25 must-see exhibitions in 2026
You'll want to add these art shows opening in Liverpool, Manchester, the North West and beyond
I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions but I do find this time of year a good one to reflect on where I’m at and if it fits the image I have of where I want to be. My 2025 was fulfilling but very busy and I found myself struggling to get to as many arts events as I would have liked - and as is essential for an arts journalist. So a small change I am making will be to set aside a two days per month for exploring exhibitions or events in addition to the press previews that regularly pop up in my diary.
I’m hoping that by allocating this time it will take away the pondering of when will be a convenient time to go - and let me just get on with it. If, like me, you’re an overthinker, you might find this a useful trick for getting things done that you always mean to but can never quite get around to. I found it worked for completing a book that I’ll tell you more about when it’s published (hopefully) later this year. In the meantime - on with the rest of this newsletter…
This week’s Stored Honey started out as a big list of things you’ll want to block out time in your calendar for, but in the end I found so many exhibitions that I want to share with you that I’m just focussing on those this week. Next time, I’ll cover theatre, music, festivals and other events.
I’ve only included one exhibition per venue (some have lots that could easily belong on this list but I’ll come to them in more detail as we progress through the year). Quite a few galleries haven’t yet announced their 2026 programmes - or have only shared a couple of exhibitions - and the smaller ones rarely give information with enough notice to be included on lists like this. If I’ve missed anything you’re burning to see, let us all know in the comments or on the chat.
This is a free post for everyone but if you do decide to support my writing by becoming a paid subscriber then you will receive lots of extra content including a monthly guide to the best of what’s on in Liverpool, Manchester and across the North West, as well as Meet the Artist features, curators’ picks of 5 things to see in their venue and the Stored Honey podcast. Either way - thank you for reading.
13 must-see exhibitions opening in the North West
Delaine Le Bas, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester: A new major solo exhibition by 2024 Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas, who is renowned for her work addressing nationhood, belonging, gender, and identity, using a diverse range of media including embroidery, découpage, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. The exhibition provides new insights into Le Bas’s practice, placing her work in close dialogue with pieces selected from the Whitworth collection and features new and recent works including Un-Fair-Ground, her monumental freestanding mural created for the 2024 Glastonbury Festival. Friday 13 February - Sunday 31 May.
John Akomfrah: Listening All Night To The Rain, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool: This new work continues the artist and filmmaker’s investigation into themes of memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic. The exhibition consists of multi-screen sound and time-based works, and is seen as a manifesto that encourages the idea of listening as activism. Saturday 16 May - Monday 31 August
Women Portraits: Trades and Professions by Charlotte Hodes, Gallery Oldham: Focuses on the contributions made by women from the Oldham and Manchester regions from the late-1800s, a period of increasing demand for equal rights for women, through to the present day. Saturday 17 January - Saturday 9 May.
Curtain Up, Lowry, Salford: Explores how visual artists have sought to capture the shared anticipation and heightened emotions experienced by audiences and its palpable communal energy through newly commissioned artworks and other works on loan. Artists featured include Simeon Barclay, Denzil Forrester, Joy Labinjo, Ryan Mosley, Abigail Reynolds and Bridget Smith, and there will be major new commissions by Ulla von Brandenburg, Rowland Hill and Chris Paul Daniels. Saturday 18 April - Sunday 21 June.
May Morris: Crafting a Legacy, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight: A celebration of the wide-ranging creative output of designer and maker, May Morris, the younger daughter of William Morris, who is regarded as one of the most pioneering artists of the Arts and Crafts movement. A vibrant display of embroideries, wallpapers, watercolour designs, costume and jewellery will showcase her many talents. Saturday 25 April - Sunday 1 November.
The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour: Monet & Louise Giovanelli, The Grundy, Blackpool: The Grundy has been selected as one of four locations for the National Gallery’s tour of Monet’s masterpiece The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil. Depicting a tranquil scene of a winter day on the outskirts of the small suburban town of Argenteuil, not far from Paris, the work which has left the National Gallery only once in the past 20 years. Running alongside will be a solo exhibition by the contemporary North West-based painter Louise Giovanelli, whose luminous paintings display her own mastery of materials and her expert skill at capturing light, reflection and shadow. Saturday 28 March - Saturday 13 June.
The Sacred Memory Bank, Kirkby Gallery: Liverpool-born artist and musician Mike Badger and writer and artist Jeff Young have drawn on their life experiences to create a series of assemblages, inspired to evoke that hidden world previously lost to us. Monday 19 January - Friday 27 March.
ARTIST ROOMS: Ed Ruscha, Tate Liverpool + RIBA North: Inspired by his travels by car, including the journey from his hometown of Oklahoma to Los Angeles, Ruscha depicts the vast open space of the US and invites you to look at his surroundings. This free display includes books, photographs, paintings, drawings, and lithographs, capturing the architecture, geography and image of the USA. Thursday 12 February - Sunday 14 June.
Manchester Open 2026, HOME, Manchester: You have until Thursday 19 February to submit work to this biennial celebration of Greater Manchester’s creative talent. Hundreds of artworks will be selected for display by a panel consisting of art experts and community representatives. Saturday 20 June - Sunday 6 September.
Loyalty: An Exhibition of Paintings by Steve des Landes, Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead: A major solo exhibition from the gallery’s artist-in-residence, including new artwork created on site, alongside more than 40 paintings from his recent practice focusing on representations of figures in the landscape. Thursday 15 January - Saturday 23 May.
From the Sea View, Warrington Art Gallery: Inaugural solo exhibition of mathematician-turned-artist Angela Gould, who is showing her collection of hand-sewn cross-stitch tapestries including a painstaking, five-year recreation of the Cornish coast, stitched entirely from memory and mainly completed during the isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic. The work was shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024. Saturday 7 March - Sunday 10 May.
Wirral Open Studios Tour, various locations, Wirral: More than 100 artists took part in this annual event last year so there are hopes for a similar number in 2026. A chance to explore the working spaces of the peninsula’s rich community of artists. Saturday 13 June - Sunday 14 June.
The World of Martin Brown: Horrible Histories and Other Dazzling Drawings, The Harris, Preston: A dazzling display of cartoons and art by the best-selling children’s book illustrator, tracing his career from his early humorous cartoons to global publishing successes. Original art from Horrible Histories, illustrations from Lesser Spotted Animals, and exclusive content from his latest books, including Nell and the Cave Bear, bring Brown’s imagination vividly to life. Saturday 23 May - Monday 31 August.
7 exhibitions you can still catch in 2026 if you haven’t seen them yet
Toxteth: ‘The Harlem of Europe’, Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool: Celebration of black musicians from Toxteth in the 1950s and 1960s, with many of them influencing The Beatles and beyond, featuring portraits by Liverpool-based photographer Ean Flanders. Alongside striking new images of musicians from that era, Flanders also captures portraits of their descendants. Ends Saturday 1 August.
Lou Miller: We Dream of Our Freedom, Bluecoat, Liverpool: Manchester-based artist and activist Lou Miller has collaborated with children from St Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary School in L1 to explore their vision of freedom. The resulting exhibition transforms the voices of the children, aged 8-11, into a series of textile banners, clay, and print works for adults and children alike. Ends Sunday 8 February.
Beyond The Glass: The Science of Collections Conservation, The Atkinson, Southport: Explores the list of 10 agents of deterioration museums and galleries use to assess the risks to their collections, and how they affect The Atkinson’s collection and how they care for it. Ends Saturday 21 February.
Women at Work: the Unilever Contemporary Art Collection, Bridge Cottage, Port Sunlight: Unique opportunity to see work normally displayed in Unilever’s offices across the UK. It includes paintings and prints by Bridget Riley, Lisa Milroy and Margaret Calvert. Ends Sunday 22 March.
Simon Starling: Boat Works, Abbot Hall, Kendal: Solo show by the Turner Prize winner, bringing together nearly all of his projects, including Island for Weeds and Houseboat for Ho, in which the boat takes centre stage as a symbol of migration, transformation, and change. Ends Saturday, May 16.
Recoverist Curators, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester: An exhibition curated by people in recovery from substance use, which re-narrates artworks from the Whitworth collection. Ends Sunday 5 July.
The Coiffured by Amanda Jane Graham, Whitaker Art Gallery, Rossendale: A series of unique and detailed drawings, inspired by the intertwined histories of art and hairdressing, which combines three key aspects of their creator’s life - art practice, sociology and the two decades she spent as a hairstylist. Ends Monday 13 April.
5 exhibitions worth a trip outside the North West
Gwen John: Strange Beauties, National Museum Cardiff: A once-in-a-generation chance to encounter rarely seen works from Amgueddfa Cymru and collections from around the world to celebrate the 150th birthday of one of Wales’ most extraordinary artists. Saturday 7 February - Sunday 28 June.
Against the Tide: Polly Braden, Arnolfini, Bristol: The documentary photographer explores the effects of coastal poverty in a collaboration with young people from some of the most deprived and often forgotten places across England and Wales. Saturday 27 June - Sunday 27 September.
Marc Chagall: The Circus, The Hepworth Wakefield: Chagall’s celebrated lithographs, alongside paintings and archival material, both providing an introduction to Chagall’s work and life, and exploring his unique vision and symbology as he transformed the circus into a metaphor for the complexities, joys and sorrows of the human experience. Saturday 21 November - April 2027
Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, National Portrait Gallery, London: Photographic portraits by the American artist Catherine Opie in the first major museum exhibition of her work in the UK. Her work questions representations of home, intimacy and family, and explores politics, identity and power structures. Thursday 5 March - Sunday 31 May.
Harry Penhaul: Life Through a Lens, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance: Previously unseen images of life in and around West Cornwall in the 1940s and 50s, alongside some of the most well-loved images by local press photographer, ‘Flash’ Harry Penhaul (1914 – 1957). Wednesday 21 January - Saturday18 April.
See your work featured in Stored Honey
If you’re an artist, actor, theatre maker, curator, director or producer, I’d love to hear more about your work. You can submit details of an exhibition, performance or cultural event via this short form or send me an email to laura@lauracdavis.com. If you would like to take part in Stored Honey’s regular Meet the Artist feature, please answer the questions in this Q&A or if you don’t like filling forms I can send you the questions via email.
In case you missed it
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I’m off now to plan a trip to Cardiff to see the Gwen John exhibition.
Have a great week,
Laura
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thankyou, I'm not in North West now but will definitely go back to see the Delaine Le Bas exhib. x