Art News: What's On in UK Art, 2 to 8 November 2026

Asian Art in London reaches its main sales this week, and two of the longest-running shows of the autumn close on Sunday 8 November. There is a prize exhibition of new British painting in Greenwich, Charlie Mackesy's drawings arrive at Dulwich, and the big winter exhibitions are all open. Paris Photo follows next week.

Last chances: closing this week

• Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, V&A South Kensington. The UK's first exhibition on Elsa Schiaparelli, from the 1920s to today, until Sunday 8 November.
• Clare Woods: Garden Without Seasons, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, Ealing. Twenty-nine paintings, collages and prints from about the last four years, made from photographs of flowers and everyday objects. The largest, Under the Dome (2024), is a glasshouse painted in oil on aluminium, three metres by two. Until 8 November.
• William Kentridge, Goodman Gallery, Cork Street. The premiere of A Nicely Built City (Never Resists Destruction), the twelfth of William Kentridge's Drawings for Projection films, until Saturday 7 November.
• Quentin Blake: The Southbank Parade, Southbank Centre, until 8 November.

New this week

From Tuesday 3 November, Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse... and You at Dulwich Picture Gallery shows the illustrator's original drawings, included in a gallery ticket. Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji continues there until 17 January.

The Contemporary British Painting Prize 2026 comes to Thames-Side Studios in Greenwich from Friday 6 to Sunday 15 November, after its first showing at Yorkshire Artspace in Sheffield. It brings together the fifteen shortlisted painters, chosen by a panel that included the 2024 winner, Daniel Bell. The preview is on Thursday 5 November, from 6 to 9pm, and the show is open Thursday to Sunday, 12 to 5pm.

At the Barbican, the curatorial assistant Amber Li leads an evening tour of Robert Ryman: The Real Thing on Friday 6 November at 6.30pm.

Still on in London

The big exhibitions are unchanged from last week. Renoir and Love is at the National Gallery and Painting the French Riviera at the Royal Academy, both until 31 January. At the British Museum, Korea is the museum's first major exhibition on Korea's art and history in more than 40 years, also until 31 January. Tate Modern has Frida: The Making of an Icon until 3 January, Ana Mendieta until 17 January and Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography until 21 February, and Tate Britain has The 90s: Art and Fashion until 14 February.

Smaller shows reward the trip too. The Wallace Collection has a major retrospective of Winston Churchill's paintings until 29 November, and, free, Rachel Kneebone's porcelain sculpture until 25 April. Robert Ryman fills the Barbican until 28 February, and Salman Toor is at the Courtauld until 10 January. Three are free: Michael Landy: Future Ruins at Sir John Soane's Museum and Liz Larner: A hard line to bend at Camden Art Centre, her first exhibition at a major UK institution, both until 17 January, and Yuko Mohri's commission for the Barbican's Curve, until 24 January. Out at Kew, Henry Moore: Monumental Nature sets Henry Moore's sculpture in the gardens until 31 January.

Beyond London

• The Turner Prize 2026 is at MIMA in Middlesbrough until 29 March, free. The winner is announced on 10 December.
• Gwen John: Strange Beauties, at Modern Two in Edinburgh until 4 January, is the first major exhibition in Scotland devoted to Gwen John.
• Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour, at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, has one more week after this: it closes on Saturday 14 November.
• Duncan Campbell: A New No, at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow until 4 January.

Fairs and auctions

Asian Art in London runs until Tuesday 10 November, and this is the week of its main sales, among them Christie's Fine Asian Art on Friday 6 November. Sotheby's Asian Art sale closes the same day. Also at Sotheby's, a free display of Nelson, His Life and His Navy, the Clive Richards collection of letters and manuscripts relating to Horatio Nelson, is on view before its sale until 8 November. Auction viewings are free and open to anyone.

Abroad, Art Cologne, the oldest art fair of its kind, runs from 5 to 8 November, and Paris Photo returns to the Grand Palais from 12 to 15 November.

If you are thinking of selling

November is when the London salerooms finish the year and start building their spring sales, so it is a good moment to find out what a work is worth. Asian Art in London is the fortnight that matters most for Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian art, and for work of that kind the details decide the figure: the period, whether a piece is what its mark or seal says it is, its condition, and where it has been.

If you own a work by any of the artists here and are thinking of selling, send us photographs of the front and the back for a free valuation. There is no obligation to sell, and we act for you rather than for the saleroom.

Cover: Kim Hong-do (1745–1806), Ssireum, a scene of Korean wrestling. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.