Just a week before Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel, London Gallery Weekend returns as the biggest event of its kind globally, bringing together 125 galleries across the city for three days of exhibitions and events. This year’s edition features a broad mix—from long-established spaces to newer, independent ones — including fifteen first-time participants and 28 galleries expanding or doubling down on their presence in London. It’s a reminder that London remains Europe’s largest and most dynamic art market.
At Emalin, Augustas Serapinas presents “Potatoes and Chamomile,” a solo exhibition in the gallery’s distinctive glass-fronted space, reminiscent of a greenhouse. His work focuses on ideas of care and maintenance — how both structures and relationships fall into decline without attention. Drawing on the post-socialist context of Lithuania, Serapinas highlights how rural depopulation and land development are erasing vernacular architecture. Houses that once served families are now discarded, often literally burned. But instead of preserving them in their original state, Serapinas reuses their parts — altered, moved, reassembled — giving them a second life while acknowledging the conditions that led to their decay.
At Soft Opening, the group show “Something where there should be nothing” explores the tension between absence and presence. Inspired by Mark Fisher’s concept of the eerie — where something exists where it seemingly shouldn’t, or something is missing where it should be — the exhibition brings together artists like Mimosa Echard, Maren Karlson, P. Staff & Basse Stittgen, SoiL Thornton, and Sin Wai Kin. The works probe that feeling of dislocation, unease, and ambiguity between what’s visible and what’s gone.
Just some blocks over, Maureen Paley presents “An angel is just a messenger,” the UK debut of Kayode Ojo. His sculptural work assembles found objects into elegant yet precarious compositions, pointing to the way everyday items can project status or aspiration. The show also includes a series of photographs taken in nightlife settings, capturing fleeting, intimate moments amid the glamour and excess. Figures drift in and out of focus, raising questions about who is seen, what is hidden, and how we move through different social worlds.
Over Mayfair Spruth Magers, Gala Porras-Kim offers a solo exhibition shaped by deep research into the Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection and archival systems. Her project examines how institutions classify and display objects — sometimes as art, sometimes as science, or information — and how these decisions shape our understanding of cultural value. Porras-Kim’s work challenges the assumption that art is a fixed category, instead proposing it’s always shaped by context and intention.
Finally, Michaela Yearwood-Dan makes her debut at Hauser & Wirth with a richly layered exhibition of paintings, sculpture, and installation. Her new works explore themes of femininity, community, and queerness, using lush color and organic forms to create spaces that feel both intimate and expansive. A sound piece developed with composer Alex Gruz plays throughout the show, adding another sensory layer to the experience and underscoring the emotional tone of her paintings.
