Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
Where: Gagosian, London
Open: until 21 March
40 years on from its original outing, Nan Goldin's Ballad of Sexual Dependency is on show in London. At its core, the show is an ever-changing slideshow of diaristic photographs taken by Goldin between 1973 and 1986. Since then, Ballad has evolved: it's been a book, a film and a video but today at Gagosian, we see Goldin's messy, intimate portraits presented, stacked four-high, across three brick walls. For all the sex, scars and smoking... they contain a beautiful story of young misadventure, with a rawness absent from today's IG photo dump.
Wes Anderson: The Archives
Vending Machines from Wes Anderson's Asteroid City
Where: Design Museum
Open: 21st November 2025 - 26th July 2026
The Design Museum’s recent Tim Burton exhibition was a gothic treasure trove of delights, showcasing the building blocks behind one of cinema’s most instantly recognisable directors. Now, their forthcoming Wes Anderson archival delve promises an equal but opposite deep dive – this time fuelled by symmetry, pleasingly candied colour palettes, and a cast of familiar faces. For this, the Kensington space has been granted access to three decades’ worth of Anderson’s catalogues, including never-before-seen early sketches and original storyboards. Plus they’ll be displaying an array of iconic Wes artefacts, including the original model of The Grand Budapest Hotel, and costumes from The Royal Tenenbaums. Read the full review.
Gilbert and George: 21st Century Pictures
Where: Hayward Gallery
Open: Now until 11th January 2026
For a pair of octogenarians approaching 60 years together as artistic collaborators, 21st Century Pictures – a retrospective looking at the last 25 years of Gilbert and George’s work – doesn’t spare any punches. There are pieces concerned with male sex workers, others with murderous headlines; the first portrait you’re greeted with upon entry is one of the pair surrounded by drug baggies in a cemetery. They’re not your average pensioner conversations, but then Gilbert and George aren’t your average pensioners. Instead, the two put themselves at the centre of life’s big questions and look at them in the playful way that’s become their trademark: still admirably curious, even this far along their path.
Marie Antoinette Style
Slippers belonging to Marie Antoinette
Where: V&A South Kensington
Open: Now until 22nd March 2026
The subject of a decadently lush Sofia Coppola film; the progenitor of one of modern culture’s most infamously incorrect quotes; the opulent and ill-fated queen responsible for an endless influence spanning fashion, cinema, design and more, Marie Antoinette is surely one of history’s most referenced figures. It’s a legacy that the V&A explores in depth in Marie Antoinette Style: the first exhibition solely dedicated to the aesthetic of the controversial court leader, through a collection of 250 pieces including her original slippers and perfume, plus portraits and items inspired by France’s original fashionista. It’s even sponsored by Manolo Blahnik, for added chic points.
Blitz: The Club That Shaped The ‘80s
Outside the Blitz club in 1979.
Where: Design Museum
Open: Now until 29th March 2026
Even if you don’t realise it, when you think of 1980s fashion and New Romanticism, you’re thinking of the Blitz. The epicentre of avant-garde, ultra-modern (at the time), art school cool, the Covent Garden club was a meeting point for musicians, designers, creatives and renegades: a place where you wore your personality quite literally on your sleeve, and the more extrovert, flamboyant and overstated the creation, the better. Developed in collaboration with many of the Blitz Kids – the scene’s most notable figures – the Design Museum’s look back into this seminal space digs out the clothes, flyers and photography that helped create the mythology. Plus, they’ve also recreated the club itself, replete with bar and dancefloor.
Theatre Picasso
Girl in a Chemise, Pablo Picasso (1905)
Where: Tate Modern
Open: Now until 12th April 2026
There may be no shortage of galleries giving their wall space to the works of, arguably, modern art’s most celebrated figure (in fact, a second retrospective is showing at new Bond Street’s Halcyon Gallery until January too). But Theatre Picasso positions the Spanish legend’s work through a new lens, focusing on the idea of performance and persona via a new exhibition hooked around the centenary of his painting The Three Dancers. Curated by contemporary artist Wu Tsang, and featuring paintings, sculpture and textiles alongside archival film of the artist at work and play, it aims to get into the mind of the artist in all his contradictory and compelling glory.
Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion
Where: Barbican
Open: Now until 25th January 2026
Instagram might have a young generation obsessed with filtered, unattainable perfection but on the runway, designers have long looked to far grubbier, messier places for inspiration, creating outrageous garments that defy beauty standards and question our relationship to the earthy materials around us. In Dirty Looks, the Barbican collates pieces from fashion disruptors such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, plus new work from upcoming designers including Elena Velez and IAMISIGO to investigate this idea, revelling in the sweet spot where desire and decay combine. Read the full review.
Lina Lapelytė: In The Dark We Play
Where: The Cosmic House
Open: Now until 19th December 2025
When postmodernist architect Charles Jencks’ passed away, he left instructions to open up his house and its suitably inspirational design to the public “to promote critical experimentation”. As part of this endeavour, The Cosmic House invites an artist to create a site-specific work in the property each year, and 2025’s is a video installation by Lithuanian musician Lina Lapelytė. Filmed around the house and shown on screens that make use of its intricacies and innovative spaces, In The Dark We Play responds to its environment and turns it into its own stage: a showcase both for Lapelytė’s own talents and the beauty of the building itself.
Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies
Where: Somerset House
Open: Now until 22nd February 2026
Combining Wayne McGregor’s storied career as choreographer with his forays into technology and physical intelligence (he’s the man recently behind the movement of ABBA Voyage), Infinite Bodies is ostensibly a show about dance – but one like no other. The members of his company are sometimes present, but otherwise it’s the visitors that create the action, triggering innovative installations – from an AI-based ideas generator to a room full of movement-sensitive mirrors – designed to make you think about how you can use your body, and the possibilities contained therein.