22 Unmissable Exhibitions To See In May 2025

Ever wondered what David Hockney painted in his early twenties? Or what it means to be a dandy? It’s all on display across the world this month; these are 22 of the best global exhibitions to see in May 2025.

Three female artists from the 60s (Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh) are front row in New York, Cecil Beaton’s blooms are out in full splendour in London, and suiting is tailored for you at the Met. These are the gallery openings and exhibitions to see and know about in May 2025.

In 1979, Cecil Beaton proclaimed “My garden is the greatest joy of my life, after my friends. Both are worth living for.” Clearly, his six-decade-long career of photographing the Queen and models for Vogue come after Beaton’s horticultural pride. So you can bet his florals were something to uphold. Flowers carry through to every aspect of Beaton’s work and Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party at The Garden Museum will show everything from the floral costumes worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film My Fair Lady as well as a Surrealist rose-applique coat, among others. The latter, Cecil Beaton himself debuted from his well-pruned garden in Ashcombe for his themed 1937 Fête Champêtre garden extravaganza. Flamboyant might just be an understatement here.

As soon as May rolls around – specifically the first Monday in May – there is one thing on art and fashion lovers’ minds: the Met Gala, and the consequent Met Museum exhibition. Forget anything else you’ve heard, 2025 is the year of the dandy. Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is a historical and cultural exploration of Black style over three hundred years. Sartorial trends are closely interwoven with culture, and how Black people have used dress for identity and politics through time. Photographs, films, literary texts, decorative artists, clothes and more, starting from the 18th century and moving us all the way up to the present day, narrate these stories and voices and talent, as a multitude of artists have contributed their own take on Dandyism via lots of different mediums.

No Time For Despair is carving out hope and joy in abundance – something we definitely need more of. The pleasure of art for happiness – both the act of creating it as well as enjoying it – honestly feels quite radical, and special, and admirable in a time where art is always asked to do “more”. However, Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s work still says a lot. Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s paintings, sculptures, and ceramics, are known for their joyful use of colour, mediums and scales, through which they carve out attention to and spaces for “quieter tones of femininity and queer community”. Through art, Michaela Yearwood-Dan has carved out a space for Blackness, queerness and femininity to exist in peace in a busy and often narrow-minded industry. Coming from the perspective of a Black working class woman, this says a lot about her craft.

Sixty years since Bridget Riley showed her artwork at the landmark 1965 exhibition The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Bridget Riley’s iconic early work is back on display in Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert gallery in New York. Dating between 1961 and 1966, these black and white paintings and drawings were crucial in introducing Riley’s unique artistic vocabulary into the wider art world. Focussing on internal ways of seeing and abstraction, these works span her iconic Horizontal Vibrations and Black to White Discs, among others.

David Hockney is no stranger to any of us. His paintings span museums, galleries, and private collections around the world (including the current exhibition at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton), and it’s hard to mention pop art without his work springing straight to mind. However, little is known about his early life and career, and breakthrough success. This is the subject of Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert gallery’s new exhibition, In the Mood for Love. It’s the first exhibition focusing only on Hockney’s formative years including his early recognition at the Royal College of Art, with 15 paintings ranging between 1959 to 1962 (when Hockney was in his early twenties) and rare works on paper.

Art shouldn’t always be contained to gallery walls, and especially not inside archives that lay preserved but unseen. At least that’s what the V&A believes. In a world first (in terms of size and scale) the V&A is opening the V&A East Storehouse this month, which houses over half a million works spanning painting, sculpture, photography, print, fashion, decorative arts … the list goes on (and on) across four expansive levels. This is where you’ll now find much of the V&A’s archives, except they’re open to the public. You’ll see Sir Elton John’s stage costumes, stage set designs by Pablo Picasso, and recordings of live David Bowie performances (almost) at your fingertips. General admission is free and does not require booking, however you will need to book the “Order an Object” service which allows you to examine the archival pieces you wish to look at up close.

The Human Situation: Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh, curated by Saara Pritchard, focuses on how it felt to live during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, from the female lens of these incredible artists. Each woman worked in New York City, working in conversation with one another, and often exhibiting together. Each artist has a characteristic style: bold colours, exaggerated forms, and a focus on people via modes of Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimalism. Importantly, each worked during the civil and women’s rights movements, and incorporated these topics into their paintings. This exhibition comes as part of Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s mission to spotlight more female artists – contemporary as well as those with a strong creative legacy.

Norwegian artist A. K. Dolven is one of the most prominent modern artists working from Oslo, with work spanning film, sound, sculpture, painting, and public installations. The National Museum of Norway is hosting her first ever retrospective this spring – a prestigious spot to host your first, testament to the impact of her work – with 80 pieces spanning four decades of her career. The art will be carefully spaced all across the museum, and in unique ways, to reference the natural environment and how we, as humans, live within it. While the focus is on place in lots of these artworks, human presence glimpses through in subtle ways – whether a shadow, the sound of breath, or the hint of a fingertip.

The largest solo exhibition by Dutch artist Nuria Maria to date has arrived at Belgravia’s lofty Cadogan Gallery. Authoring a charming and characteristic modern take on impressionism, Zilver by Nuria Maria exhibits the poetic simplicity of nature, and how frequently it changes light, form, colour, texture, or shape. Clever in scale and perspective, the paintings move between “zoomed in and zoomed out” focuses as well as between aerial viewpoints versus seeing through the trees. Nuria Maria paints within as well as inspired by the Limburg countryside, surrounded by forests that form the basis of her work. Staring at these paintings puts you in an almost dreamlike trance, which accompanied by the light and airy Cadogan Gallery – peppered with floor to ceiling windows that flood the space with light – takes you straight out of London, closer to Limburg instead.

Still Showing …

“Inclusive and generous, free-ranging and enthusiastic” poet Frank O’Hara writes about Helen Frankenthaler, which eloquently encapsulates the painter’s “without rules” approach to the art. Aptly, Painting Without Rules is the title for Frankenthaler’s exhibition which opened last month at Guggenheim Bilbao. Six decades of the artist’s works are hung on the ground floor of northern Spain’s most prestigious art institution, which have to be visited in person to appreciate their scale, which Frankenthaler would paint using the floor rather than an easel. In every painting, you’ll find a clever attention to dimension and reference to movement, ensuring that these Colour Field works of art are never static. Helen Frankenthaler believed that art should “always have another dimension to dream in” the curator, Douglas Dreishpoon, explains. “Ambiguity is key,” he adds.

Helen Frankenthaler was an influential figure in the abstract expressionist art movement that gained traction after the second world war thanks to contemporaries like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell. Each painter was a source of inspiration for Frankenthaler, and so their works are also woven into this exhibition. While working amongst many influential male artists, Helen Frankenthaler never wanted to be known as a ”woman painter”. Though, while a painter first and foremost, Helen was still acutely aware of her femininity, and unavoidably when you look at her art you see qualities that are undoubtedly feminine, with subtle nods to the emotional and personal.

“Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring” is a reassuring phrase, one that David Hockney sent to his friends during the pandemic. This hopeful sentiment, as well as Hockney’s continued impact on the communities around him, will carry through this new exhibition in Paris, that is exceptional in scale as well as quality of the art displayed (it is David Hockney after all). Seven decades of work (1955 to 2025), the exhibition takes over an entire building within the fondation and features over 400 of the artist’s works. David Hockney himself commented that “this exhibition means an enormous amount because it is the largest exhibition I’ve ever had – 11 rooms in the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Some of the most recent paintings I’m working on now will be included in it, and I think it’s going to be very good.” No doubt that this will be the exhibition to visit this summer.

Established in 1996, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize awards the most innovative international contemporary photographers working at the moment. The 2025 shortlist has just been announced, featuring four finalists (Cristina de Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak, Lindokuhle Sobekwa) who work across documentary photography, styled images, self-portraiture, performance, archives, and more. A selection of works by each photographer will be on display, including Cristina de Middel’s presentation of the Central American migration route across Mexico; Rahim Fortune’s archival examination of the relationship between photographer and his local communities in Southern America; Peruvian-American Tarrah Krajnak’s self-portraits; and South African Lindokhule Sobekwa’s family projects.

Thanks to Pamela Anderson, the words “Baywatch” and “red swimsuit” have practically become synonymous. And you can now see this infamous piece of swimwear on display at the Design Museum. Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style is heroing a whole history of swimwear as curated by guest curator Amber Butchart: the evolution of style, materials, body image, its role in pop culture, Britain’s boom in lido culture… From Tom Daley’s speedos worn during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (yes, really) to fashion’s viral mermaid core that has rippled through social media over the past few years, you’re in for an aquatic treat with this exhibition.

As part of EMOP (European Month of Photography) in Berlin, the Helmut Newton Foundation has opened a new group exhibition, Polaroids, spotlighting the very best by Helmut Newton as well as an impressive 60 of his contemporaries working with the same formats. Once a pioneering method of photography, something special still remains about polaroids, perhaps because only one version of each polaroid exists, another exactly the same can’t be printed. The polaroids on display have been curated from the Polaroid company’s collection of over 4,400 works by 800 photographers for their captivating use of the format.

At this point, ‘Cartier’ has practically become synonymous with the word ‘jewellery’ and all things that glitter. Starting from the turn of the 20th century up until the present, the V&A’s new exhibition, simply titled Cartier, traces the heritage of this prestigious brand, from its humble beginnings in 1847 when Louis-François Cartier took over the workshop of Adolphe Picard in Paris to the distinguished brand it is today. Over 350 carefully selected pieces will be on display, divided into three main sections that move between design, craftsmanship, materials, as well as the brand’s signature emblems and references.

The largest contemporary exhibition to ever hit The Wallace Collection is now open, with Grayson Perry’s outlandish commentary of British fashion and culture at the heart of it. Titled Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur, 40 new works from ceramics, tapestries and more, come together to poke at both art and fashion’s incessant search for perfectionism via unusual “outsider art”. Work by Swiss psychiatric artist Aloïse Corbaz and British multimedia artist (ink, tapestry, paint) Madge Gill will also be shown. As a sharp nod to the future, the newer pieces also start to question who an artist is, in our increasingly tech-focussed world.

While dubbed the Dark Ages elsewhere, the Medieval period in Siena brought a golden age to art (both metaphorically as well as through all the magnificent gold paint and leaf work) as Italian painters forged a new path for art – one that is still some of the most critiqued and visited work today. Rich and decorative, Sienese artists captured religious tableaux as well as immortalised many intimate moments that characterised ways of life and beliefs of this bygone era. Duccio, Simone Martini, as well as brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti – all the big names from this period are on display at The National Gallery, with works reunited after spending centuries split into pieces and displayed in varying cities across Europe.

Arpita Singh is a leading contemporary artist, whose work emerges from India’s post-independence era of the mid-twentieth century. Born in West Bengal before relocating to New Delhi, Singh’s signature figurative style offers lots of colour and often presents themes of expedition and journeys, both visually as well as emotionally. Singh creatively merges Indian Court painting – a prominent style in Indian art from the 16th to 19th century depicting the grandeur of royal tradition – with surrealist and modernist tropes emerging beyond European artwork across the 1900s. Many of the subjects of the artist’s work are women, presenting tales of femininity in its many forms amongst a turbulent social backdrop, with each piece offering more than can be summarised in a single idea. “I, the woman, stand there as anybody, as everybody” Arpita Singh explains. Remembering is Arpita Singh’s first solo exhibition in London, and spotlights pieces that demonstrate her experimentation with different painting techniques from acrylic reverse painting to oils on canvas, spanning Signh’s six decade career, beginning in the 1960s, as selected by the artist.

The self-defined “world’s best dressed magazine” is proving its status as a ground-breaking publication, one that set the threshold for creativity in pop culture and spotlighted emerging talent across the eighties, nineties, naughties, (still continuing today) in Britain with Culture Shift at the National Portrait Gallery. This exhibition has been at the forefront of fashion enthusiasts’ ‘to-visit’ exhibitions, and it finally opened in February 2025. Since the first issue of the magazine hit shelves in May 1980, The Face magazine has photographed – and dressed – a cultural undercurrent of artists from Madonna to Kate Moss, and, for many, helped establish their success and status in the pop industry. Over 200 prints by more than 80 photographers including David LaChapelle, Juergen Teller and Corinne Day will illustrate The Face’s sartorial legacy and lasting creative impact on British (and global) culture.

A fashion photographer and prominent member of the Surrealist circle, rubbing shoulders and exchanging conversation with the likes of Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, Pablo Picasso, and Jean Cocteau, George Hoyningen-Huene’s visually striking black-and-white photography documented a pivotal era for the arts and fashion world. At Palazzo Reale in Milan this year, over 100 platinum prints are on display, taken for the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, with subjects ranging from dancer Olga Spessivtzeva and Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes.

For the first time ever, the Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum – both in Amsterdam – are coming together to curate and display an extensive exhibition on the life and work of German painter Anselm Kiefer, presented as a two-part exhibition spread across both venues. Inspired by German Romanticism as well as poetry and the works of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, Kiefer’s work often foregrounds abstraction – but rationally structured – with layers of the mythic, normally painted across large-scale canvases. This is an unprecedented kind of exhibition that you’re sure to want to bookmark if you find yourself in the Dutch capital this year.

We all know her name, and for good reason. British artist Dame Tracey Emin has helped define contemporary British art across her impressive career, with autobiographical and confessional works. The beautiful Palazzo in the heart of Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, is hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the award-winning contemporary British artist. The exhibition sees Emin’s autobiographical and confessionary work – including painting, sketches, sculptor, video, installations, photography and more – hung across the beautiful space, from the courtyard to gallery spaces. This is a therapeutic – and visually striking – chance to immerse yourself in the vulnerable and physical work of Tracey Emin, amongst a beautiful setting.