Exhibitions

Fragile Beauty at the Jeu de Paume, Paris: 12 June – 27 September

Arriving shortly at Jeu de Paume, Fragile Beauty offers a rare glimpse into Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s extraordinary private photography collection, which is among the largest and most comprehensive in the world with more than 7,000 works. Framed as a kind of greatest hits, the exhibition brings together over 300 prints spanning the 1950s to the present day, tracing the story of modern and contemporary photography. Expect encounters with Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Ryan McGinley, Ai Weiwei, Nan Goldin, Harley Weir and more, in a selection that touches upon themes of “desire, celebrity, fashion, reportage, and affirmation of identity”.

Arthur Jafa: Apex at the Louisiana, Humlebæk: 23 June – 27 September, 2026

For those in Denmark, a trip to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is in order: from late June to late September, the institution will present Arthur Jafa’s seminal 2013 work Apex in the Hall Gallery. Composed of hundreds of still images, cut in rapid succession to Robert Hood’s 1994 techno track “Minus”, the work explores the link between beauty and terror in Black American culture. Images range from pictures of Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat, to civil rights reportage and scenes of violence and massacre, to sublime art, forming a striking and disorienting montage that will leave a lasting impression.

Delcy Morelos: Origo at the Barbican, London: Until 31 July, 2026

In Barbican’s Sculpture Court, be sure to catch the new site-specific work by Colombian artist Delcy Morelos, renowned for her monumental earth-based installations that bridge indigenous cosmologies, minimalism and ecology. The work takes the form of a large, hollow elliptical ring, made from soil, clay and fragrant spices, and is designed for interaction: visitors are invited to “roam its tunnels, experience its shifting light, rest within its central patio and become a part of its ecosystem”. Titled Origo after the Latin word for origin, the multisensory environment centres soil as the substance sustaining all life – a response to the Barbican’s utopian origins as a vision for communal living.

Lux & Umbra: Viviane Sassen, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid: 3 June – 26 July, 2026

Spain’s leading photography festival, PHotoESPAÑA 2026, returns for its anticipated 29th edition in Madrid, this year under the theme “Reimagining”. More than 40 exhibitions make up the official selection, spotlighting the work of Robert Frank, Richard Avedon, Isabel Muñoz, Alejandro Cartagena and many more. We’re particularly looking forward to Lux & Umbra, a retrospective of the acclaimed Dutch image-maker Viviane Sassen, whose richly experimental practice across fashion and fine art photography is defined by sculptural compositions, vivid colour and an interplay of light, shadow and abstraction. Spanning three decades, the show will be presented non-chronologically, bringing together works from different periods from Sassen’s career in a loose, associative dialogue intended to “generate new forms of perception”.

The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial at Saatchi Gallery, London: 5 June – 8 September, 2026

The Saatchi Gallery’s summer exhibition, The Sun and The Moon, will take a centuries-spanning look at how these two astronomical marvels have shaped creativity, curiosity and belief across cultures. The show will unfold as a journey through a 24-hour cycle, beginning at dawn before plunging visitors into the depths of night. Along the way they’ll encounter archival objects and more than 150 artworks, including a Celtic bust of a sun god from the first century BC, surrealist masterpieces by Dora Maar and Leonora Carrington, and contemporary works by artists including Álvaro Barrington, Lian Zhang and the Japanese collective teamLab, whose immersive light installation will bring things to a suitably celestial close.

Björk: Echolalia at The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik: Until 20 September, 2026

Timed to coincide with Björk’s one-day festival in Víðistaðatún this August, the National Gallery of Iceland will soon open a new exhibition by the inimitable Icelandic chanteuse. Like the event, the show is titled Echolalia and will present three of Björk’s songs at a theatrical scale. Ancestress and Sorrowful Soil, two elegiac pieces written and arranged by Björk as odes to her mother, will be accompanied by a new work from the artist’s upcoming album. All expand upon Björk’s signature interweaving of art, nature and technology with typical prowess and imagination. A concurrent exhibit of work by James Merry, Björk’s longtime collaborator – and the creator of the singer’s distinct sculptural headpieces – will be on display in one of the museum’s nearby gallery spaces.

Joel Meyerowitz: Select Works, 1962–2019 at Huxley Parlour: 5 June – 11 July, 2026

For his fourth solo exhibition with London’s Huxley-Parlour, Joel Meyerowitz, one of America’s most celebrated pioneers of colour photography, will showcase a selection of renowned and never-before-shown works traversing almost six decades of his career. A master of light and compelling composition, Meyerowitz has a knack for capturing the surreal beauty inherent to everyday life, whether shooting characterful street scenes, intimate portraits or atmospheric landscapes – all of which will be present among the show’s curation.

Pierre Huyghe at Fondation Beyeler, Basel: Until 13 September, 2026

If you’re bound for this year’s Art Basel, don’t miss the new Pierre Huyghe exhibition at Fondation Beyeler, conceived specially for the Swiss museum and featuring brand new works alongside recent defining pieces by the French artist. Huyghe’s practice blends fiction and reality to thrilling, deeply philosophical effect, merging cinematic, technological, biological, physical and digital elements to create “living and dynamic situations” where “new subjectivities and sensibilities” can arise. And at the sprawling Beyeler show, this makes for particularly enthralling viewing.

Joy Like Time at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich: 20 June – 15 November, 2026

Forming part of the Sainsbury Centre’s ongoing exhibition season What is the Meaning of Life?, a soon-to-open show titled Joy Like Time will offer a deep dive into the work of three internationally renowned artists, Marina Abramović, Kalliopi Lemos and Gillian Wearing, with the aim of investigating how “memory, ritual and renewal intersect” within each of their practices. Curator John Kenneth Paranada argues that, in the case of all three, a combination of “craft and repetition” results in the revelation of something essential about life’s significance, and will set out to posit how this is achieved.

Mickalene Thomas: Beneath the Moonlight at The Shepherd, Detroit: 6 June – 22 August, 2026

Acclaimed American artist Mickalene Thomas will soon present a new body of work at The Shepherd, a Romanesque-style church turned arts centre in Detroit’s Little Village. Marking a significant shift in her practice, these latest pieces see Thomas move away from the embellished painted portraits of Black women for which she’s best known, turning instead to representations of the Black male body through large-scale painting, collage and photography. Working with a diverse group of models, including non-binary and trans men, she creates images that challenge conventional notions of masculinity, making space for “vulnerability, sensuality and strength”.

Alex Prager: Matinee at Lehmann Maupin, New York: 10 June 10 – 14 August, 2026

American artist and filmmaker Alex Prager will open a new show at Lehmann Maupin in New York this month, serving as a prelude to a major museum exhibition in the city scheduled for 2027 in a yet-to-be announced venue. This latest display will comprise new large-scale photographs that, in true Prager style, are immaculately staged, richly coloured and wonderfully theatrical. Each one “positions Los Angeles as both subject and muse”, exploring “the construction of distorted memory and myth-making” so integral to the city’s enduring appeal.

Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery, London: 16 June – 18 October, 2026

Thirty years ago, Anish Kapoor staged his first major UK survey at London’s Hayward Gallery. This year, the British sculptor returns to the art institution with a suitably celebratory overview of his singular oeuvre. The show will occupy the entire gallery building, extending across walls, floors and ceilings where steel mirror sculptures will warp and distort, the darkest-black voids will threaten to engulf and monumental protruding installations will inspire wonder and intrigue. A series of new sculptures and paintings – apt musings on the fragility of human existence – will also feature, offering insight into Kapoor’s current preoccupations.

Events & Performances

June is brimming with exciting new productions. First up, Sandra Oh makes her UK stage debut at the National Theatre in a new version of Molière’s 1666 satire The Misanthrope, reimagined by Martin Crimp and running from 16 June–1 August. The British playwright recasts Molière’s arch-malcontent Alceste as Alice (Oh), a contemporary novelist disenchanted by society’s hollow mantras of kindness and respect, and determined to speak out against them. Another bold reenvisioning comes courtesy of Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, arriving at the Old Vic from 4 June–18 July and played here by an all-female cast. In it, four real-estate agents in a fiercely competitive Chicago office struggle to sell dubious resort properties in a bid to salvage both their livelihood and their pride. While Rajiv Joseph’s sharp, “dangerously timely” play Archduke will enjoy its European premiere at the Royal Court from 20 June–25 July. Set in Belgrade in 1914, it follows three hungry young men on a mission to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Unexpectedly, they are offered something to eat, and with it the chance to change the course of history.

At the Barbican, book your tickets for Greg Doran: Venus & Adonis, showing 23–27 June. The production sees world-class puppeteers perform Shakespeare’s erotic narrative poem in miniature, inspired by the bewitching artistry of Japanese Bunraku puppets and the Jacobean Court Masque. Narration by Simon Russell Beale and an accompanying live score are the icing on the cake.

Dance fans, make your way to Sadler’s Wells East for a high-octane work of resistance and revolution by the new darling of the European dance scene Marco da Silva Ferreira. Titled F*cking Future, it promises to explore “the dynamics of over-militarisation and toxic masculinity in modern society, while challenging the systems that shape bodies and behaviours”. Finally, there’s the 31st edition of the Southbank Centre’s Meltdown, the world’s longest-running artist-curated music festival, helmed this year by none other than Harry Styles. The singer has assembled a gloriously genre-roaming bill – think: Warpaint, Nilüfer Yanya, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Devonté Hynes, Kamasi Washington and many more – unfolding between 11–21 June.

Film

There are plenty of great new film releases this month, beginning with Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s first large-scale sci-fi epic in two decades. Praised in early reactions as the director’s finest work in years, it depicts a world grappling with proof of extraterrestrial life. American filmmaker Sarah Friedland’s lauded debut feature, Familiar Touch, is a wonderfully gentle coming-of-(old)-age tale about a woman navigating dementia and her new life in a care home, featuring a flawless performance by Kathleen Chalfant. French director Pauline Loquès makes a no less poignant feature-film debut with Nino, the story of a young Parisian recently diagnosed with throat cancer. With just three days before his treatment begins, he sets out to complete two unexpected missions.

Rising star Leisa Gwenllian shines in Marc Evans’ Welsh-language drama Effi O Blaenau, adapted from Gary Owen’s hit 2015 play, Iphigenia In Splott. In it, a hard-partying young woman in rural Wales finds her life derailed by a chance encounter in a Llandudno nightclub. Cactus Pears, the first Marathi-language film to win Sundance’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, follows a young man who returns to his family village after his father’s death, where he forms a relationship with a local farmer while facing mounting pressure to marry. Set on Vancouver Island in the late 1990s, Blue Heron by Canadian-Hungarian director Sophy Romvari, is a haunting, semi-autobiographical exploration of memory and trauma. It follows eight-year-old Sasha, the youngest child of Hungarian immigrants, as her older brother’s behaviour becomes increasingly volatile, unsettling the family’s fragile new life.

For this month’s best documentaries, look no further than Time and Water, Sara Dosa’s new film, in which Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason confronts the loss of his country’s glaciers and his beloved grandparents, turning his archives into a kind of time capsule for what is slipping away – family, memory, time and water. Gripping too is Synthetic Sincerity, in which British documentarian Marc Isaacs makes an entertaining deal with a research lab probing whether AI characters can be taught authenticity. They use characters from Isaacs’ documentaries for their project, and he, in turn, films them, blurring the line between fact and fiction in the process. For those who remain unsated, a trip to Sheffield Doc Fest will no doubt tick all the boxes. The UK’s leading documentary festival returns to the city from 10–15 June, featuring the world premiere of Rich Felgate’s We, The Hated – an inside look at the UK climate protest movement Just Stop Oil – as well as a special programme celebrating the legendary David Attenborough, and much more besides.

Food & Drink

James Beard Award-winning chef Jody Williams is bringing her celebrated West Village “gastrotheque” Buvette to London, opening on 4 June in Neal’s Yard – for a taste of France via Manhattan. The Gallic-inspired menu spans breakfast delicacies (like warm madeleines and a waffle sandwich with cured bacon and fresh eggs), lighter bites (salad niçoise and croques), and more substantial dinnertime fare such as steak tartare or coq au vin.

For tasty Greek cuisine, head down to new Marylebone addition Clio, where seasonal ingredients of the highest quality dictate a simple but utterly delicious menu. Small plates like sea bass crudo with toursi chilli and olive oil, and grilled octopus with potatoes and salsa precede larger dishes such as monkfish kebab with wild greens and rabbit stifado with whipped polenta. While sharing plates include Middle White suckling pig and Cornish lamb shoulder, so arrive hungry.

If you’re looking for a refreshing pitstop in St John's Wood, No. Forty Nine, the new bakery, all-day bistro and wine bar from the team behind Cinder, undoubtedly fits the bill. A tantalising breakfast counter will offer up pastrami pain suisse, burnt leek, cheddar and Marmite swirls and other such delights, followed by an all-day menu “drawing influence from New York-style bistro dishes, with Mediterranean influences weaved in”. Think: steak tartare with sour cream and onion crisps, tagliolini with prawns and bisque, and roasted aubergine with ajvar and kumquat dukkah.

Jun Tanaka’s Michelin-starred restaurant, The Ninth, will soon launch the next edition of its Single Ingredient series, this time platforming the humble tomato, now in its peak season, from 15 June–11 July. Diners can anticipate such dishes as pineapple tomato jelly and fromage blanc; Noir de Crimée tomato served with pickled green strawberries and ajo blanco, and ricotta tortellini with basil and San Marzano tomato consommé. Prepare to be tickled red.

Evelyn’s Table, the Michelin-starred Soho eatery by Studio Paskin, has just announced details of their second wine dinner of the year, taking place on 18 June with the storied French Champagne house, Billecart-Salmon. There, head chef Seamus Sam will whip up a series of delicious French-inspired seasonal dishes, paired with delicate, expressive cuvées and deeper, more complex vintages to elevate the experience of both offerings. 

On Nile Street in Shoreditch, new restaurant Appalachia has just opened its doors. Drawing on the mountainous Appalachian region of the United States, Appalachia cuisine is “shaped by migration, resilience, and adaptation, where British cooking traditions evolved in response to the land”, the restaurant explains. This is reflected in the menu by head chef Alistair Borer, which includes everything from smoked eel and jalapeños deviled eggs to country-fried rabbit with chorizo gravy, and a curried crab omelette. Suffice to say, we can’t wait to tuck in.