A cultural guide to five standout exhibitions offering bold perspectives and artistic escapes across the capital this summer.
London in July is a city in full swing — the scent of suncream in the parks, the echo of buskers along the South Bank, and the unmistakable rhythm of tennis balls thudding across Centre Court. But beyond Wimbledon’s strawberries, Pimm’s and suspense, the capital’s galleries and institutions are staging their own summer triumphs, offering cultural counterpoints to the season’s sporting spectacle. Among the many highlights this season are five exhibitions to see in London in July 2025 — each one as bold, challenging and varied as the city itself.
The National Portrait Gallery unveils Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, the most comprehensive UK exhibition of the celebrated British painter to date — a visceral, decades-spanning exploration of flesh, form and identity. At Christie’s, Marwan: A Soul in Exile brings rare focus to the Syrian-born artist, whose deeply psychological portraits capture a restless, fractured world.
Next on our list of five exhibitions to see in London in July 2025 is Shoreditch, where graffiti legend Lady Pink transforms a gallery into a subway reverie in Miss Subway NYC — a tribute to the urban grit that shaped her voice. Meanwhile, The Shed — a subversive group show tucked behind a gallery path — invites visitors into a space of intimacy, tension and hidden narratives. And at Gasworks, Ben Sakoguchi: Critical Art Theory traces six decades of sharp political commentary, wrapped in a riot of pop iconography and painterly wit.
Whether you’re seeking a cultural counterpoint to the tournament or simply a way to slow the summer pace, these five exhibitions to see in London in July 2025 offer a compelling alternative to the buzz of SW19. From large-scale retrospectives to immersive installations, they reflect a city alive with artistic experimentation.
So, if you’re planning your diary around sun, sport and culture, don’t miss these exhibitions to see in London in July 2025 — each one promising something thought-provoking, unexpected and distinctly of the moment.
Our Five Exhibitions To See In London In July 2025
Courtesy Gagosian
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting will be the most comprehensive museum exhibition in the United Kingdom devoted to the acclaimed British painter. Spanning more than three decades of work, the exhibition brings together 45 pieces, tracing Saville’s evolution from the early 1990s to the present day.
Curated by Sarah Howgate, Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition has been developed in close collaboration with the artist. Presented largely in chronological order, it showcases Saville’s relentless investigation of the body, surface, and material — from her earliest self-portraits to her most recent explorations at the boundary between figuration and abstraction.
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting
20th June, 2025 – 7th September, 2025
National Portrait Gallery, London
St Martin’s Place
London, WC2H 0HE
Tickets: £21, concessions available
Members go free
Marwan: A Soul in Exile
Christie’s fine art and luxury auction announces highlights from its forthcoming non-selling exhibition, Marwan: A Soul in Exile, taking place at Christie’s headquarters in London, 16 July- 22 August 2025. This will be the third exhibition in the Summer series at Christie’s King Street, preceded by Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab -world in 2023 and Ahmed Mater: Chronicles in 2024, bringing attention to important works and influential artists from the Arab world.
Curated by Dr Ridha Moumni, Chairman, Christie’s Middle East & Africa, Marwan: A Soul in Exile pays tribute to Marwan (1934-2016), one of the most critically acclaimed and influential artists of his generation. This retrospective exhibition brings together an exceptional group of over 150 works on loan from prestigious museums, institutions, and private collections in Europe and the Middle East.
The Shed
Bernston Bhattacharjee is pleased to announce the group exhibition, The Shed. Toying with the perverse, hidden desires, and intimate experiences, Szabolcs Bozó, Joe Fox, Cece Philips, Olivia Sterling, Katy Stubbs, Julia Thompson, and Willowfuck find each other in The Shed. Bringing together seven artists whose practices transform this unassuming structure into a site of introspection, narrative, and subversion, each explores its symbolic potential in distinct and unexpected ways.
Working across a variety of mediums—including paper, canvas, and sculpture—the artists present a new body of work housed within a constructed shed, situated at the end of an uneven path behind the gallery. This path offers a moment of quiet reflection before entering the structure, where the works reveal secrets and challenge the boundaries of ordinary spectatorship. Inside, the experience becomes personal and introspective, inviting close engagement with both material and conceptual layers. A selection of larger-scale pieces by the artists will be displayed downstairs, offering a broader context to the installation above.
The Shed
12th June, 2025 – 26th July, 2025
Bernston Bhattacharjee
45 Berners Street
London
W1T 3NE
Lady Pink: Miss Subway NYC
D’Stassi Art presents Miss Subway NYC, a landmark solo exhibition by trailblazing artist Lady Pink, opening 18 July 2025. One of the first women to break into New York’s graffiti scene, Lady Pink returns to where it all began, the subway, with a full-scale recreation of a graffiti-covered NYC subway station inside the gallery, in the heart of Shoreditch. The exhibition features a curated selection of original works by Lady Pink, including new commissions alongside archival pieces, sketches, and ephemera from her early career.
The subway was Lady Pink’s launchpad, classroom, and battleground. “It was a boot camp for artists,” she says. It’s where she built her name, and where she first discovered graffiti at 12, gazing out the window of the elevated train to the Bronx Zoo, stunned by the sight of a full-colour train painted end to end with trees and characters.
Lady Pink: Miss Subway NYC
18th July, 2025 – Late September 2025
D’Stassi Art, 12–18 Hoxton Street
(Entrance on Drysdale Street)
Shoreditch, London, N1 6NG
Ben Sakoguchi: Critical Art Theory
Gasworks presents Critical Art Theory, the first institutional solo exhibition in Europe by Japanese American artist Ben Sakoguchi. Spanning more than six decades of his practice, the exhibition offers a sharply observational take on the evolution of art history, interrogating the cultural values, political dynamics and social exclusions that have often shaped it.
Sakoguchi, born in 1938 in San Bernardino, California, is known for his visually distinctive style that combines elements of figuration, history painting and Pop art. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, he draws from a broad visual archive—including film posters, comic books, newsprint and online imagery—to assemble intricate compositions that explore themes such as media representation, state power, and cultural memory. His works often shift in tone between sardonic humour and emotional directness, blending broader political narratives with autobiographical elements.
Ben Sakoguchi: Critical Art Theory
10th July, 2025 – 7th September, 2025
Gasworks, 155 Vauxhall St
London SE11 5RH
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