From Left to Right: Richard Diebenkorn – Girl On a Terrace, 1956. Oil on canvas; Portrait of Alexander McQueen, Photographed by Marc Hom, 1997 © Marc Hom / Trunk Archive; Thought to be a Mother and Son circa 1855 © Wilson Centre for Photography

With Mother’s Day 2015 fast approaching, we’ve come up with a list of the top exhibitions on right now in London, to help you with ideas on where to take your mother. If your mother is into art, fashion or would just simply enjoy the day out in London, then we have you covered. With a selection of events to choose from, including Alexander McQueen, Impressionism, photography and contemporary art, there’s something for everyone in our list as we look at the must see exhibitions happening in the capital.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ART LONDON | RICHARD DIEBENKORN

For the first time in almost twenty-five years the historic Royal Academy of Arts are excited to present a survey of Richard Diebenkorn’s figurative and abstract works to a UK audience opening Saturday 14^thMarch until Sunday 7^th June. Richard Diebenkorn will be a focused exploration of the artist’s ever-changing, always compelling career across four decades, revealing the vital role he played in the development of American art, shifting from the abstract to the figurative in both painting and works on paper.

Read More

SAVAGE BEAUTY AT THE V&A | A CELEBRATION OF ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

Next month, the first European retrospective exhibition of Alexander McQueen’s work will launch at the Victoria and Albert Museum and run for six months. British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was renowned for consistently pushing the boundaries of tailoring and design, and the exhibit will pay tribute to his creative talent, containing his designs from 1992 until 2010. Having once described the V&A as being the sort of place he’d like to be shut in overnight, this new showcase is one of many partnerships the V&A have entered into with McQueens work, having been one of the first museums to show McQueens work in their 1997 exhibition, Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion 1947-1997.

Read More

NATIONAL GALLERY EXHIBITION OPENING | INVENTING IMPRESSIONISM

The National Gallery is opening a new exhibition this March, Inventing Impressionism, which is the first major UK exhibition to be devoted to the man who is widely recognised as inventing impressionism, Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922). Known as an entrepreneurial art dealer, Duran-Ruel discovered and unwaveringly supported the impressionist painters and is today considered as the founding father of the international art markets as we know them.

Read More

NICK WAPLINGTON/ALEXANDER MCQUEEN’S: WORKING PROCESS | AN INSIGHT INTO MCQUEEN’S WORKS

This upcoming spring, Tate Britain exhibits an interesting collaboration between artist Nick Waplington and renowned fashion designer Alexander McQueen, showcasing McQueen’s process of work through a range of over a hundred photographs. With never seen before images displayed, the exhibition coincides with the V&A’s fashion exhibition ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’.

Read More

HONG KONGESE | CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITION AT ICA

An international Exhibition of contemporary artists, Hong Kongese, features work that is inspired by our ever-changing world and the cosmopolitan centres in which they live. The exhibition looks to capture the hustle and bustle of everyday life, with a large commercial neon sign from Hong Kong’s recent past introducing it, both locally and globally. Works will be displayed in a variety of media to include photography, painting and sculpture.

TATE BRITAIN EXHIBITION | SALT & SILVER EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY

The first major exhibition in Britain devoted to salt prints, Salt and Silver: Early Photography 1840-1860, opens at Tate Britain on 25 February 2015. Salt prints are the earliest form of paper photography. Invented in Britain, William Henry Fox Talbot unveiled this ground-breaking new process in 1839. In the 1840s and 50s, the salt print technique introduced a revolutionary new way of creating photographs on paper. The ninety photographs featured in the exhibition are among the few fragile salt prints that survive and are seldom shown in public.

Read More

MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS | BARBICAN EXHIBITION OPENING

The Barbican Art Gallery hosts this exhibition, which is the first in the UK to present the fascinating personal collections of post-war and contemporary artists. Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector, features collections ranging from mass-produced memorabilia and popular collectibles to one-of-a-kind curiosities, rare artefacts and natural history specimens. The exhibition, which is curated by Lydia Yee, looks to present the collections of the artist alongside at least one key example of their work, which in turn will hope to display their inspirations, influences and motives in creating the artwork.

Read More

MARLENE DUMAS | THE IMAGE AS BURDEN AT TATE MODERN

Marlene Dumas is one of the most prominent painters working today. Her intense, psychologically charged works explore themes of sexuality, love, death and shame, often referencing art history, popular culture and current affairs. ‘Secondhand images’, she has said, ‘can generate first-hand emotions.’ Dumas never paints directly from life, yet life in all its complexity is right there on the canvas. Her subjects are drawn from both public and personal references and include her daughter and herself, as well as recognisable faces such as Amy Winehouse, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana, even Osama bin Laden.