Exhibitions

Wolfgang Tillmans at Museum Haus Cleff, Remscheid: April 13, 2025 – January 4, 2026

Little has been announced about Wolfgang Tillmans’ upcoming show in Remscheid, the German city where the Turner Prize-winning artist was born, and where he lived until the age of 19. What we do know is that it is the first exhibition to be held at Haus Cleff, a beautiful, mint-green-shuttered townhouse-turned-museum, since the space was forced to close for renovation in 2013. The poster features an early Tillmans snapshot of Kate Moss sitting at a table covered in strawberries, while a preview image on the David Zwirner website features a surreal “domestic scene” taken in Remscheid in which a woman, head obscured by packaging, is flanked by two painted portraits. According to the artist’s Instagram, it’s “well worth the trip!” – and we’re certainly curious.

What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999 at the Getty Center, Los Angeles: April 8 – May 11, 2025

Photography fans in Los Angeles are in for a treat. At the Getty Center, a pop-up reading room has been stacked with photobooks by women artists from the mid-1800s to the end of the 20th century – from Berenice Abbott to Mary Ellen Mark, and Marcia Resnick to Joan E Biren (aka JEB) – all for your perusal. The display forms part of an international series showcasing the 10×10-photobook catalogue What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999, here used as the launchpad for a more “inclusive revision and remapping of the photobook canon”. Publications by southern California women artists, made after 2000, are also on show, offering contemporary context and a fuller understanding of the photo book’s evolution since its earliest days.

Nora Turato: pool7 at the ICA, London: April 9 – June 8, 2025

Croatia-born, Amsterdam-based artist Nora Turato “examines the ephemeral and versatile nature of language, as well as our collective experience of the incessant current-day stream of words,” through captivating performances, books, enamel panels, installations and video works that are as shrewd as they are witty. Now, Londoners will have the chance to experience the full breadth of her oeuvre first-hand thanks to the ICA’s upcoming exhibition, her first UK solo presentation. Highlights will include “an enveloping installation that is the artist’s most personal to date”, in which Turato will expose “the ideologies, failures and pleasures that characterise communication today”.

Ruth Asawa: Retrospective at SFMOMA, San Francisco: April 5 – September 2, 2025

The wonderfully innovative American modernist Ruth Asawa, who died in 2013, will be honoured in the first posthumous retrospective of her work – at SFMOMA in her adopted hometown. Best known for her deftly rendered wire sculptures, Asawa also produced drawings, paintings, clay masks, cast-bronze sculptures and tiny miniatures over the course of her six-decade career, alongside her endeavours as an educator and arts activist. The full breadth of her practice and “relentlessly experimental vision” will be examined in a display of more than 300 works. A recreation of the artist’s living room at her Noe Valley home will host archival materials revealing the enduring impact of both Asawa’s public commissions and her dedication to arts education in San Francisco.

Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style at the Design Museum, London: Until August 17, 2025

How has design shaped our approach to swimming? Take a deep dive into the subject at London’s Design Museum, where the newly opened exhibit Splash! shines a light on swimming’s social, cultural, technological and environmental contexts from the 1920s to the present day. Among the display’s 200 objects, visitors can expect to encounter everything from one of the earliest surviving bikinis to Pamela Anderson's inimitable Baywatch swimsuit to the banned “technical doping” LZR Racer swimsuit (introduced in 2008), plus an excellent array of swimming-centric photography and a detailed architectural model of the Zaha Hadid-designed London 2012 Aquatics Centre.

Lotus L Kang: Already at 52 Walker, New York: April 11 – June 7, 2025

Named one of the “breakout stars of 2024” by The New York Times, Canada-born, New York-based artist Lotus L Kang is certainly one to watch. If you’re in New York, be sure to catch her upcoming exhibition Already at 52 Walker, made up of a series of “discrete objects, wall works, and an installation staged within and around two greenhouses”. Kang’s practice centres on ideas of “impermanence, inheritance, memory and time” which she explores through a variety of media – her signature “skins”, for instance: suspended vertical sheets of photographic film which accrue imprints of their surroundings as light falls upon them.

Francesca Woodman: Works From the Verbund Collection at Albertina, Vienna: April 4 – July 6, 2025

The Albertina in Vienna will soon host Austria’s first museum show of the American-Italian artist Francesca Woodman, with works drawn exclusively from the Verbund Collection, which has acquired over 80 of Woodman’s photographs since 2004. Woodman created her deeply personal body of work between 1973 and 1981, the year she died aged just 22. In small, square-format black-and-white photographs, the artist captured herself in a variety of poses and surreal situations – sometimes clothed, at others nude, often accompanied by props including eels, shells and features of the dilapidated spaces in which she often shot – posing poetic, open-ended questions about what it means to be a woman.

Niki de Saint Phalle at Caumont-Centre d’Art, Aix-en-Provence: April 30 – October 5, 2025

If you’re lucky enough to be in Aix en Provence between the end of April and early October, make your way to the Caumont-Centre d’Art for the institution’s summer exhibition, dedicated to the work of the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. The show will appraise de Saint Phalle’s output through a previously unexplored lens, zooming in on the ways in which animals and imaginary creatures shaped her endlessly energetic oeuvre. Visitors will come face-to-face with the artist’s “magical bestiary” as it unfolded over sculptures, paintings and illustrations, drawing on mythology, symbolism, autobiographical experiences, and the legacy of Surrealism for the purpose.

Ed Atkins at Tate Britain, London: April 2 – August 25, 2025

The British artist Ed Atkins makes art that explores the place where digital technology and human emotion intersect; most famously his computer-generated videos and animations, which tackle themes of intimacy, love, loss and modern-day anxieties in poignant, often uncomfortable ways. This month, Tate Britain will lift the curtains on a career-spanning exhibition of Atkins’ art, featuring many of his acclaimed moving image works from the last 15 years alongside writing, paintings, embroideries and drawings. “My life and my work are inextricable. How do I convey the life-ness that made these works – my life-ness – through the exhibition?” Atkins has commented on what we can expect from the show. “Not in some factual, chronological, biographical way, but through sensations.”

Agnès Varda’s Paris: From Here to There at Le Musée Carnavalet, Paris: April 9 – August 24, 2025

If you didn’t know that the late great French auteur Agnès Varda was also a photographer, you’re not alone. The Musée Carnavalet in Paris is on a mission to platform Varda’s little-known photographic output with its latest show, uniting around 130 photographs “that highlight the offbeat, humorous, and eccentric gaze” with which she viewed her Paris surroundings. Excerpts from Varda’s various films shot in Paris, such as the 1962 classic Cléo from 5 to 7, will further elucidate the impact of the French capital upon her work. While a dedicated section will spotlight the important role her courtyard studio – both a photography studio and lab – on the rue Daguerre played in her creative output.

Adriana Varejão and Paula Rego: Between Your Teeth at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian,Lisbon: April 11 – Spetember 22, 2025

For those in or heading to Lisbon, Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian’s next exhibition has piqued our interest. Titled Between Your Teeth, the show will bring together nearly 80 works by Paula Rego (b. Lisbon, 1935–2022) and Adriana Varejão (b. Rio de Janeiro, 1964), two women artists from different countries and generations whose outlooks, and outputs, nevertheless boast many common threads. These will be revealed across 13 rooms, in which works by each artist – including paintings, engravings, sculptures and installations – will be thoughtfully paired to highlight their shared interest in themes ranging from the dynamics of power and oppression (particularly with regards to women) to violence and eroticism. 

If You Know You Know: Loro Piana’s Quest For Excellence at Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai: Until May 5, 2025

Here’s one for the cashmere aficionados. To celebrate its centenary, and its storied connection with China, the Italian maison Loro Piana is currently staging its first ever exhibition at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai. The show is decidedly immersive, with a focus on the senses. Tactile materials and textures, and tasteful colours abound, as do modern and contemporary artworks, borrowed from a family collection, all of which affirm Loro Piana’s enduring savoir-faire across six generations. Particular emphasis is placed on the connection between China and Italy, and the journey of each Loro Piana garment from precious raw material to exquisite garment – visitors can even peek inside a dedicated laboratory to witness the brand’s remarkable quality control when it comes to selecting and processing the “finest fibres in the world”.

Events & Performances

April often brings showers, and with them a good excuse to head to the theatre. This month’s best new plays include Manhunt, a retelling of one of the UK’s most infamous manhunts by the award-winning writer and director Robert Icke, which has just opened at the Royal Court Theatre and will run until May 3. Stephen Sondheim fans will delight in the news that the acclaimed production of the composer’s final work, Here We Are, directed by Joe Mantello, will arrive at the National Theatre on April 23, running until June 28. Inspired by the surrealist films of Luis Buñuel, the musical centres on a wealthy married couple who take their friends out for a meal at a well-reviewed restaurant, only to find out “they’ve bitten off more than they can chew”. At the Old Vic from April 10 – June 14, catch the world premiere of Conor McPherson’s latest play, The Brightening Air, an “entrancing tale of fate, family and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland”, starring Brian Gleeson, Rosie Sheehy and Chris O’Dowd.

Dance fanatics, be sure to book your tickets for The Köln Concert at Sadler’s Wells East, from April 4–5. There, the lauded American choreographer Trajal Harrell will “bring the best-selling solo piano recording of all time [Keith Jarrett’s hour-long jazz improvisation at the Cologne Opera in 1975] to life through movement”, inspired by everything from Ancient Greek theatre to Japanese Noh theatre to vogueing. At the Royal Opera House until April 8, meanwhile, ballet lovers have the rare chance to see three signature works by the renowned choreographer and pioneer of the American neoclassical style, George Balanchine – Serenade, Prodigal Son and Symphony in C – all in one go.

At the Southbank Centre from April 9–11, renowned choreographer Holly Blakey will present her newest works, A Wound with Teeth and Phantom, “delving into the deeply personal and universal experience of loss and reinvention”. Also at the Southbank Centre, as part of its new arts festival Multitudes, don’t miss RISE, a special night of music, spoken word and poetry taking place on on April 25. Helmed by George the Poet and Chineke! Orchestra, it will focus on themes of resilience, identity, strength and equality.

Film

In terms of new film releases, this month has something for everyone. César-award-winning Holy Cow by French director Louise Courvoisier is a moving and playful coming-of-age tale in which a young man takes on the running of his failing family farm, all the while entering a cash competition for the best Comté cheese in the western Alps. Ray Mendoza (a US Navy SEAL veteran and first-time director) and British filmmaker Alex Garland take on the Iraq War in Warfare, a gruelling musing on modern combat that sees a platoon of Navy Seals embark on an ill-fated surveillance mission. Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is back with Sinners, a stylish supernatural horror set in the 1930s American South. Starring Michael B Jordan in the joint role of twin brothers, its trailer hints at late-night revelry and blood-thirsty vampirism.

Belgian writer-director Leonardo van Dijl’s accomplished debut feature, Julie Keeps Quiet, is a tense and poignant examination of why some victims choose not to speak up. It follows the titular star of an elite tennis school, who decides to stay silent in the aftermath of her teacher’s suspension. Another impressive debut comes courtesy of Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt, whose first feature The Ugly Stepsister delivers a body-horror take on the Cinderella fairy tale. In it, Elvira competes against her breathtakingly beautiful stepsister Agnes in a ruthless quest for physical perfection – and a prince’s affection. Georgian director Déa Kulumbegashvili returns with dark drama April, winner of the Special Jury Prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival, which centres on Nina, a small-town obstetrician who provides illegal abortions to local women. When a baby dies during a routine delivery, Nina’s career falls under unwanted scrutiny even as she continues to help women in need.

For this month’s must-see documentaries, meanwhile, there’s One To One: John & Yoko by Kevin Macdonald, described by the BFI as “an essential record of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s move to New York in the early 1970s and of the former Beatle's final full-length performance”. Suzanne Raes’s mystical film Where Dragons Live sees four adult siblings spend a final summer in their childhood home in the wake of their parents’ death, coming face to face with family relics and youthful fears in the process. While Norwegian filmmaker Julie Lunde Lillesæter’s latest offering, An Army of Women, tells the landmark story of a group of women in Austin, Texas as they battle to hold police and prosecutors accountable for the mishandling of sexual assault cases.

Food & Drink

There are lots of new restaurants and culinary events to enjoy this month too. Brother-sister duo Josh and Holly Eggleton’s beloved restaurant The Pony – set among the rolling hills of the Chew Valley between Bath and Bristol – has just reopened after a five-year renovation. Now, it boasts a chic orangery-style dining space and a new menu, showcasing the best produce from both the The Pony’s picturesque kitchen garden and its neighbouring farms. Highlights include Brixham scallop with glazed pig cheek and carrot puree; New Manor Farm pork loin and belly, served with black pudding, celeriac purée and burnt apple; and whole lemon sole with sea herbs in celeriac sauce.

For those celebrating Thai New Year, which this year falls between the April 13-15, or simply looking to enjoy some excellent Thai fare, make your way to Highbury-favourite Farang London, which fuses Thai and British ingredients to deliver a modern take on Thai dishes. These include such delicacies as salted, turmeric-flossed tiger prawns, peanuts, coconut and sour-apple miang bites; spicy jungle curry with braised beef, peas, apple, aubergine and wild ginger; and whole marinated plaice, served with lemongrass, samphire, ginger, roasted rice powder and fresh lime. Spring heaven.

Fans of south London wine bar Forza Wine will be thrilled to hear that its alfresco spin-off, Forza Taps, is returning to the terrace of the National Theatre this summer. Overlooking the Thames, you can sip natural wines, cold beers and cocktails, and sample new “Italian-ish” dishes exclusive to the terrace. We’re most excited by the Arrosticini – Forza’s playful take on Abruzzo’s famous kebab-like skewers – here made from bavette steak with lardo, pork with ’nduja sauce, or polenta for the veggies, served with Chianti-spiked tomato sauce. Each skewer comes with pink onions and crisps for a tangy crunch.

If you’re looking to do something extra special over the summer months, be sure to check out Wild Feasts, Oxmoor Farm’s rural dinner party series set in the Chiltern Hills, which returns for its fourth iteration this April. Each month, the farm invites a different acclaimed UK chef to cook for guests over a single weekend, serving up a four-course meal on both the Saturday evening and Sunday lunchtime. Reflecting Oxmoor’s dedication to sustainable farming, each chef will spotlight ingredients sourced from small-scale, organic producers found in and around the Chiltern Hills. First up is Eve Seemann, the innovative head chef of Michelin Green Star restaurant Apricity in Seven Dials, who will whip up an array of delicious dishes on April 19 and 20, placing emphasis on low-waste and sustainably-minded cooking methods. 

Alternatively, you could take a day trip to Hastings, where Ruby Boglione and Silvy Pilkington (the brains behind popular St Leonards-on-Sea eatery Bayte) have just launched modern European restaurant Coquina at Hastings Contemporary art gallery. Open for both lunch and dinner, guests can sample tapas-style small plates, from earthy morcilla sausage with roasted apples, fresh pear and maple syrup to creamy labneh, roasted shallots and fiery Urfa chilli butter with crudités. Or tuck into larger sharing dishes such as South Coast day-boat fish served with saffron-tinted Bomba rice or tender Ibérico pork collar, accompanied by ponzu and prunes. Desserts meanwhile include churros and chocolate sauce and a suitable seaside-y selection of ice creams and sorbets. 

Speaking of which, for a serious Easter treat, head down to Soho gelateria Gelupo stat, where you can fill a hot cross bun from Bocca di Lupo with your choice of artisan gelato – think: fior di latte, pistachio or the mouthwatering Muscovado special. Happy holidays!