5 SHOWS is the new Artissima twice-monthly feature that recommends 5 exhibitions not to be missed in various geographical areas and cities around the world, chosen from the viewpoint of curators and directors of important institutions who live and work in these contexts. A different way to find guidance in the discovery of global contemporary art, from a personal and always up-to-date perspective.
The fourth focus is on London, with a selection by Robert Leckie, Director at Gasworks in London.
Here are the 5 exhibitions currently on display that he has chosen for our readers:
Beatriz González
Barbican
Up to 10.05.2026
Bringing together over 150 artworks, many showing in the UK for the first time, this major exhibition explores Beatriz González’s influential practice from the 1960s to now.
From her monumental paintings to repurposed furniture, wallpaper and installations, González draws from found images in popular postcards, reproductions of Western art, and newspaper clippings. In her distinctive graphic style and vivid palette, she transforms these images, playfully questioning ideas of taste, critiquing power structures, bearing witness to violence and offering moving reflections on grief, displacement and community.
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Nigerian Modernism
Tate Modern
Up to 10.05.2026
Set against the backdrop of cultural and artistic rebellion, Nigerian Modernism celebrates the achievements of Nigerian artists working before and after the decade of national independence from British colonial rule in 1960.
Nigerian Modernism tells the story of artistic networks which spanned Zaria, Ibadan, Lagos and Enugu, as well as London, Munich and Paris. Through groups like the Zaria Art Society and Mbari Artists’ and Writers’ Club, they fused Nigerian, African and European techniques and traditions to create vibrant, multidimensional works.
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Candice Lin: g/hosti
Whitechapel Gallery
Up to 1.03.2026
Candice Lin works across a variety of disciplines and media, including installation, sculpture, painting and video, to create multisensorial environments that tell stories about the historic roots of contemporary political circumstances.
Visitors to g/hosti are plunged into a circular labyrinth made from curved, painted cardboard panels that depict a fantastical world populated by animals and other creatures.
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Conceptual Art and Christine Kozlov
Raven Row
Up to 26.04.2026
By the time she left art school in New York in 1967, Christine Kozlov (1945–2005) was part of a radical new direction in art practice that became known as Conceptual Art. This exhibition reveals the scope of Kozlov’s activity, with a focus on her contributions to Conceptual Art from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, shown with work by a network of her peers.
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It’s 8:30. Do you know where your brains are? Paper Tiger Television
Goldsmiths CCA
Up to 19.04.2026
This is the first exhibition in the UK to present the work of Paper Tiger Television (PTTV), a US-based video production and distribution collective. Over four decades of activity, they made nearly 400 programmes for public access television, delivered hundreds of workshops, and trained countless video-makers. It’s 8:30. Do you know where your brains are? presents 40 programmes from across the decades of PTTV’s activity, many of which have rarely been seen since they were first cable-cast, as well as visual and graphic items used in production, archival material and publications.
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If you want to discover the institutions explored so far, here are the previous episodes:
Emirati Arabi Uniti | China | Norway