The Best Queer Art & LGBTQ Exhibitions To Check Out Now

Culture / 3 weeks ago

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Across history, art has been a way to explore the idea of how we identify with ourselves, our genders or sexualities. Marginalised communities have often found their home in art, and the visual arts has the highest percentage of LGBTQ+ workforce in the arts sector at seven percent of its permanent workforce. This has translated into better visibility of queer artists, providing a space for creators to showcase the experiences and protest the challenges they have faced due to their sexuality or gender. It is only in recent years, however, that the exploration of sexuality or gender has been permitted without artists or individuals facing legal or social repercussions. After centuries of silencing, queer art and LGBTQ exhibitions hold paramount importance. These are the queer art and LGBTQ exhibitions you should check out now across London and the UK. From permanent spaces to panel talks, art installations to pop-ups, these exhibitions will make you feel safe and challenge your thinking.

Queer Art & LGBTQ Exhibitions To Check Out Now

Taboo (they/them) at Osterley Park in Middlesex © National Trust/Isha Shah

Space To Have A Ball

Free, 15–30 June 2023 at Outernet London

Tottenham Court Road’s free, high-tech immersive exhibition space, Outernet, is collaborating with the National Trust for Pride month, creating a free immersive experience that brings to life parties of the past in beautiful historic places. Influenced by the queer history of four National Trust properties, Space To Have A Ball combines the history of ballroom culture with modern and contemporary dance. outernetglobal.com

PROUD WEST END

28 June–16 July 2023 along Old Quebec Street, London

A ground-breaking audio-visual ‘living portraits’ art exhibition is coming to London in celebration of Pride 2023. Launched by Oxford Street, the free exhibition will share true spoken stories from fifteen LGBTQIA+ individuals from across the West End, including iconic drag queen Divina de Campo from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Large-scale portraits will be installed in the street for this free LGBTQ exhibition, and accompanied by candid, spoken stories accessed via QR codes. oxfordstreet.co.uk

Queer Joy Exhibition

Free, 1 June–31 August 2023, Pancras Square and Granary Square

King’s Cross’ Outside Art Project is having a Pride month makeover, displaying 50 striking portraits of queer people captured by ten emerging LGBTQIA+ photographers from the UK and abroad. kingscross.co.uk

REBEL: 30 Years Of London Fashion

16 September 2023–11 February 2024 at the Design Museum, London

Launching in conjunction with London Fashion Week 2023 and sponsored by Alexander McQueen, REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion is the first survey of the radical creativity of young fashion designers in Britain, celebrating the influence of British design on the global fashion stage. It will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN programme, which has alumni including Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Kim Jones, Charles Jeffrey, Mary Katrantzou and Christopher Raeburn.

LGBTQ+ Audio Trail At Museum Of Liverpool

Ongoing

A new audio trail, by the dynamic duo behind the Bottoming podcast, brings to life Liverpool’s rich LGBTQ+ history. Touring you through the Wondrous Place exhibit (a curation of objects from the arts, entertainment and sports where the Scouse have made history), it draws you to reexamine certain objects through a queer lense. Be drawn in by the Killing Eve costume and stay to admire the works of local campaigners who have improved the lives of LGBTQ+ Liverpudlians. 

VISIT: Pier Head, Liverpool L3 1DG. liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

A previous installation at QUEERCIRCLE

QUEERCIRCLE

North Greenwich; next round of exhibitions TBD

In 2022, LGBTQIA+ charity, QUEERCIRCLE, launched its new, permanent space in North Greenwich. A space for the queer community, expect artist residencies, LGBTQ exhibitions, panel discussions and a dedicated library of essential texts in a tucked-away reading nook.

VISIT: Building 4, Design District, 3 Barton Yard, Soames Walk, London SE10 0BN. queercircle.org

Museum Of Transology

‘Collectively, we will halt the erasure of transcestry’: the Museum of Transology is the UK’s largest collection of object representing trans, non-binary and intersex people’s lives, consisting of 213 files, 280 artefacts, 155 brown paper tags and 435 jpgs. The collection can be viewed online, though pop-up events and talks are frequent (stay up to date on Instagram); for example, on 10 June 2023, the Museum of Transology is collaborating with Tate Britain on ‘The Intersex Collection’, where visitors are encouraged to bring their your own objects to add to the collection to ensure their legacy is also written into intersex history.

VISIT: Discover more at museumoftransology.com

I Love Or Hate Every Day

Ongoing

Kat Egan is turning social media on its head to explore how body issues and transness intersect in a vulnerable and honest performance. A piece of duration art (a performance focusing on the passage of time), Kat takes a daily photo for Instagram of their body to reflect on self-esteem in relation to queerness and gender. Kat is an emerging artist and one to watch for how she explores transness through the visual arts.

VISIT: On Instagram @iloveorhateeveryday

Queer Britain

Permanent space near King’s Cross

The UK’s first museum of British LGBTQ history and culture opened in King’s Cross in 2022, quickly attracting acclaim and awards. Visit to tour the gallery, or keep an eye on their what’s on listings for events, exhibitions and panels. Plus, Queer Britain will be taking over King’s Cross’s Summer Sounds season on 15 August, showcasing some of the best local LGBTQ+ talent. Free, from 6.30pm, kingscross.co.uk

VISIT: 2 Granary Square, London N1C 4BH. queerbritain.org.uk

Desire, Love And Identity At The British Museum

Ongoing

This 60-75 minute object trail and 30 minute trail spotlight same-sex love, desire and gender-diversity, enriched with an audio guide. From sculptures to Maori treasure, a Maya ruler to a Mesopotamian deity, this trail illuminates the world’s long-stretching queer history.

VISIT: Ongoing at the British Museum (Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG) or explore the trail online. britishmuseum.org

Queerate Tate

Ongoing online

This digital queer exhibition sits on the Tate website after drawing together contributions from across the globe during the pandemic – an apt representation of the digital curation the pandemic necessitated but also enabled. E-J Scott, the curator of Queerate Tate and also the Museum of Transology, says: ‘By the LGBTQIA+ community, about the LGBTQIA+ community, Queerate Tate is filled with messages of hope, love and survival that offer strength to us all in these most extraordinary times.’

VISIT: View the exhibition at tate.org.uk

Featured image: ‘Peter, Venus as a Boy’ by Kevin Anaafi-Brown, from the ARTIQ x Link’s Queer Frontiers exhibition 2022.