The best art exhibitions in London for May 2026

The best art exhibitions in London: The London Original Print Fair at Somerset House

One of the greatest joys of a passion for art is that curiosity is never fully sated, for there is always more to discover. It’s a fact underlined by the outstanding art exhibitions in London this month, which range from the grandiose to niche, and, geographically, from Nigeria to the American Deep South, via Algeria, France, Spain, Britain (of course), Guyana, and more. Moreover, within them is not only opportunity to look and learn – but to buy and live with.

High on the must-see list is the first major exhibition in this country devoted to the great 17th-century Baroque painter Franciso de Zurbarán, whose oeuvre included soaring altarpieces and exquisite still lifes – it’s at the National Gallery. At Camden Art Centre is a comprehensive survey of the work of Donald Locke, whose extraordinary practice bridged Caribbean, British and American artistic traditions. Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert is presenting a tightly focussed exhibition looking at the four years when the leading British modernist Patrick Heron was negotiating his path between figuration and abstraction. Waddington Custot is showing work from the last ten years of the life of New School of Paris artist Jean Dubuffet, when his palette took on more vibrant hues. There’s much more – and there are also a couple of excellent fairs, by way of the London Original Print Fair and Photo London; dates to put in your diary now.

The best art exhibitions in London for May 2026