Candice Lin: g/hosti
Whitechapel, London
Oct 8–Mar 1, 2026

Whitechapel Gallery presents a new commission by Candice Lin, titled g/hosti, an immersive circular labyrinth constructed from painted cardboard panels that culminate in a fantastical yet unsettling world inhabited by animals and human forms. Lin works across diverse media—including installation, sculpture, painting, and video—to create multisensory environments that uncover the historical forces underlying contemporary political conditions. Based in Los Angeles and an associate professor at UCLA, Lin developed this work during a period marked by upheaval: from Donald Trump’s second inauguration to the devastating Altadena wildfires of January 2025, as well as ongoing police repression of student protests. These experiences inform the installation’s unnerving atmosphere, enveloping visitors in an immersive and disorienting world.

Duan Jianyu: Yúqiáo
YDP, London
Oct 14–Dec 21, 2025

“Duan Jianyu: Yúqiáo,” the inaugural exhibition at the newly launched YDP space in London, marks the artist’s first major solo show in the UK in over a decade. Taking its title from “Yúqiáo”—a classical Chinese motif positioning the fisherman and the woodcutter as reclusive archetypes—the exhibition brings together 20 new paintings and a group of sculptures from Duan’s Yúqiáo series, alongside a salon-style display of earlier works and archival materials. Known for her deceptively childlike visual language and stylistic hybridity, Duan relieves these classical figures from traditional frameworks, weaving them into personal and imagined narratives within a fractured global reality.

Cai Guo-Qiang
Gunpowder and Abstraction 2015–2025
White Cube Bermondsey, London
Sep 26–Nov 9, 2025

“Gunpowder and Abstraction 2015–2025” at White Cube Bermondsey marks Cai Guo-Qiang’s return to London after more than two decades, showcasing over 30 works that trace a decade of radical experimentation with gunpowder. Cai is internationally acclaimed for using gunpowder and controlled explosions to create monumental drawings and ephemeral spectacles. Shifting between figuration and abstraction, his works embody dialectics between creation and destruction, control and chance, forging a singular conceptual space where Eastern philosophy converges with Western art history, and motifs from the natural world resonate with cosmic rhythms.

Emily Kam Kngwarray
Tate Modern, London
Jul 10–Jan 11, 2026

Emily Kam Kngwarray’s exhibition at Tate Modern marks the Australian artist’s inaugural solo exhibition in Europe, highlighting her significant contributions to modern and contemporary art. Beginning her artistic career in her late ’70s, Kngwarray gained recognition in the following decade for her vast canvases and vibrant batiks. Over the next eight years until her death, she produced a compelling body of work that vividly expresses the life and spirit of her Northern Territory homeland, Alhalker. Presented in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), this exhibition brings together around 80 of her works spanning her artistic evolution, from early batiks to monumental acrylic paintings on canvas. The exhibition is enhanced by films and audio that narrate her story and cultural legacy.

A Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Oct 31–Feb 24, 2026

The upcoming Royal Academy exhibition traces over a century of South Asian art through a focus on Indian sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee (1949–2015) and the people and places that shaped her vision. Celebrated for her distinctive fusion of craft and sculpture, Mukherjee’s oeuvre encompasses woven sculptures, paintings, ceramics, collages, and drawings. In addition to her own works, the exhibition showcases pieces by her parents, Leela Mukherjee and Benode Behari Mukherjee, as well as that of key figures in the Indian cultural scene, including KG Subramanyan, Jagdish Swaminathan, Nilima Sheikh, and Gulammohammed Sheikh. Organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in partnership with The Hepworth Wakefield, the show precedes a major retrospective of Mukherjee’s work at the latter institution in 2026.

Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum
Barbican Centre, London
Sep 3–Jan 11, 2026

The Barbican’s latest instalment of their “Encounters” series presents a dialogue between Mona Hatoum and Alberto Giacometti, juxtaposing Hatoum’s installations and selected iconic sculptures by Giacometti. This marks the first time the two artists’ works have been exhibited together. Responding to Giacometti’s pieces, Hatoum engages with the motif of the cage, the tension between domesticity and hostility, as well as the spatial impact that sculptures evoke for viewers. Hatoum’s practice, often addressing displacement, marginalization, and political control, resonates with Giacometti’s exploration of the fragile human condition through his elongated sculptural forms, creating a powerful exchange between two artists separated by time but united in probing vulnerability and space.

Joan Yiquan Chen is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.