21 December 2025

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Things to Go See — Art Listings for Autumn

04-11-2025culture
Blue-Grey Composition, 1962, Agnes Martin. Pinault Collection.

By Lucy Conway Hems

The time of the year when museums and galleries pull out all the stops. Here, a long-list of exhibitions that represent the best of the best, featuring David Bowie, Betty Parsons and Lee Lozano, among others.

David Bowie Centre at V&A Storehouse, London

The new home of Bowie’s archive, available to the public for the first time, where two hundred items spotlight his career, influences and collaborators. Beyond the display, visitors can book one-on-one time with over 90,000 items from the working archive and collections store. Free tickets drop every six weeks, sign up for email notifications! Open now

Photograph: Mick Rock/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Electric Kiln, London

Co-curated by Rajan Bijani and Michael Jefferson, this show places works by Frank Auerbach, Emmanuel Cooper and Lucie Rie in a domestic setting, alongside rare designs by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Heaven. Visits by appointment, location to be revealed upon sending your RSVP. Until 16 November

image courtesy of electric kiln

Postures: Jeans Rhys in the Modern World at Michael Werner, London

A celebration of Dominican-born British writer Jean Rhys, curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Hilton Als. Rhys was a significant presence in post-colonial writing and through her work offered a view into lives and cultures that have hitherto been marginalised, or ignored. Conceived as a collective portrait, this large-scale group show includes works by Agostino Brunias, Hans Bellmer and Somaya Critchlow. Until 22 November

Jean Rhys, 1977 © Paul Joyce: Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery

Alice Neel: Still Lifes and Street Scenes at Xavier Huftkens, Brussels

Mostly celebrated for her paintings of people, this exhibition appreciates the niche of Neel. Spanning her artistic career from 1928 to 1981, these works are engrossing representations of the spaces that the artist worked, inhabited and observed. Whilst on the continent, head to Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin for Neel’s survey I Am The Century. Until 22 November

Fish Still Life, 1950 by Alice Neel

Chidy Wayne: Ancestral Futures at Francis Gallery, Los Angeles

Spanish-Guinean artist Chidy Wayne’s first solo exhibition with Francis Gallery. Influenced by both the artistic avant-garde and ancestral cultural elements, the raw minimalism of Wayne’s work prompts existential questions for us to consider. We are especially taken with the Chillida-esque hands that form the subject of his Ego series. Until 26 November

Francis Gallery, installation view

Upstairs Downstairs: Cosima von Bonin at Raven Row, London

Raven Row’s latest, almost academic, presentation of work produced by Cosima von Bonin over the last 35 years. Von Bonin rose to prominence in Cologne during the 1990s, among a group of artists who purposefully produced work in spite of the art market. This is her first exhibition in the UK and includes early objects unseen for more than a decade. Not to be missed. Until 14 December

AU PAIRS, 2018 by Cosima von Bonin

Betty Parsons: Sheer Energy at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea

Widely known as a New York gallerist, Betty Parsons was also a prolific artist — she created bold paintings and playful driftwood sculptures at her seaside studio in Southold, Long Island. It makes perfect sense that her first European retrospective is taking place at the De La Warr Pavilion, with its views out onto the Sussex coast. Until 18 January 2026

Block House, 1970–1979 by Betty Parsons

Minimal at Bourse de Commerce, Paris

A major exhibition dedicated to Minimalist art, presenting for the first time more than 100 seminal works that exemplify the breadth of this movement since the 1960s. Masterpieces from the Pinault Collection are exhibited alongside prestigious loans. Curated by Jessica Morgan, Director of Dia Art Foundation. Until 19 January 2026

Blue-Grey Composition, 1962, Agnes Martin. Pinault Collection.

Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion at Barbican, London

Exhumed relics from Hussein Chalayan’s Central Saint Martins graduate collection The Tangent Flows (1993); the mud-dyed Issey Miyake pieces famously photographed by Irving Penn; JW Anderson’s pigeon clutch. A few of many filthy standouts in this unexpectedly brilliant exhibition — an antidote to our sanitised lives. Until 25 January 2026 

© David Parry/ Barbican Art Gallery

Lee Lozano: Hard Handshake at Hauser and Wirth, Los Angeles

Lozano completely disrupted the New York art world between 1960 and 1972, going further than any of her other peers practising post-minimalism and conceptual art. Her General Strike Piece (1969) involved her refusal to attend art world openings and social events. One hundred punning and titillating drawings will be showcased in LA, marking the launch of ‘In the Studio: Lee Lozano’ by curator Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti. Until 25 January 2026

Lee Lozano GIVING A LECTURE at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Lee Miller at Tate Britain, London

Miller’s career began in front of the camera as one of the most sought-after models in the 1920s. She became involved with French Surrealism and shot much fashion, but she was, of course, also the fearless war photographer who captured a nude self-portrait in Hitler’s bathtub. This exhibition sheds light on lesser-known images by Miller, most notably landscapes of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Romania and Greece taken in the 1930s. Until 15 February 2026

Image Via Frieze, Lee Miller Archives
Author

Lucy Conway Hems is Arts Editor at Patter. She has held esteemed positions at the Lisson Gallery and for British artist Phyllida Barlow. @lucyconwayhems