Taking place between June 6 to 8, this year’s edition promises three days of discovery and dialogue.
This summer, London Gallery Weekend opens up the capital’s art scene with exhibitions, performances and artist-led experiences across the city. Founded in 2021 as a response to the shifting needs of the post-pandemic art world, this city-wide event brings together three days of coordinated exhibitions across 126 contemporary galleries, from global giants to grassroots spaces. Unlike major commercial art events, London Gallery Weekend is entirely free and open to the public, drawing collectors, curators, artists and enthusiasts into London’s galleries in the simple (and noble) pursuit of artistic discovery.
Curated and planned routes are available, but you can also wander through the city, sauntering through the streets in whatever direction you feel pulled. The weekend is a rare opportunity to experience art in situ, connect with gallerists, and absorb the energy of the city’s art scene at an unhurried pace. Whether you’re a seasoned collector or curious enthusiast, here is a day-by-day guide to help plan your weekend.
What to See in 2025: Highlights by District
Over three days, participating galleries open their doors in coordinated fashion across three districts. Friday is dedicated to Central London, Saturday moves south of the river, and Sunday closes in East London, where spaces in Bethnal Green, Hackney and Shoreditch mark the final stretch.
Friday — Central London
On Friday, the event’s most polished exhibitions will be in Mayfair, Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, tucked behind historic period buildings and renovated Georgian townhouses. Presentation matters here, but so does substance. Carefully curated displays range from the cerebral to the spectacular, with an underlying emphasis on thoughtful dialogue. At Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, David Hockney’s In the Mood for Love: Hockney in London, 1960–63 offers a glimpse into the artist’s early practice, capturing the wit and intimacy of his formative years in London.
Around the corner, In Flux at Flowers Gallery shows Liza Giles at her most intuitive, with large-scale abstractions that draw inspiration from the architectural landscape of London. In the nearby Saatchi Yates, the mood lightens with the riotous, neon-bright work of Peter Saul, charged with political satire and acid humour.
This year’s programming also reflects London’s standing as a locus of global art. Phillida Reid on Grape Street showcases a powerful reflection on dispossession and Māori sovereignty by artist Robyn Kahukiwa, while No. 9 Cork Street turns the spotlight toward female-led galleries from Mumbai and Delhi, weaving South Asian narratives into the weekend’s conversation.
Between the galleries, specialty coffee shops and world-class dining options abound, from golden flat whites in Kiss The Hippo to elevated Mediterranean plates in Bacchanalia.
Saturday – South London
If Friday is about polish, Saturday is about process. South London’s gallery scene is looser, more improvisational and community-rooted. Galleries across Bermondsey, Vauxhall and Peckham often open their doors not just as exhibitors but as collaborators. In Elephant & Castle, Soup Gallery showcases Tulani Hlalo’s experimental Silly Bitch – an outlandish collection of textiles, moving images and sculptures inspired by the niche subculture of competitive dog grooming. Set against electric blue drapes, the show uses humour and texture to explore the malleable and ever-shifting nature of identity.
Over in Camberwell, the William Hine Gallery makes its London Gallery Weekend debut with a show by Rae-Yen Song, whose ceramic sculptures and drawings blend surrealism, fantasy and personal mythology. Rendered in bold colours and unexpected forms, Song’s works are rich in symbolism and rooted in the artist’s diasporic narrative. Further south in Bermondsey, Cecilia Brunson Projects showcases the extraordinary textile work of Indigenous artist Claudia Alarcón, presented through a distinctly South American lens.
Beyond the exhibitions, South London buzzes with creative energy. From the street markets of Rye Lane to the record stores and art collectives of Brixton, gallery visits in the South easily evolve into full-day cultural excursions. This is a place where art is embedded in its surroundings; where the experience of the neighbourhood becomes part of the work itself.
Sunday – East London
London Gallery Weekend draws to a close in East London, where the city’s art scene takes on a more experimental edge. In this part of London, exhibitions and galleries resist easy classification: they are smaller, more agile, and closely connected to the artists they support. At Kate MacGarry, Aotearoa-based Francis Upritchard presents a fantastical cast of sculptural characters in Any Noise Annoys an Oyster. Fabric masks, ceramic limbs, and myth-infused forms sit somewhere between the ancient and the invented, calling up everything from Etruscan pottery to comic-book aliens. It’s a show that feels both deeply studied and oddly playful.
At Herald St in Bethnal Green, Michael Dean reimagines snakes and ladders as a concrete playground in his exhibition Kicking Die (To Scale With a Ladder). Visitors are invited to walk through and interact with the installation, which features a gridded floor, hulking concrete forms and scattered dice. The work draws on the Hindu board game moksha patam, the ancient precursor to snakes and ladders, to explore themes of chance, ascent, and the human condition.
Just north in Hackney, New Art Projects presents Me and You in The Continuum (Now: Zero), a collaborative exhibition by Irish artists Brian Teeling and Dorje de Burgh. Mixing photography, film and installation, the show draws on Philip K. Dick’s alternate realities and filters them through a more unconventional theme and post-Catholic lens. It's thoughtful, oblique, and best approached like the novella that inspired it: slowly and with room for interpretation.
The weekend closes with a final toast. A closing event hosted by the West galleries brings everyone back into orbit – collectors, curators, artists and friends – for a few last conversations before Monday returns.
