May'26 Exhibitions 🎨
I don't have a clever saying about Art... Art is dope sha!
As we move deeper into the year, I have been reflecting on the impact that art has had on me and how it has expanded the way I see the world, offering moments of reflection not just on where I am now, but on the things that have shaped me. Some exhibitions stay with you because they are visually beautiful, others because they challenge what you think you know, and increasingly I find myself drawn to works that do both. The exhibitions selected this month are a perfect blend of the two, from works that explore how histories are carried and reimagined across generations and geographies to works that invite us to think about the visible and invisible forces that shape our lives. There is something grounding in that, a reminder that identity, memory and culture are never static, but always evolving through the stories we inherit and the ones we create for ourselves.
As always, get fly, carve some time out of your day, and go and enjoy what is on show.
NENGI OMUKU ~ WE WERE LIKE THOSE WHO DREAMED
I think Nengi Omuku’s work is some of the most visually and emotionally compelling paintings coming out of Nigeria right now. I am really excited to see how she uses imagined landscapes in this new body of work, ‘We Were Like Those Who Dreamed’, to speak about something as urgent as access to green space, rest and survival within Lagos. Growing up in Lagos, the scenes Nengi creates are all too familiar, from fuel scarcity to overcrowding, but the way she places them within dreamlike gardens feels both hopeful and resistant. Materiality is one of my favourite aspects of art. As a result of that, I am drawn to her use of sanyan cloth, not only as a surface, but as a way of reconnecting with Yoruba history and preserving cultural memory through collaboration with artisans in Nigeria. This exhibition feels both visually stunning and emotionally grounding, a beautiful reimagining of care, community and belonging, and I am excited to spend time sitting with these works.
Details
Showing from the 01st May till 30th May 2026
6 Heddon Street, London, W1B 4BT
DONALD LOCKE ~ RESISTANT FORMS
There is something exciting about artists who refuse to be confined to one medium or style. Donald Locke is one of those artists. His work is deeply rooted in questions of history, migration and identity, as he constantly experiments with ceramics, sculpture and painting. I always enjoy exhibitions that allow you to trace the evolution of an artist at different points in their life, and this one shows how place and movement shaped both his materials and visual language. This exhibition feels like an opportunity to fully engage with the range and inventiveness of an artist whose contribution to British and Black art history deserves far more recognition. It also reflects his commitment to giving visibility to the contributions of Black culture to modernity.
Details
Showing from the 10th April till 30th August 2026
Arkwright Road, London NW3 6DG
VELMA ROSAI-MAKHANDIA ~ TO WITNESS! THE STRANGE, THE NUMINOUS
As someone who grew up fascinated by Yoruba mythology, I am always drawn to works that tell stories of unseen worlds existing alongside our own, and Velma Rosai-Makhandia does exactly that. She treats folklore as something living and deeply present. In this new exhibition, she moves between personal memory and oral tradition across different cultures, using elements like water, fire and the sky as vessels for stories that sit between our world and the ethereal. There is something incredibly poetic and grounding about work that asks us to consider what sustains us spiritually and emotionally, even when those forces cannot be seen. I am excited to spend time sitting with works rooted in things that cannot always be easily explained, and to allow these stories to unfold slowly within the space.
Details
Showing from the 01st May till 30th May 2026
15 West Central Street, London WC1A 1JJ
SOKARI DOUGLAS CAMP ~ FASHION & FORTUNE
I have always loved how Sokari Douglas Camp’s work finds such a compelling balance between beauty, history and political reflection. In this new show, she uses fashion, adornment and material culture in her sculptures to explore larger conversations around colonialism and resistance across the African and Caribbean diaspora. Drawing on references to headwraps and the Code Tignon, she highlights the creativity of Black women who transformed something intended as oppression into a powerful form of self-expression and style. Her use of materiality reflects on the legacies of commerce and empire while still celebrating resilience, beauty and individuality, allowing historical narratives to feel alive and contemporary through her sculptures. This exhibition feels like a reflection on identity, lineage, and the ways style and adornment can become acts of survival, resistance and reinvention.
Details
Showing from the 21st May 2026 till 27th June 2026
24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, WC1N 3AL
LATE SPRING
TAFETA is back with their late-spring exhibition, a presentation of their 20th-century and contemporary works. The exhibition brings together an intergenerational range of artists whose works are all connected through questions of memory, materiality, ancestry and Black cultural expression. There is something powerful about seeing historic figures like Ladi Kwali, Lamidi Fakeye and Muraina Oyelami shown alongside contemporary artists whose practices continue to expand conversations around identity, spirituality and heritage in new ways. This exhibition creates a dialogue across mediums and generations, allowing different histories and visual languages to sit side by side while reflecting on how the past continues to live within contemporary Black life and artistic practice.
Details
Showing from the 13th May till 30th May 2026
83 Charlotte Street, London W1T 4PR
SHARA MAYS ~ RUNAWAY
One thing I love about abstract paintings is how the works are led by intuition, movement and feeling rather than certainty. In this exhibition, Shara Mays uses the idea of a ‘runaway’ as a way of reclaiming movement, agency and the possibility of shaping your own path. The physicality of her process, embracing drips, gesture and spontaneity, makes each painting feel alive with the energy of its making, while her engagement with histories of displacement and survival across the African diaspora allows these narratives to surface through colour, movement and emotion rather than remain fixed. I can’t wait to experience an exhibition that feels less concerned with being immediately understood and more interested in creating space for things that cannot always be easily put into words.
Details
Showing from the 30th April till 06th June 2026
21 Conduit Street, First Floor, Mayfair, London W1S 2XP
STILL SHOWING
Similar to last month, some featured shows from previous months are still being shown. If you have seen them already, why not go again?
Hurvin Anderson
Ends on the 23rd August 2026
Showing at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
If you are enjoying the newsletter, buy me a coffee to keep going (I need it!!!)
I hope you get a chance to check them out.
Peace and love 🙏🏾🖤
FJ
A fine selection, thanks for the shares as always!