after Edinburgh and Adelaide, the Brighton Fringe welcomes all artists to put on an event and perform, celebrating the wild, the weird and the wonderful.
This year’s theatre program includes Jonny Woo’s Suburbia, an award-winning drag storytelling night; Are You Even Indian?, a dance-theatre work about identity and migration; MAN!FEST, a drag boy-band comedy; and NIUSIA, a powerful piece on legacy and identity.
The comedy line-up runs from chaos to musical comedy, including RATMAGEDDON, an event of apocalyptic sketch-clown mayhem; Police Cops: The Original, a high-energy, 1980s-set work of physical comedy; CHILD STAR, a queer musical comedy; and Guess Boo, detailing a raunchy spiritual journey.
Long-time Brighton Fringe favourites, The Silver Starlets‘ Glenda and Rita, will also be back with their favourite movie tunes.
The Brighton Fringe runs 1 to 31 May alongside the Brighton Festival, the largest annual curated multi-arts festival in England. The Brighton Festival runs 1 to 25 May.
A Festival of Korean Dance
Returning to The Place for its ninth year, A Festival of Korean Dance brings some of Korea’s premier dance companies to the UK, including Korea National Contemporary Dance Company and 99 Art Company.
KNCDC will perform a new double bill including the latest work from choreographer Young-doo Jung, inspired by the Voyager space probe. This follows his 2025 Olivier Award nomination for Lear at the Barbican. 99 Art Company presents Abyss & Ekah, a double bill contemplating the power of art to connect and drive change, while Ryu and Friends will make their UK debut with GRAVITY, a dramatic work in which 11 dancers shake, scatter and spin as though swept up by an invisible force.
Since its inception in 2018, the festival has grown in popularity alongside the booming global success of the cultural phenomenon known as Hallyu, the wave of K-Pop culture. The festival is at The Place, London and venues in Glasgow, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Manchester from 13 to 30 May.
Famous faces on London stages
There’s always an opportunity to see a famous face from film and television live on stage in London. This month, Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Siff are superb in Shadowlands at Aldwych Theatre to 9 May.
ArtsHub: Shadowlands review – a captivating exploration of love and loss
This month, Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner also get steamy in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Southbank’s Lyttelton Theatre; Griff Rhys Jones is Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister at Apollo Theatre; Cynthia Erivo gives an impressive solo performance in Dracula at the Noël Coward Theatre; Rosamund Pike shines in Inter Alia at Wyndham’s Theatre; and Mason Alexander Park is Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh Mary! at The Trafalgar Theatre.
Other famous faces include Felicity Kendall in High Society with Freddie Fox at Barbican Theatre from 19 May; Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison in Grace Pervades at Theatre Royal Haymarket; Jinkx Monsoon is Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow at Soho Theatre, Walthamstow from 15 May; and Gary Oldman stars and directs Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at Royal Court Theatre from 8 May.
Out of town, you can see Mark Gatiss in Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon; and David Haig plays Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the world premiere run of Magic (also written by Haig), with Hadley Fraser as Harry Houdini, at Chichester Festival Theatre to 16 May.
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