Five Art Exhibits to See in London This Year — The Remarkable Explorers Club

…and where to eat in between

Photos: Alex Merrell // Sir John Soane’s Museum — Photos: Alex Merrell // *Sir John Soane’s Museum*

For those headed to London before the end of the year, we’ve curated a five-stop art tour to give you a well rounded taste of what’s happening from classical to contemporary.

Even better? We’re feeding you en route.

BREAKFAST // GRANGER & CO.

We have a pretty simple rule: don’t see art hungry. Museum hopping is a marathon, not a sprint, and doing so on an empty stomach is guaranteed to render the viewer cranky and overwhelmed. Do yourself a favor and start this particular tour at one of Granger & Co.’s four outposts. Order the orange juice with a ginger shot, your preferred caffeination vehicle, the scrambled eggs with sourdough and a side of avocado salsa. These are the scrambled eggs of dreams, and likely a large part of the reason we’ve been spending so much time in London. Bring a friend so you can order the ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter for dessert.

This is the sustenance that will power your cultural enrichment. There is no breakfast too big.

Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh // Saatchi Gallery - CLOSING May 3 2020

The third stop of ten on an international tour, this exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the greatest archaeological discovery in history: Tutankhamun's tomb. Comprised of glittering artifacts gathered during the ten year excavation of the legendary site, this tour is the final chance to see these mesmerizing treasures before they return to Egypt forever.

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things // Victoria and Albert Museum - CLOSING MAR 8 2020

For over two decades, British photographer Tim Walker has produced some of fashion’s most exquisitely imaginative imagery. A master of fantastical portraiture and dreamlike campaigns, his inventive set production leaps off the page in this show, with installations that draw the viewer into his magical, surreal world. Not only is the V&A hosting the largest exhibit of Walker’s work to date, their collections inspired ten new series of photographs created especially for the occasion.

LUNCH // RUYA

Between feasting your eyes on some of the city’s best art, you’ll need a feast for lunch. On the route East is the stunningly opulent Ruya, serving up modern Anatolian cuisine. The delicious dishes, best shared between a group so you can order several, are cooked and served beautifully, and the cocktail menu is refreshingly imaginative. Don’t miss the diced beef Tantuni, the Izgara grilled broccoli with pistachio butter, and Zeytinyagli Ahtapot, the most tender grilled octopus we’ve had in years.

Olafur Eliasson: In real life // Tate Modern - CLOSING Jan 5 2020

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has returned to the Tate Modern with a retrospective showcasing 40 works from the past 26 years, most of which have never been seen in the UK. Whether harnessing light and water as his media to bring a rainbow into the gallery or constructing a 45 meter tunnel of blinding fog, Eliasson’s exhibit is a feast for the senses, inviting the viewer to play with their perception of the world around them.

Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art // Barbican - CLOSING JAN 19 2020

Encompassing a well curated selection of over 200 artistic works created from the 1880s to the 1960s from Mexico City to Paris and New York to Tehran, Into the Night is the first major art exhibit to explore the impact of cabarets and clubs on the art world in the modern era. Hotbeds of radical thinking and creative collaboration, these sites provided an unfathomably vital contribution to cultural evolution internationally.

Hogarth: Place and Progress // Sir John Soane’s Museum - CLOSING Jan 5 2020

No London art tour is complete without a visit to Sir John Soane’s, easily one of our favorite museums in the world. Originally the home of Soane, one of the foremost architects of the Regency era, it had become a museum by the time of the devoted collector’s death. His collection of paintings, sculpture, architectural fragments and models, books, drawings and furniture is incomparable, and his unique eye for arrangement provides countless creative juxtapositions that have remained unaltered since his passing.

While a number of William Hogarth’s pieces are in the permanent collection, for the first time all the paintings and engravings of his series have been united to explore his dark, satirical commentary on society and its inherent immorality.