The best art exhibitions in London, Autumn 2024

This October, The Unexpected, an exclusive curation of artworks, which include pieces by the likes of Dorothea Tanning, Celia Paul, Jean-Marie Appriou and Ernie Barnes, all from private collections, will be staged at Mayfair’s The Twenty Two. This non-commercial show has been orchestrated by British-American curator and art advisor Daniel Malarkey. The hotel, restaurant and private members' club will also host the launch of Malarkey’s new book, De Profundis Oscar Wilde and a Frieze Week party which Malarkey will co-host with one of the capital’s most exciting emerging fashion voices, Steven Stokey-Daley of S.S.Daley. “Steven and I have had very inspiring conversations, and even though Frieze week is all about art, it is also about bringing all creative communities together with art. I am most drawn to the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, the synthesis of the arts,” says Malarkey. 

Malarkey’s publication De Profundis Oscar Wilde is a celebration of an exhibition he curated in Paris in 2023 at L’Hotel, which took as its starting point Oscar Wilde’s fabled 1987 love letter to Lord Alfred Douglas. It included the work of 18 internationally renowned artists, including Maggi Hambling, Derek Jarman, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Krzysztof Grzybacz, and the book will further investigate key Wildean themes that Malarkey explored in the show, such as love, disdain, humility, sorrow, repentance and pleasure. The book is edited by art historian Bella Kesoyan and will unveil new perspectives on the importance of Oscar Wilde’s legacy for later generations of artists. Meanwhile, Malarkey’s next curated exhibition will be a group show opening in 2025 at Alison Jacques, London. 

Pre-order Daniel Malarkey's new limited edition book.

Daniel's recommendations:

1. Yayoi Kusama: Every Day I Pray For Love at Victoria Miro

At 95 years old, Kusama is continuing to paint, while a new infinity room will be unveiled at the gallery for this show. It doesn’t seem to matter how many Kusama paintings you’ve seen or how many infinity rooms you’ve spent time in, her work and life has so much depth, beauty and  complexity, and involves the viewer in performative ways that continue to inspire and surprise. Microscopic and macroscopic universes, not to be missed!” 25 September - 2 November 2024 victoria-miro.com

2. Lygia Clark: Studio Origins at Alison Jacques

“This autumn is a great time to explore the work of Brazilian pioneer Lygia Clark, with two shows in the capital, one being staged at Alison Jacques, the other, Lygia Clark: The I and the You, at Whitechapel Gallery, marking the artist’s first major UK public gallery survey. The latter encompasses paintings, works on paper, a selection of Clark’s renowned Bichos and groundbreaking participatory works. Her small matchbox works are particularly covetable and I only see them in the most sophisticated collections in the world.” 20 September - 26 October, 2024

3. Alexandra Bircken at Herald St and Maureen Paley

“For collectors focused on painting, figurative and abstraction, moving into conceptual sculpture can seem intimidating. Alexandra Bircken is a great route in. Bircken’s clinical dissections of cars and motorcycles reveal our visceral connections to machines which empower us. Both of these galleries are tastemakers – and never fail to inspire.” 19 September - 2 November 2024 at heraldst.com and maureenpaley.com

4. Machine Painting at Modern Art

“A subplot in the 1964 classic film What a Way to Go! sees Paul Newman play a poor artist who ends up becoming rich by using machines to help him paint, only to have the machine destroy him. Six years earlier, in 1958, Giuseppe Pinto-Gallizio produced works using a painting machine. This Stuart Shave Modern Art exhibition is essential, because it brings together important contemporary artists working with machines and computer programming. It is also a rare chance to see a Pinto-Gallizio’s masterpiece. Other artists on show include Christopher Wool, Tauba Auerbach, Sigmar Polke and Wolfgang Tillmans.” 7 October - 14 December 2024

5. Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 at Tate Britain

“With over 100 artists in the exhibition, this is a unique opportunity to discover those who have been forgotten and overlooked, as well as those who are very much part of contemporary art conversations, such as Gwen John. One of my personal highlights is miniaturist painter Sarah Biffin, who painted with her mouth, having been born without arms. This show naturally offers a rethinking of preconceptions about women artists in history – I’d suggest reading Celia Paul’s book Letters to Gwen John as a precursor to viewing the exhibition.” Until 13 October 2024 tate.org.uk

6. Antonio Calderara: A Certain Light at Estorick Collection

“This show is the first museum exhibition – organised in collaboration with the Lisson Gallery –  dedicated to Italian geometric abstractionist Antonio Calderara staged in the UK. It spans his entire career, from figuration to abstraction, and will feature around 50 works. It is interesting to consider his work in relation to the likes of Giorgio Morandi, Josef Albers and Agnes Martin, all of whom his work shares affinities with. Side note: his most sought-after works are at the end of his career, which gives us all hope that our prime is yet to come!” 18 September - 22 December 2024 estorickcollection.com

7. Emma Prempeh: Wandering Under a Shifting Sun at Tiwani Contemporary

“One of the most talented young artists working today, Emma Prempeh’s work uses schlag metal, a brass alloy of copper and zinc imitative of gold leaf, which she applies to selected areas of her often large-scale paintings. Over time this oxidises creating slow, live visual changes that animate the works and create a meta-narrative around our experiences of the passing of time, memory and its representation. Expect a long waiting list of collectors wishing to add one of her paintings to their collections.” 3 October - 16 November 2024 tiwani.co.uk

8. Magdalene Odundo at Thomas Dane Gallery

There is an assumed fragility to ceramic as a medium and yet the glazing of Magdalene Odundo’s works can make them seem indestructible. There is something so magical about an object that relates to one of the oldest crafts - you will want to touch one - but please don’t! Loewe’s creative director and founder of JW Anderson, Jonathan Anderson has spoken in depth about his obsession with Odundo and considers her as important as Alberto Giacometti. 9 October - 14 December 2024 thomasdanegallery.com

9. Robert Longo at Thaddaeus Ropac and Pace

“Charcoal is one of the first mediums that we use in art class, and so many collectors are drawn to the chiaroscuro of Robert Longo’s works. In his Searchers show at Thaddaeus Ropac, the artist shows montage as one of the highest forms of artistic expression. In Untitled (Pilgrim), which extends to over seven metres in width, Longo has created five panels in different mediums:  charcoal drawing, video, painting, sculpture and photography. The Ropac show is a Longo two-parter which also sees works by the artist on show at Pace London.” 8 October - 20 November 2024 ropac.net pacegallery.com 

10. Silk Roads at British Museum

“To truly see contemporary art is to know history and how images, ideas and histories are reworked in new ways on canvas and other media. Sometimes seeing so much contemporary art during Frieze is overwhelming, and so Silk Roads is guaranteed to freshen the eye and mind. Working with 29 national and international partners to present objects from many regions and cultures, alongside those from the British Museum collection, the exhibition offers a unique chance to see objects from the length and breadth of the Silk Roads from about AD 500 to 1000.” 26 September 2024 - 23 February 2025  britishmuseum.org

11. Anne-Laure Zevi: More Drawings at Lyndsey Ingram

"Anne-Laure Zevi’s poetic works on paper tell stories in quiet and mysterious ways like a novella with memories intertwined with musings. The media of make-up is not new to art and yet the wielding of it in such softness and also hard edges show a deftness of thought that in frames so beautifully curated makes this an exhibition to see and meditate on." 8 October - 15 November 2024 lyndseyingram.com

Main image credit: Yayoi Kusama. Photo by Yusuke Miyazaki. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner