The best exhibitions to see in London galleries and museums right now, from Hallyu! to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Here are the top exhibitions to catch in London this month, from the soonest to close.

Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics

Celebrate the life and work of an extraordinary feminist icon in this exhibition of art from across her career.

Touted as the first exhibition since her death in 2019, the show will feature Schneeman’s early paintings, sculptures and even her ground-breaking performance work, where she uses her own body as a medium. It aims to trace the evolving style of a radical artist who tackled everything from sexual expression to the violence of war in her work.

Barbican Art Gallery, to January 8

Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art

Weird, wacky and absolutely wonderful, this exhibition explores the use by contemporary artists - from Magdalena Odundo to Lindsey Mendick, Grayson Perry to Emma Hart - of the humble but powerful material of clay. Expect very few traditional pots (though there is the odd one) and to be astonished at the sheer variety of what they can achieve. Oh, and watch out for the tentacles.

Hayward Gallery, to January 8

The Lost King: Imagining Richard III

In 2012, the skeleton of Richard III was finally found underneath a Leicester car park. A decade later, this exhibition pays tribute to an overlooked - or misunderstood? - king. Created to tie in with a film of the same name, the show will examine how Richard III has been depicted in artwork across the centuries, from Paul Delaroche’s infamous painting of the Princes in the Tower to the filmmakers committing him to the big screen (such as Lawrence Olivier).

Wallace Collection, to January 8

Winslow Homer: Force of Nature

The great American realist painter Winslow Homer is perhaps less well-known outside America than he should be – but the National Gallery is finally offering audiences in the UK the chance to appreciate his work. Born in 1836 and dying in 1910, Homer had a ringside seat to some of the most tumultuous decades in American history, and he committed it all to paint. Unafraid to tackle thorny issues such as civil rights, race and war, this exhibition shows the work of a painter at the height of his powers.

National Gallery, to January 8

Cinzia Ruggeri

A unique figure of Italian postmodernism gets her day in the sun. Ruggeri isn’t just an artist: she is a fashion and furniture designer, sculptor, interior designer and even teacher who isn’t afraid to get experimental. She enhanced her clothes with contemporary technologies like LEDs, has created furniture from glass and chairs from stuffed animals; finally, we get to appreciate it up close in the first-ever survey exhibition of her work in Britain

Goldsmiths CCA, to February 12

Tiny Traces: African and Asian Children

Discover the heart-breaking stories from Britain’s colonial past in this exhibition of their personal artefacts. Travelling back to the London of 1739-1820, the show will tell the stories of African and Asian foundlings through the traces they left in history – from personal items to archival documents. Running alongside it will be works of art from contemporary artists including Hew Locke and Zarina Bhimji, offering a dialogue with the lives of the children and inviting us to consider the impact of Empire on their lives.

London’s Foundling Museum, to February 19

Japan: Courts and Culture

Head to the decadent setting of Buckingham Palace to see some of the Royal Collection’s finest pieces of Japanese art and design. For the first time, highlights from the collection - counted as one of the most significant in the western world - are being displayed to tell the complex story of British-Japanese relations. Including rare pieces of porcelain and lacquer, samurai armour and diplomatic gifts stretching back centuries, it’s a unique insight into a world of ritual and cultural exchange between the two countries.

Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, to February 26

Maria Bartuszová

For those more interested in the world of sculpture, then this exhibition on the intriguing Slovak-born artist Maria Bartuszová is sure to impress. Bringing together several of Bartuszová’s rarely seen works, it pays tribute to an artist who started plying her trade in the 1960s, at a time when artistic restrictions in Slovakia were strict. Nevertheless, she went onto create more than 500 sculptures, shaping clay into works that bring to mind nature and the human body.

Tate Modern, to April 16

Magdalena Abakanowicz

This revelation of a show looks at the first two decades of the career of the Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz, whose ambitious, richly coloured, technically complex textile sculptures and environments (just don’t call her a textile artist) are utterly beguiling. This is the first show for Abakanowicz at a public space in London for nearly 50 years and it’s outrageous that it’s taken this long.

Tate Modern, to May 21

Hallyu! The Korean Wave

South Korea has become a celebrated part of modern pop culture, with its thrilling dramas, artists and distinctive style. In this exhibition, viewers will be able to explore the beginnings of the “Korean Wave” and trace its evolution from the 60s and 70s to today, where Squid Game, Gangnam Style and K-Pop are known around the world.

V&A, to June 25

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Night

This breathtaking exhibition was so wildly popular when it opened at Tate Britain in December 2020, and then so cruelly cut off by the pandemic, that in an unprecedented move (there’s that word again), the museum has decided to restage it, to give visitors the chance to see it. Yiadom-Boakye’s invented portraits are extraordinary in their narrative richness - you feel like you know these people, that the room has only just gone quiet.

Tate Britain, to February 26