The summer months have a tendency to disappear before you know it in a flurry of beach trips, picnic dates and drinks by the Thames – so too do some of London's best exhibitions. To make sure you don't your last chance to see some of the best exhibitions of 2025, we've rounded up 5 key showcases to catch before they go the way of the warm weather.
London Summer Exhibitions to Catch Before They're Gone
Words by
Daisy Finch
21st August 2025
Don't miss your last chance to catch the best of London's summer exhibitions – from the Barbican's immersive showcase of sound to Ed Atkins' moving digital display, there's only a few weeks left to make the most of the capital's cultural offerings for summer 2025.
Feel the Sound, Barbican Centre, until 31st August
Temporary Pleasure (2025) by Joyride, as seen at The Barbican Centre. Concept image courtesy of the artist.
'Feel the Sound' at Barbican goes beyond a soundscape – instead, visitors are invited to approach sound from a new angle. Using a variety of multi-sensory installations, visitors get to experience locations within the Barbican and explore their own frame of reference for what sound really is.
Whether you're experiencing music without any audio or taking part in an expansive chorus, 'Feel the Sound' goes beyond an installation to question how we interact the world around us. What does it mean to listen with your whole body? Barbican's co-production with Mon Takanawa:The Museum of Narratives might be the closest we get to an answer.
To discover the Barbican – and your own senses in a new way – book here.
Reflections on Being by Max Cooper. Credit: Ella Mitchell.
Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery, until 31st August
Childlike wonder and fear combine in Yoshitomo Nara's exhibit at the Hayward Gallery. Credit: Mark Blower, courtesy of the artist and Hayward Gallery.
Yoshitomo Nara's self-titled exhibition at the Hayward Gallery builds on the artist's talent for crafting powerful portraits that keep the viewer locked in an intimidating gaze. Childlike and, at first, charmingly sweet, these characters explore wider themes of rebellion and freedom. Collecting inspiration once more from nature, the peace movement, and pop culture, and with over 150 works, there's much to unearth.
While you're there, take a peek at Ali Ahadi and Ghazaleh Avarzamani's 'Freudian Typo'. Their showcase digs deeper into the hidden narratives of debt, dispossession and gain present in old English nursery rhymes like 'The Old Woman and Her Pig'. The former Chief Mouser of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office is a notable inclusion, calmly observing an electric sign reading 'Truth and Reconsolidation' which combines the artists' knack for commentary with a playful sense of humour.
Don't miss 'Yoshitomo Nara' at the Hayword Gallery! Find out more here.
View of Freudian Typo at the Hayward Gallery. Credit: Rob Harris, courtesy of the artist and Hayward Gallery.
FLOWERS – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture, Saatchi Gallery, until 31st August
Van Gogh's legacy becomes three dimensional as towering blue irises backlight sculpted sunflowers. Courtesy of Saatchi Gallery.
Saatchi Gallery's FLOWERS exhibition soon comes to an end, following its second run, this August. Charting a shared artistic love for the floral, FLOWERS traces still life studies from early examples to its influences on contemporary art, fashion and wider culture.
In a cycle of symbolic rebirth, standout piece La Fleur Morte represents a kind of death with a sombre but beautiful installation of dead flowers, moving through flowers' place in pop culture and ending in a form of reincarnation as new shoots appear in the form of up-and-coming creatives.
Unlike a well-dried bouquet, 'FLOWERS' won't last forever – book here for your chance to experience the exhibition's floral delights for yourself.
Dried flowers are fastened together into a drooping bouquet suspended from Saatchi Gallery's ceiling. Courtesy of Saatchi Gallery.
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain, until 25 August
Ed Atkins' self-titled exhibition at Tate has to be seen to be believed. Credit: Ed Atkins, courtesy of the artist and Tate Britain.
How do you find the humanity in the non-human? For Ed Atkins, computer-generated artworks draw together with human feeling to weave an intricate emotional tapestry. 'Ed Atkins' at Tate Britain charts the last 15 years of the artist's career, touching on the grief of losing his father, themes of isolation and the general uncleanliness, emotional and physical, of being human.
Alongside his shorter video works and drawings, the exhibition includes a two-hour-long film. Starring Toby Jones, 'Nurses Come and Go, But None for Me' (2025) features a dramatised reading of the artist's late father's journals and a reenactment of one of Atkins' childhood games.
Experience 'Ed Atkins' at Tate Britain before it closes by booking here.
A group of adults stare back at the viewer, confronting our own voyeurism. Credit: Ed Atkins and Steven Zultanski, courtesy of Tate Britain.
Leigh Bowery!, Tate Modern, until 31 August
Fergus Greer, Leigh Bowery Session 1 Look 2, 1988. Credit: Fergus Greer, courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery,
Leigh Bowery's inimitable presence is brought to life at Tate Modern this summer like never before. Photographs, videos and paintings of the artist-come-club icon are brought together with his clothing to form a more three-dimensional image of the man who travelled to London from a peaceful suburb in Melbourne at only 19 and became a revolutionary voice in contemporary art.
Bowery's costumes, carefully constructed with the help of his future-wife Nicola Rainbird and corsetier Mr Pearl, provide an unrivalled glimpse into his talent for questioning convention and exploring identity. From the opening of his nightclub Taboo to exploring a passion for music with his band Minty, it's well worth taking a stroll down a (well-curated) memory lane.
To get a taste of the fantastic, book here and catch 'Leigh Bowery!' at Tate Modern before it closes.
Lucian Freud's intimate portrait of Leigh Bowery painted in 1991. Credit: The Lucian Freud Archive.
