Must-see London exhibitions in February 2018

The art world is getting into gear again, with a wide variety of institutional shows opening in February. Whether you’re interested in design, photography, painting or contemporary art, there’s an exhibition for you. Discover our picks of the month here.

Ocean Liners: Speed and Style at the V&A

In the first exhibition of its kind, the V&A examines the design, culture and influence of ocean liners and cruise ships. With exhibits ranging from artefacts from the Titanic to jazz-age posters advertising ocean liner travel and “cruise” collections from clothing designers, this exhibition promises to offer some escapist relief from the dreary February weather.

Ocean Liners: Speed and Style is at the V&A from 3^rd February until 17^th June 2018. For further information or to book visit the museum’s website here.

Yto Barrada: Agadir at The Curve, Barbican

This is the newest in a series of site-specific installations at the Barbican’s most unusual space The Curve, where Yto Barrada presents a meditation on the city of Agadir in Morocco. This complex multimedia portrait will show Agadir and its citizens undergoing a period of change after the devastating earthquake that hit the city in 1960.

Yto Barrada: Agadir is at The Curve from 7^th February until 20^th May 2018. For further information visit the Barbican’s website here.

Jean Challet, Jardin de quartier industriel (Industrial District Garden), 1960

Mark Dion at Whitechapel Gallery

This show, subtitled Theatre of Natural Curiosities, explores the work of Mark Dion who is both an artist and an “explorer, collector, activist and conjuror of theatrical environments”. The exhibition will explore how museums display artefacts and how our understanding of natural history has been shaped by institutional influences and practices.

Mark Dion: Theatre of Natural Curiosities is at Whitechapel Gallery from 14^th February until 13^th May 2018. For further information or to book visit the gallery’s website here.

Mark Dion, The Wonder Workshop (detail), 2015

Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins at the Barbican

The Barbican has had a recent run of fantastic exhibitions, and it looks set to continue with Another Kind of Life. The show features the work of photographers from the 1950s to the present day who have an interest in depicting countercultures, subcultures and minorities.

Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins is at the Barbican from 27^th February until 28^th March 2018. For further information or to book visit the Barbican’s website here.

Paz Errázuriz, From the series La Manzana de Adán (Adam’s Apple), 1983

 All Too Human at Tate Britain

This exhibition at Tate Britain examines the careers of two of Britain’s best-known painters, who were also surprisingly close friends: Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life draws on a strong British tradition of figurative painting in the 20^th century, placing Bacon and Freud within that trajectory alongside their influences and peers.

All Too Human is at Tate Britain from 28^th February until 17^th August 2018. For further information or to book visit the gallery’s website here.

Lucian Freud, Girl with a White Dog, 1950–1

Anna Souter