Five of London's most talked-about art exhibitions of 2026 are entering their final days, with closures scheduled for late August. These include Tracey Emin's retrospective at Tate Modern, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and major shows at the National Gallery, Tate Britain, and Camden Arts Centre. Art enthusiasts have only a few days left to catch these exhibitions before they close.
Zurbarán at The National Gallery
The National Gallery hosts the first UK exhibition of baroque master Francisco de Zurbarán, featuring more than 40 monumental pieces. The show includes still lifes of lemons, saints, martyrs, and Virgins, with works loaned from the Louvre, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museo del Prado. Zurbarán's vast multi-canvas scenes once decorated convents and monasteries across Spain, and he worked for private patrons, the court of Philip IV, and clients in the Spanish Americas, where over 100 of his paintings ended up. The exhibition closes Sunday August 23, with tickets from £20.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and Hurvin Anderson at Tate Britain
The 258th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, curated by British sculptor Ryan Gander under the theme 'Interconnectedness', features nearly 2,000 works. Highlights include paintings by Frank Bowling, Gary Hume, Anselm Kiefer, and a black and white print by Cornelia Parker. Comedians are also represented: Harry Hill shows two paintings of a car on fire, and Joe Lycett returns with an unflattering painting of Cilla Black. The exhibition closes Sunday August 23, with tickets from £22.50.
At Tate Britain, Turner Prize-nominated painter Hurvin Anderson presents his first major institutional show, bringing together more than 60 lively paintings dating from 1995, when he was an art student at the Royal College of Art, up to this year. Some works were finished after being hung. Inspired by his experiences as a Black man of Caribbean heritage born and raised in the UK, the pieces convey a sense of inbetweenness, or 'being in one place but thinking about another', as the artist puts it. The exhibition runs until Sunday August 23, with tickets at £18.
Donald Locke and Tracey Emin: Final Weeks
Camden Arts Centre presents 'Donald Locke: Resistant Forms', a retrospective of Windrush generation ceramicist and painter Donald Locke. The show spans painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics, examining the legacy of colonialism in the Guyanese-British artist's hometown. Works include the large-scale mixed media piece 'Trophies of Empire', alongside wild black paintings, intricate assemblages of found objects, and ceramic pieces suggesting cages or instruments of violence. The exhibition closes Sunday August 30 and is free.
Tracey Emin's 'A Second Life' at Tate Modern is a 40-year retrospective of the pioneering artist's repertoire. It includes iconic works like the Turner Prize-nominated 'My Bed' (1998) and stark depictions of sexual violence, abortion, and recent life-threatening illness. The show encapsulates Emin's defiant approach to life and her ability to turn traumatic experiences into art. Visitors may leave feeling emotionally wrung out but struck by the realisation that 'Mad Tracey from Margate' is a force to be reckoned with. The exhibition closes Monday August 31, with tickets at £22.
