David Hockney, Cecily Brown and Amar Kanwar transform Serpentine into a space for reflection, memory and mindful perception.
In 2026, Serpentine Galleries presents a constellation of landmark solo exhibitions that invite visitors to slow down, look closer, and reconsider the relationship between art, nature, technology and lived experience. Featuring new and recent works by David Hockney, Cecily Brown und Amar Kanwar the programme unfolds across Serpentine North and South as a quietly radical meditation on time, perception and connection.
David Hockney: Time, Technology and the Art of Looking
Serpentine North | 12. März – 23. August 2026
David Hockneys first exhibition at Serpentine brings together new and recent works, including seminal pieces shown in the UK for the first time. At its heart is A Year in Normandy, the artist’s monumental ninety-metre-long frieze inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. Composed on an iPad and translated into a sweeping meditation on seasonal change, the work captures the rhythms of landscape, labour and light.
Installed in dialogue with Kensington Gardens, the exhibition reflects Hockney’s lifelong fascination with perception and his belief that looking itself is a radical act. In an age of acceleration, his work gently insists on attentiveness — finding the extraordinary within the everyday.
Cecily Brown: Painting as Living Matter
Serpentine South | 27. März – 6. September 2026
Cecily Browns first solo exhibition of paintings in a UK institution since 2005, Cecily Brown returns to London with a powerful body of new work. Known for her vigorous brushwork and dynamic compositions, Brown’s paintings hover between figuration and abstraction, engaging viewers in a playful yet unsettling game of recognition.
Inspired by the surrounding park landscape, the exhibition explores recurring motifs of nature, intimacy and memory. Alongside large-scale paintings, monotypes and drawings reveal the artist’s early influences, from children’s book illustrations to darker, cautionary tales. The exhibition marks a symbolic homecoming for the British artist, whose practice continues to affirm paint as a living, energetic force.
Amar Kanwar: Listening to History
Serpentine North | 23. September 2026 – Januar 2027
Amar Kanwar’s major solo exhibition transforms Serpentine North into a contemplative visual and sonic environment. Through a site-specific installation of new and existing films, Kanwar weaves together documentary, travelogue and poetic reflection.
His work, rooted in the histories of the Indian subcontinent, addresses themes of displacement, memory, power and resistance. Yet beyond regional specificity, Kanwar’s films speak to shared human experiences, inviting viewers into a space of quiet attention and ethical listening. The exhibition continues Serpentine’s long-standing dialogue with the artist and underscores the gallery’s commitment to art as a tool for reflection and collective consciousness.
Art in Everyday Life
Set within the unique ecology of Kensington Gardens, Serpentine´s 2026 programme reinforces the gallery’s mission to bring art into daily life. Free and open to all, these exhibitions offer not spectacle, but presence — proposing art as a space where time slows, perception deepens, and new forms of connection become possible.
