From Anne Imhof’s immersive gothic landscape to Paul P’s portraits of 1970s gay porn actors, here’s our guide to the best exhibitions to catch over London Gallery Weekend
The Fugitive Marvels of Sunset by Paul P at Maureen Paley until 25 July
Alongside hazy skies, gathering clouds, colonies of bats and crashing waves, faces emerge from the fugue-like state of dawn or fade into enveloping dusk in Paul P’s luminous paintings. Drawing inspiration from gay porn magazines of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, as well as the atmospheric work of late-19th-century painters Whistler and Sargent, his portraits immortalise the faces of anonymous men from hardcore shoots and capture moments of transition: changing light, the crest of a wave, and spent ecstasy.
Citizen by Anne Imhof at Sprüth Magers until 1 August
Fusing performance, painting, subcultural music, fashion, film and sculpture, German-born artist Anne Imhof continues her investigation into the anxieties of the digital age – surveillance, systemic control and the corporeal experience of modernity. The immersive industrial, gothic landscape of Citizen is divided by weighty crowd-control barriers directing visitors through the gallery in a predetermined route – past the artist’s new monumental, moody Wave paintings, the four-channel film exploring classical ballet, the heavy bronze reliefs and much else.
This Weather by Helen Marten at Sadie Coles HQ until 12 September
If you missed 30 Blizzards, Helen Marten’s elaborate modernist opera-performance-installation commissioned by Miu Miu at last year’s Art Basel Paris, it has been reconceived and restaged at Sadie Coles HQ in a condensed, singular form for London Gallery Weekend.
This Weather consists of five new films exploring the themes of childhood, community, sexuality, interiority and loss. As with her ambitious staging of 30 Blizzards, this latest work by the Turner Prize-winning artist is still sprawling and vast in its scope, encompassing worlds within worlds and, in the artist‘s own words, an “avalanche of connected meanings”.
Read AnOther’s interview with Helen Marten here.
Seizure of Hope by Roni Horn at Hauser & Wirth London until 1 August
For over four decades, artist Roni Hope has been fascinated by language. Her exhibition Seizure of Hope consists of over 45 works, each inscribed over and over with the words ‘I am paralyzed with hope’ in wax crayon. Through repetition, the meaning and gravity of the phrase seem to undulate from despair to expectation; at times feeling desperate, at times abstract. The phrase, which originates from a performance by the stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, has been described by the artist as a “poignant connection to our time with regards to politics and the environment and now, of course, in relation to the pandemic”. Here, its sheer accumulation forms an urgent prayer.
Bring Me Men by Gray Wielebinski at Nicoletti until 4 July
‘Bring me men’ was the striking slogan once carved into the brickwork of the United States Air Force Academy, where Dallas-born artist Gray Wielebinski’s father trained. Removed in disgrace after the institution was investigated for systemic sexual misconduct, the phrase is ripe with all manner of meanings. Wielebinski’s exhibition examines the accumulation of associations contained within the constructed concept of masculinity. Presenting sculptural objects assembled with found images, the artist concocts a series of unwieldy kind of moodboards, pasted with the signifiers of masculinity.
Read AnOther’s feature on the series here.
Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Shaniqwa Jarvis at Public Gallery until 7 June
Beloved US-artist Shaniqwa Jarvis’ first UK solo exhibition, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, engages with experiences of grief, memory, loss and resilience. The show’s recurring motif of flowers – avatars of beauty, abundance and sexuality – also recalls fragility and transience. Featuring photography ordained with acrylic washes and a hypnotic film, From Negative to Positive (2026), in which purple gerbera daisies gradually come into focus, Jarvis draws us in to contemplate the grinding inevitability of heartbreak but also its natural precursor, love.
Dreams Lost Upon Waking by Jemila Isa at Maureen Paley Studio M until 25 July
Inspired in part by a particularly “vivid and visually rich” dream and in part by the 1959 film Black Orpheus – a retelling of the Greek myth set against the febrile backdrop of the Rio Carnival – Jemila Isa’s debut solo exhibition, Dreams Lost Upon Waking, is an exploration of the motifs and themes she encountered on the astral plane and the deep dive she took into Afro-Latin art, music and film in the wake of watching Marcel Camus’ acclaimed film. Working with painting and sculpture, London-born artist Isa contemplates spirituality, faith, womanhood and identity while examining imposed, inherited narratives and their impact on women, particularly within the African diaspora.
London Gallery Weekend 2026 runs from 5–7 June.
