8 exhibitions to see in the UK this December
27 November 2025
Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto
The artist and author Edmund de Waal (b.1964, Nottingham) has curated the first major exhibition of acclaimed Danish ceramicist Axel Salto (1889 – 1961), considered one of the greatest masters of 20th-century ceramic art. Salto was a radical polymathic figure who crossed boundaries from one discipline to another, producing an extraordinary body of ceramic work alongside paintings, wood- cuts, drawings, book illustration and textiles.
Opens 22 November – 3 May 2026 at The Hepworth Wakefield
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien: Mémoires des corps
Gasworks presents Mémoires des corps [Embodied memories], the first UK solo exhibition by Paris-based artist Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien. Through textile, drawing, sculpture, video-performance and installation, Marie-Claire’s work explores how ideas of femininity and the cosmos intersect across cultures, generations and materials.
Renee So, Unknown Woman, 2019 Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London. Photo Angus Mill HOUSE at County Hall Pottery. Photo: Reinis Lismanis
Commodities: Sculpture and Ceramics by Renee So
Contemporary sculptor Renee So explores her relationship with Chinese history and identity through sculptural and ceramic works, highlighting the trade of goods and ideas between China and the West, and how Western preconceptions and stereotypes have distorted these narratives.
Until 8 March 2026 at Compton Verney, Warwickshire
HOUSE
County Hall Pottery presents HOUSE, a curated exhibition and marketplace celebrating contemporary ceramic design for the home. Expect playful statement lamps and stools alongside functional bowls, plates, and planters. Browse, shop, and take home one-of-a-kind pieces by around 50 emerging and established ceramic artists from around the world.
Until 21 December at County Hall Pottery, London
Unravelling Threads – Working Class Lives: A Textile Exhibition by Sarah-Joy Ford and Sewing Café Lancaster
A new series of textile interventions revealing working-class lives at the Judges Lodgings. Supported by the National Lottery
Until 27 March at Judge’s Lodging, Lancaster
Ashmolean Now: Daphne Wright
The fourth in the Ashmolean NOW exhibition series, where contemporary artists are invited to create new work inspired by the Ashmolean’s historical collections, often working in unfired clay, Daphne Wright’s sculptures offer a quietly powerful meditation on domesticity, memory and the passage of time.
Until 8 February at The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
GLASS
Perth Art Gallery invites you to explore GLASS, an exhibition celebrating the material and makers that made Perthshire famous, from Monart to Caithness to Perthshire Paperweights. GLASS will take visitors on a journey across time and space through thousands of years of glassmaking, from ancient Syria to the workshops of nineteenth-century Venice, to the masters of glass production across Perth and Kinross.
Until 2 February at the Perth Art Gallery, Perth
Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion
Dirty Looks at The Barbican explores how dirt and decay have been used to defy beauty standards, and why it's going through a resurgence in young designers' work. As a counterpoint to glossy digital perfection, these artistic practices point us to a new way of thinking about a sustainable fashion future.
