Exhibitions

The Coming of Age at the Wellcome Collection, London: 26 March 2026 – 29 November, 2026

Across the globe, people are living longer. But are we living better? And if not, why not? These are the questions that The Coming of Age, a forthcoming exhibition at London’s Wellcome Collection will set out to answer, collating objects from across art, science and popular culture for the purpose. More than 120 artworks will feature in the display, by artists including Paula Rego, Anna Maria Maiolino, Suzanne Lacy, Sam Taylor-Johnson, revealing different experiences and perceptions of ageing, and inviting answers as to how we might grow older better.

Vivienne Westwood: Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary at the Bowes Museum, County Durham: 28 March – 6 September 2026

“The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas,” Vivienne Westwood once said. Ever the provocateur, the inimitable British designer used her artistry as a vehicle for activism, whether redefining sexual norms, calling out consumerism or drawing attention to climate change. Soon, a new exhibition at the Bowes Museum will chart Westwood’s extraordinary journey from punk rebel to world-renowned designer, spanning her early partnership with Malcolm McLaren through her reinvention of historical dress and couture in the 1980s and 90s. Mock-up calico toiles and digitally deconstructed garments will offer deeper insight into her remarkable processes, while pieces from rarely seen private collections will make Westwood acolytes swoon.

Beatriz González at the Barbican, London: Until 10 May, 2026

At the Barbican, a new survey shines fascinating light on the life and work of Colombian artist Beatriz González, who passed away in January at the age of 93. González took images from Western art history, popular postcards and local newspaper clippings and reshaped them via a vernacular of graphic forms, flat surfaces and vivid colour. Showcasing monumental paintings, repurposed furniture, wallpaper and installations, the show reveals both the scope of González’s practice and the themes that preoccupied her – from her playful interrogation of “good taste” to her critique of power structures, and her poignant meditations on grief, displacement and community.

Yorgos Lanthimos at Onassis Stegi, Athens: 7 March – 17 May, 2026

It will come as little surprise to learn that Yorgos Lanthimos, one of the most prolific and imaginative filmmakers of our time, is also an ardent and accomplished photographer. At Onassis Stegi in Athens, the Greek auteur will soon present the largest exhibition of his photography to date – four bodies of work, totalling 182 photographs, captured in the past five years. Three were made on the fringes of recent film locations – in New Orleans and Atlanta, and on purpose-built sets in Budapest – while the final works form part of an ongoing series of personal pictures made in Greece. Lanthimos’s photographs are peculiar, beautiful and haunting. They are full of narrative suggestion without veering into dramatic territory, they subtly draw our attention to the inherent strangeness of the everyday.

Michael Armitage at the Palazzo Grassi, Venice: 29 March, 2026 – 10 January, 2027

For those heading to Venice, don’t miss the Pinault Collection’s upcoming exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, dedicated to the ascendant British-Kenyan artist Michael Armitage. The show will offer a comprehensive overview of Armitage’s work during the past decade, bringing together his impressionistic, richly hued paintings, drawn from both real and imagined histories, and a selection of equally evocative drawings. These will be organised around the themes central to the painter’s practice, ranging from the expression of politics within individual and collective narratives to explorations of migration, mythology and sexuality.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A, London: March 28 – November 8, 2026

Elsa Schiaparelli once proclaimed that “in difficult times fashion is always outrageous.” And indeed, during some of the most turbulent years of the 20th century, she was responsible for some of the most fantastical fahsion designs, furthered by collaborations with renowned surrealists Salvador Dalí, Leonor Fini, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray. Today, in times of fresh political turmoil, Daniel Roseberry sits at the helm of Schiaparelli’s Parisian fashion house, conjuring up similarly wonderful and whimsical designs. At the V&A, a much-anticipated exhibit will soon celebrate Schiaparelli’s extraordinary vision and influence, examining the groundbreaking origins of her brand and its subsequent evolution, through garments, jewellery, artworks, photography and more. 

Clair-Obscur at the Bourse de Commerce, Paris: 4 March – 25 August, 2026

The Italian art term chiaroscuro (“light-dark”) describes a technique of high-contrast light and shadow used to create volume, depth and drama. Developed to its full potential by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance, elevated by Baroque masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt, and revived by the Romantic movement, chiaroscuro remains a device that artists return to again and again. This month, Bourse de Commerce will present over 100 artworks by artists including Rosemarie Trockel, Bruce Nauman, James Lee Byars, Wolfgang Tillmans and Carol Rama, to examine how this pictorial sensibility resonates today as “a renewed visual and symbolic language, a narrative device and a philosophical principle”.

Gordon Parks: We Shall Not Be Moved at Alison Jacques, London: 5 March – 11 April, 2026

Speaking in 1967, the American photographer Gordon Parks explained that the camera was his “choice of weapon against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty”. Over the course of more than five decades, Parks used his camera to foreground the experiences of the marginalised and the poor, as well as the activists, like Martin Luther King and Malcom X, fighting for meaningful change. This month, the renowned social justice activist Attorney Bryan Stevenson will curate a show of Parks’s work at Alison Jacques gallery in London, celebrating the late image-maker’s own brand of resistance through photography. “In a moment when there is an intense and active effort of erasure, retreat from civil rights and silencing of Black voices and history in the US,” Stevenson notes, “[Parks’s images] provide insight and relevance to our current discourse”.

Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore: 11 March – 6 September, 2026

American artist Louis Fratino creates paintings and drawings of the male form and domestic spaces, capturing moments of tenderness and intimacy within queer everyday life. Growing up in Maryland, the young Fratino would regularly visit the Baltimore Museum of Art (BAM) to peruse the institution’s Matisse collection, beguiled as he was by the French painter’s subject matter, colour palette and form. Later this month, a new exhibition will place Fratino’s own figure studies, interiors, still-lifes and self-portraits in dialogue with those of Matisse, highlighting the latter’s influence, and introducing visitors to Fratino’s own accomplished oeuvre.

Carol Bove at the Guggenheim, New York: 5 March – 2 August, 2026

American sculptor Carol Bove is best known for her large-scale sculptures, which imbue industrial materials – bent, colourfully coated steel, wood, concrete and found metals – with a striking sense of lightness and poetry. Fascinated by the ways objects are transformed by their surroundings and vice versa, Bove is meticulous in orchestrating how her works are experienced in relation to one another. As such, the artist’s soon-to-open exhibition at New York’s Guggenheim Museum promises compelling viewing, offering an overview of her 25-year practice, replete with opportunities for rest, contemplation and interaction as visitors ascend the building’s spiral ramps. 

The Antwerp Six at Momu Fashion Museum, Antwerp: 28 March, 2026 – 17 January, 2027

In 1986, six avant-garde Belgian designers – all fashion graduates of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp – rented a truck and drove to London to present their individual ready-to-wear collections at the British Designer Show. They stole the spotlight. This was the moment that Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee, thereafter known as the Antwerp Six, established Antwerp’s reputation as a fashion capital. Marking the 40th anniversary of their international breakthrough, a major new show at MoMu will spotlight the designers’ myriad achievements in the intervening years, revealing their enduring influence on contemporary fashion.

Rothko in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence: 14 March – 23 August, 2026

A major new Rothko show is set to land at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence later this month, curated by the artist’s son Christopher Rothko and Elena Geuna. Featuring an impressive array of paintings, including some never shown in Italy before, the exhibition will offer a deep dive into the evolution of the revered abstract expressionist’s work. It will also reveal Rothko’s connection with Italian artistic tradition via two exciting satellite interventions at locations particularly significant to the artist: a selection of his works will be presented at the Museo di San Marco, in dialogue with the frescoes of Fra Angelico, and at the Vestibule of the Laurentian Library designed by Michelangelo.

Events & Performances

March is full of good reasons to head to the theatre. Robert Icke’s eagerly awaited production of Romeo and Juliet, featuring Hamnet’s Noah Jupe and Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink as the star-crossed lovers, will run at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 18 March–6 June. While John Procter is the Villain – Kimberly Belflower’s bitingly funny, seven-time Tony Award-nominated take on Arthur Miller’s The Crucible – will arrive at the Royal Court on 20 March for a month-long run. Another Tony Award-winning dramedy comes courtesy of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, by Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh, which will enjoy its UK premiere at the Lyric in Hammersmith from 18 March–25 April. Set in a Harlem hair salon, it explores the dreams and struggles of the West African immigrant women who work there.  

On March 20, be sure to catch the second edition of Cardion Nights: Queer Performance London’s ICA, an evening of music and performance in aid of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity akt. Over the course of the night, artists including Wet Mess, Nando Messias, Travis Alabanza, Adam Christensen and Emily Pope will take to the stage, revealing the transformative potential of queer performance, all for a brilliant cause.

Dance lovers, book your tickets to Landscapes at Sadler’s Wells. Comprising three powerful solos by the lauded British choreographer Russell Maliphant, the work is described as “a dialogue between movement, light, and sound … where pure aesthetic elements merge into a sensory world.” Finally, there’s the revival of Peter Wright’s bewitching 1985 production of Giselle at the Royal Opera House (running until March 20). The quintessential Romantic ballet, it centres on a jilted young woman who takes her own life upon discovering her lover, Albrecht, is already betrothed. Joining a troupe of vengeful ghosts, all spurned before their wedding day, she sets out to haunt the deceitful Albrecht.

Film

There are just as many great film releases to keep us occupied too. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s riveting sophomore feature The Bride! sees a scientist in 1930s Chicago bring a murdered young woman back to life as a companion for Frankenstein’s lonely monster. Sound of Falling, the mesmeric new film from German writer-director Mascha Schilinski, traces the lives of four girls from different generations who grow up on the same farm in northern Germany. Over the course of a century, the home evolves but traces of the past resonate within its walls. Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason (of Godland fame) returns with The Love That Remains. Set against the stark beauty of rural Iceland, the quirky, quietly melancholic film follows a couple over the course of a year as they navigate their divorce, charting its emotional ripple effects on both the duo and their three children. 

Two other auteurs make a comeback this month: Paolo Sorrentino with La Grazia, a contemplative drama about an ageing Italian president during a period of personal and political turmoil, and Dead Man’s Wire, the latest, typically offbeat drama from American indie veteran Gus Van Sant. Based on real events, it follows Tony Kiritsis, a disgruntled real-estate developer, who takes his mortgage broker hostage and broadcasts his grievances to the American public via the media. Meanwhile, Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s tense, atmospheric drama Two Prosecutors follows an idealistic young prosecutor in 1930s USSR who dares to confront Stalin’s brutal regime after receiving a plea for help from a political prisoner.

This month’s most anticipated documentaries include Broken English by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, a bold and candid portrait of Marianne Faithfull. Made with the British singer and actress’s full involvement before her death in January of 2025, it charts the highs and lows of Faithfull’s remarkable six-decade career. If you ever feel like we’re living in an Orwellian nightmare, filmmaker Raoul Peck’s latest work, Orwell 2+2=5, will only heighten that sense. Interweaving archival clips, excerpts from Orwell’s diary, cinematic references and contemporary footage, it offers an arresting exploration of the life, legacy and prophetic vision of the iconic 20th-century author. While Underland sees director Rob Petit undertake a masterful film adaptation of Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name, leading us into subterraneous natural realms seldom seen by human eyes.

Food & Drink

Foodies are in for endless treats as spring beckons. For International Women’s Day, acclaimed British chef Angela Hartnett will join forces with Jess Filbey of the much-buzzed-about Notting Hill eatery Canteen for a special one-night-only dinner. A whole host of Italian-inspired delicacies will no doubt ensue: current highlights from Canteen’s seasonal menu include green and white asparagus with anchovy butter, lamb leg with wild garlic salsa verde and artichokes and rhubarb frangipane tart served with honeycomb and ginger ice cream. Book your tickets now to avoid disappointment.

This month, chefs Eduardo Yishima and Jackson Boxer will breathe new life into one of London’s original Mexican restaurants, Taqueria in Westbourne Grove. Visitors can expect a new menu and a whole new identity, beginning with a change of name: Taq. Reopening on March 3, Taq will be grounded by a simple proposition, the team explains: “fresh, hot tortillas topped with high-quality grilled meat and salsa, cold beers, and great value-margaritas”. Yishima’s menu will consist of classic staples – tacos, tostadas, quesadillas – as well as a number of innovative blackboard specials that will further tantalise your taste buds. 

Conor Gadd, chef and co-owner of Islington favourite Trullo, will soon open his first solo venture, Burro, in Covent Garden. Extending his love of Italian cuisine, exceptional ingredients and whole-hearted hospitality to his new venture, Gadd will centre his new menu around pasta, serving up primi like slow-cooked duck ragù made with Aylesbury duck and dried porcini, and fettuccine alfredo, an egg-rich pasta bound with butter and finished with 36-month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano. Secondi will include vitello al burro, Dover sole with prosecco and caviar, and lobster acqua pazza. And for dessert? The tiramisu doughnuts have captured our imagination.

Another exciting new opening comes courtesy of award-winning British chef Sally Abé, who will open Teal by Sally Abé on Wilton Way in Hackney on 26 March. Abé’s seasonal dishes capture a nostalgia for classic British dining, and Teal’s opening menu will continue in this tradition. Think: devils on horseback and lockets savoury to start, followed by Dorset crab royale or English peas and lovage; hearty main courses like haunch of deer served with pickled walnuts and cavolo nero, and a marmalade ice-cream sandwich to round things off. We anticipate British ‘bistronomy’ at its finest.

For a sumptuous pizza in central London, head to Napoli on the Road Soho on Wardour Street, the new offering from that maestro of modern pizza-making Michele Pascarella. The chef’s award-winning Neapolitan-style pizzas deliver a considered balance of traditional, modern and seasonal toppings, served on the most delicious dough. A welcome pit stop for Soho shoppers and pizza savants alike.

Last but not least, there’s Cometa, the new restaurant from Carousel co-founders Ed and Ollie Templeton. Celebrating the very best of British fish and seafood through a creative and modern Mexican lens, the restaurant is headed up by Ollie Templeton alongside Mexico City natives José Lizarralde Serralde and sous chef Alejandra Juarez. From delicacies such as lobster-tail flautas with black bean purée, Spenwood cheese and xnipec to smoked beetroot with citrus, horseradish salsa, followed by mole negro sea bass with mole verde and chile de árbol, each dish is as playfully distinctive as it is rooted in tradition. Buen provecho!