UK relaunches 2026 museum season with major exhibitions from London to Liverpool

With the Venice Biennale continuing to attract a growing number of enthusiasts, the United Kingdom is focusing in 2026 on a multifaceted and widespread exhibition season involving both major London institutions and numerous regional venues. From major retrospectives to historical exhibitions, via multimedia installations and reviews dedicated to Japanese art, the British program presents a series of appointments spanning different eras and languages.

Frida Kahlo stars at London’sTate Modern.

London remains the main center of British cultural programming. The Tate Modern presents from June 25, 2026 to January 3, 2027 the exhibition Frida: The Making of an Icon, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in collaboration with the London museum and supported by Bank of America as lead global supporter, with contributions from John J. Studzinski CBE, the Dyers’ Company, the Frida: Making of an Icon Supporters Circle, and the Tate Members. The exhibition offers an extensive reconstruction of the figure of Frida Kahlo, relating more than 30 of her best-known works to the construction of her multiple identities: the devoted wife, the intellectual, the modern artist and the political activist.

Clothes, jewelry, photographs and personal objects are presented alongside paintings and archival materials, along with more than 200 works by contemporary artists and later generations influenced by her production. The tour concludes with a section devoted to so-called “Fridamania,” which analyzes the artist’s transformation into a global icon and commercial phenomenon through more than 200 objects that reinterpret her image, style and visual production.

Tracey Emin and the 1990s at Tate Modern

Also at the Tate Modern, from Feb. 27 to Aug. 31, 2026, is the exhibition A Second Life dedicated to Tracey Emin, which traces four decades of her artistic practice by linking works that marked decisive moments in her career with works never before exhibited. Through painting, video, textiles, neon, writing, sculpture and installation, Emin continues to interrogate the boundaries of artistic language, using the female body as a tool to address themes such as passion, grief and healing processes. Considered one of the most relevant figures in contemporary art of her generation, the artist established herself on the public scene in the 1990s with works such as My Bed, nominated for the Turner Prize and at the center of a heated critical and media debate about the very meaning of art.

His practice, characterized by the overlap between private and public dimensions and a strong autobiographical component, helped define a crucial moment in British culture and international art. The exhibition also delves into the pictorial dimension of his work, highlighting the continuity of his research up to his most recent works, in which personal life is translated into artistic material. The exhibition is staged in the Eyal Ofer Galleries and is produced in collaboration with Gucci, with support from the Tracey Emin Exhibition Supporters Circle, the Tate International Council, the Tate Members, the Tate Americas Foundation, and with technical support from Farrow & Ball for the supply of paints.

Hokusai and Hiroshige’s prints in Manchester

At the Whitworth Gallery at the University of Manchester, March 14 through November 15, 2026, is Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige, an exhibition dedicated to Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, two of the most important protagonists ofukiyo-e. The exhibition project invites visitors to enter the so-called floating world of the culture of Edo-period Japan by presenting a selection of woodcut prints documenting travel scenes, landscapes, nature and daily life at a time of relative peace and intense artistic production.Ukiyo-e, a term for precisely “images of the floating world,” established itself as a language capable of rendering moments of great visual variety, from stormy seas and rushing waterfalls to silent roads and distant landscapes, with a sensibility that continues to be relevant today.

At the center of the itinerary is Under the Wave off Kanagawa, known as The Great Wave, one of the best-known images in Japanese art and among the most globally recognizable, becoming over time a cultural icon that has influenced fashion, design, film and contemporary visual culture. Alongside this work, the exhibition delves into the body of ukiyo-e production and relates Hokusai’s and Hiroshige’s research to the historical and cultural context of Edo-period Japan, which was marked by social transformations and a strong innovative drive in the figurative arts.

John Akomfrah at the Walker Art Gallery , Liverpool

John Akomfrah’s Listening All Night To The Rain, an installation originally commissioned by the British Council for the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2024 and made for the British Pavilion, is presented at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool from May 16 to August 31, 2026. The work takes the form of a cycle of multichannel video installations and takes its title from a poem by Chinese poet Su Dongpo (1037-1101), written during a period of political exile. The project addresses the theme of diasporic experiences in the UK, interweaving reflections on colonial and postcolonial history, memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change.

The work combines specially made footage with archival materials, audio and video fragments from different areas of the world, building a layered narrative. Akomfrah’s research is characterized by a cinematic language that relates different places and times, inviting a critical reconsideration of looking and listening as forms of interpretation and awareness. Sound takes a central role in the exhibition device, articulating itself through political discourses, popular music and nature recordings, and helping to define a shared and global cultural dimension. Water constitutes another recurring element, used as a metaphor for diasporic movements and as a connective principle between the different visual and sound components.

Useful information for planning a trip to the United Kingdom

Before planning a visit, it is necessary to take into account the regulations introduced after the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. ID cards from member countries are no longer valid for entry, and a valid passport is required for the duration of your stay. Connectivity is also an issue to consider, as UK mobile networks are separate from European ones and roaming costs can vary significantly depending on your carrier. Using a dedicated UK eSIM allows you to activate a local data plan even before arrival, ensuring that navigation services, museum booking apps and QR codes needed for access to events work. Indeed, careful planning of the bureaucratic and logistical aspects allows for a smooth travel to the UK and optimizes the experience of visiting the country’s major cultural institutions.

UK relaunches 2026 museum season with major exhibitions from London to Liverpool

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