The summer heatwaves appear to be over, the September showers have arrived, and suddenly spending an afternoon indoors doesn’t sound quite so tragic. As the pace of summer starts to slow, galleries across the UK are gearing up for a particularly good run of exhibitions, with plenty opening – and some already closing – throughout September and October. From queer comics and Black British music to 90s fashion, fantastical photography and Freddie Mercury’s wardrobe, here are the exhibitions we’ll be making time for as autumn rolls in.
Everything and Nothing: what makes a 220-year-old library?
The Portico Library, Manchester
Until 3rd October
Free entry
As online enthusiasm for physical media brings libraries back into fashion, Everything and Nothing feels particularly timely. Looking back at 220 years of the Portico through forgotten objects, stories and personal memories, the exhibition asks what actually makes a library: the books, the building, or the people who pass through it? You can even add your own memory to its time capsule, which won’t be opened until 2076.
Queer as comics
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustrations
Until 4th October
General admission from £15
Queer comics have always been about more than just telling stories; they’ve been a way to push back against censorship, challenge power and provide valuable representation, especially when other media was severely lacking in authentic portrayals. Queer as Comics traces that history from the 1940s to today, bringing together everything from pioneering gay comic strips and queer zines to Moomin drawings and contemporary graphic novels. With most of the work on show for the first time, it’s a proper reminder of just how radical a comic can be.
Anish Kapoor
Hayward Gallery
Until 18th October
General admission from £22
If you’ve ever wanted to feel like you’ve temporarily lost your grip on reality, this is the exhibition for you. Anish Kapoor has taken over the entire Hayward with warped steel mirrors, visceral sculptures and his signature blood-red installations, creating a space where bodies, scale and perspective all start to feel slightly off. It’s Kapoor at his most disorientating – and, frankly, sometimes that’s exactly what you want from an exhibition.
Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam
The Royal Academy of the Arts
Until 25th October
General admission £15
If you like your Victorian art with a little more darkness, Richard Dadd is your man. Best known for his wildly intricate fairy paintings, Dadd built fantastical worlds from literature, memory and imagination while living in Victorian psychiatric hospitals, producing work of astonishing detail and strangeness. Bringing together more than 100 works – including a painting that inspired a Queen song – Beyond Bedlam is a fascinating look at an artist who feels remarkably ahead of his time.
Es Devlin: Other Worlds
Design Museum
From 2nd October
General admission £21
Es Devlin has had a hand in some of the most spectacular cultural moments of the last three decades, from the London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony to the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, and now you can see how these moments came together. Other Worlds brings Devlin’s archive to life through sketches, diaries, maquettes, films and a replica of her London studio, while a giant circular “30-Year Desk” traces the evolution of her practice. This exhibit is less about finished works than a chance to get inside the process behind them.
Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things
V&A South Kensington
From 24th October
Free entry
Freddie Mercury’s wardrobe deserves its own exhibition, and the V&A is doing exactly that. Marking what would have been his 80th birthday, Splendid Things brings together eight of his most memorable stage and music-video looks, alongside pieces from his personal wardrobe that reveal the man behind the showmanship. Expect everything from the Queen debut album cover outfit to the Bohemian Rhapsody catsuit – basically, a masterclass in being unapologetically extra.
The 90s: Art and Fashion
Tate Britain
From 8th October
General admission £22, or £5 for Tate Collective members
The decade when fashion, art, music and photography stopped bothering with their respective lanes gets the full Tate Britain treatment. Curated by former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, The 90s: Art and Fashion brings together work from legends like Corinne Day, Juergen Teller, Steve McQueen, Sarah Lucas, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood to revisit a particularly chaotic, creative and culturally transformative moment in British creative culture. Expect plenty of names you already know, and a good reminder of just how much of contemporary culture was shaped in that decade.
Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends
National Portrait Gallery
From 9th October
Tickets TBC
There are few photographers better at making the fantastical feel real than Tim Walker, so a whole exhibition dedicated to his vision of queer identity and community feels like the perfect excuse to get lost in his world. More than five years in the making, Fairyland features new portraits of queer activists, performers, artists and writers alongside Walker’s dreamlike landscapes and fairytale imagery. Maximalism, theatricality and beautiful weirdness are pretty much guaranteed in this major exhibit from one of Britain’s most singular photographers.
Gwen John: Strange Beauties
National Gallery of Scotland
Until 4th January 2027
General admission £14
One of Wales’ most accomplished artists, Gwen John gets her first major retrospective in more than 40 years with Strange Beauties. Spanning her early life in Wales, years in Paris and later works shaped by religion and French modernism, the exhibition also brings rarely seen drawings and watercolours out of the archives. This exhibition offers a compelling look at an artist whose work proves that subtle doesn’t have to mean forgettable.
The Music is Black: A British Story
V&A East
Until 10th January 2027
General admission £22.50
From jazz and reggae to grime and drum and bass, The Music is Black traces the Black British sounds that have shaped the UK, and travelled far beyond it. With more than 120 tracks that seamlessly play through your own headset as you move, the exhibition actually encourages you to listen, rather than just look at. The exhibit also includes an impressive array of costume and pop-culture fashion moments, from Sade’s iconic mid-80s Levi’s and suede jacket pairing to Stormzy’s Banksy-designed Glastonbury stab-proof vest. And with East London at the heart of the new V&A venue, it’s a pertinent reminder of how local scenes can create music with global impact.
Ana Mendieta
Tate Modern
Until 17th January 2027
General admission £18
Ana Mendieta’s work feels particularly resonant right now, with her explorations of displacement, identity and belonging expressed through an intense relationship with the natural world. Best known for her Silueta Series, Mendieta used soil, water, fire and flowers to create ephemeral works that were destined to disappear, surviving only through photographs and film. It’s also worth making time for the exhibition alongside Tate’s Frida Kahlo show, where the connections between two hugely influential Latin American artists become especially striking.
Rudy Loewe, Intimacies of Care: Spaces of Grief and Possibility
Welcome Collection
Until 7th February 2027
Free entry
Rudy Loewe asks what mental healthcare could look like if it was actually built around care, empathy and the people it’s supposed to support. Through sculpture, painting, text and sound, the exhibition centres the lived experiences of Black people navigating racist discrimination within the UK’s mental healthcare system, while imagining more hopeful alternatives. Developed with grassroots organisations including the Black Trans Foundation and ADHD Babes, it’s a thoughtful, community-led exhibition that leaves space for both grief and possibility.
Joe Lycett: Every Thing Must Go
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Until 21st February
Free entry
Comedian Joe Lycett gives grief a colourful makeover in his first major solo art exhibition. Inspired by objects from Birmingham’s collection, Every Thing Must Go takes in everything from deceased celebrities and extinct animals to discontinued chocolate bars and demolished buildings, all rendered in Lycett’s knowingly childish, tongue-in-cheek style. Described by Lycett as a “neon graveyard”, it sounds like a suitably chaotic celebration of all the things we’ve lost — with a distinctly Brummie sense of humour.
Ffasiwn
National Museum Cardiff
Until 4th April 2027
Pay what you can (suggestion: £5)
Ffasiwn sits between style-led image-making and documentary practice, challenging assumptions about who fashion is for and who gets to shape the way communities are seen. Developed over more than a decade by artists Clémentine Schneidermann and Charlotte James alongside young people across the South Wales Valleys, the project puts collaboration and creative agency at its centre. The result is a funny, expressive and proudly contemporary portrait of the Valleys that feels much more interested in showing what’s already there than imposing an outside idea of what fashion should look like.
Enjoyed this story? Help keep independent queer-led publishing alive and unlock the BRICKS Learner Platform, full of resources for emerging and aspiring creatives sent to you every week via newsletter. Start your 30-day free trial now.