The Cosmic House
Tucked away in the leafy streets of Holland Park is The Cosmic House. This was the home of US architecture historian and philosopher Charles Jencks and is described as “a built manifesto for Post-Modernism”. This amazingly idiosyncratic house includes fabulous classical and ancient elements magically combined with postmodernism and cosmology. To say it is OTT is an understatement. The house overwhelms you with its masterful design elements, stunning interior spaces, and clever use of light and mirrors. It’s also a sensory delight of colours, fabrics and towering shelves overflowing with art and architecture books. There’s also a newly opened site-specific performance and music video work by artist and composer Lina Lapelytė that really adds atmosphere to these wonderful spaces. Highly recommended!
Tickets must be booked in advance. They are released at 12pm on the third Friday of each month and always sell out quickly. The Cosmic House, 19 Lansdowne Walk London W11.
A Cornucopia of Book Fairs
Bibliophiles have a lot to love this month with book fairs and festivals almost every week. Begin the month with a trip to Oxford for the Fine Press Book Fair on 3 and 4 May. Held in the Oxford University Examination Rooms, here you’ll find books, prints and ephemera from some of the world’s finest presses. With over 100 stands and a stimulating lecture program you’re sure to find something you love. On 11 May, you can head to the Bloomsbury Summer Book Fair at the Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury. Here you’ll meet specialist book dealers from the UK and abroad selling rare, antiquarian and collectable books, along with other collectable printed materials. The following weekend, 17 and 18 May, you’ll find the London Rare and Antiquarian Book Fair at the IBIS in Earl’s Court. Then there’s the Bloomsbury Ephemera Fair on 25 May, again at the Holiday Inn. This includes the Vintage Paperback and Pulp Fair, where you can get your fill of crime, horror, sci-fi, comics and more!
Fleet Street Festival of Words
The literary theme continues this month with the first edition of London’s newest literary festival. The Fleet Street Festival of Words celebrates the area’s rich heritage of literature and publishing. The Festival spans current affairs and journalism, fiction, screenwriting, and poetry and spoken word, along with events for families and children. There are more than 40 sessions over the four days, including Breakfast Briefings with journalists from The Guardian, The Times and The Daily Telegraph.
Fleet Street Festival of Words, various venues in the Fleet Street Quarter, 14-17 May.
The Empire Strips Back
After sell-out seasons across the globe, the internationally acclaimed show The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody is finally having its London premiere, opening at Riverside Studios on 2 May. Travel to a surreal galaxy far, far away, (Hammersmith…) in this hilarious (and entirely unauthorised) theatrical interpretation of the beloved Star Wars franchise. Revel in a world of burlesque fantasy, menacing and sexy dance, dangerous seduction, hilarious parody and even the droids you’re looking for. All your favourite characters are here, scantily clad, seriously sultry and live on stage! From a tiny three-night season in Sydney 15 years ago (I was there!) to three simultaneous productions constantly touring North America, and a Huffington Post viral video feature boasting over 20 million views, this really is ‘The little show that could!’.
Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, 2 May to 17 August 2025.
Maurizio Cattelan @ Gagosian
Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan hit the headlines in 2019 with Comedian, a conceptual artwork of a banana duct-taped to the wall. The work made headlines again last year when one of its three editions sold for over US$6 million at Sotheby’s in New York. This month, Gagosian is hosting two Cattelan exhibitions here in London. A new work featuring that famous banana on the wall, a watercolour called Window, is included in the display at Gagosian in Burlington Arcade. This beautiful arcade, adjacent to the Royal Academy of Art, is really an artwork in itself. There are more new works by Cattelan on display in Bones at Gagosian’s Davies Street gallery. Here you’ll see pierced gold-plated panels and an impressive sculpture called Notre Dame made from a Carrara marble boulder with a pair of horns, balancing on a black couch. There’s also Deaf, a balaclava-clad skeleton, sealed inside a glass bottle, strumming a guitar. The work is a totem to resistance, to poetry and to death itself.
Exhibitions run to 24 May 2025 at Gagosian Davies Street and Burlington Arcade, London W1.
Robbie Williams – Radical Honesty
Singer Robbie Williams needs no introduction. Now you can get to know Robbie Williams the artist. This new exhibition at Moco London offers a new insight into his art practice. Known for his fearless self-expression and unfiltered, radical honesty, this is a bold exhibition of never-before-seen works and sculptures. These are striking physical pieces that use a mix of materials and layered textures to expand his visual language of sarcasm, self-deprecation and playful irreverence. From a marble depiction of anxiety and a seat designated for uninterrupted introversion to a monumental jumper of mixed feelings and vibrant canvases that explore personal narratives, it’s all here, blunt and unpolished, yet oddly comforting. With a bold and raw perspective, Radical Honesty transforms personal experiences into thought-provoking art, challenging visitors to embrace their imperfections and redefine strength through authenticity. Tickets have already sold out online for the first few weeks of the exhibition, so be quick to book.
2 May 2025 – 24 October 24 2025, Moco Museum, Marble Arch, London W1.
Leigh Bowery!
Celebrate the life and work of the provocative Australian artist Leigh Bowery in this brilliant new exhibition at Tate Modern. A key figure in the London club scene of the 1980s, Bowery was a fashion icon, a model, club promoter, musician, artist and muse. This colourful and exciting exhibition is a tribute to Bowery and those heady days of alternative creativity. It shows how he became his art, creating a new form of performance art that explored the body – usually his own body – as a shape-shifting tool. Step into Bowery’s outrageous underground world at this wonderful show at the Tate Modern. It’s big and brash and daring and naughty and, ultimately, sad with Bowery, the boy from Sunshine in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, dying on New Year’s Eve 1994 of an AIDS-related illness.
Tate Modern to 31 August 2025.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Enjoy a classic ‘Summer in London’ experience at the wonderful Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. From May to September, this iconic London destination stages productions that are popular, enriching and unexpected, providing a lens into the here and now, in this unique and magical outdoor setting. A part of London’s vibrant cultural life since 1932, the Open Air Theatre is perennially popular with over 180,000 tickets sold last year. This year’s season opens with Shucked, a Tony Award-winning musical comedy, followed by Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets, Noughts & Crosses, The Enormous Crocodile and finishing the season with a new adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon.
Season runs from 10 May 2025 to 20 September 2025.
Affordable Art Fair
The Affordable Art Fair returns to London’s much loved Hampstead Heath. Located on the Lower Fairground site, the Fair will transform the Heath into a creative hub celebrating the best in contemporary art. With more than 100 galleries from across the UK and all over the world exhibiting, you can see thousands of artworks by living artists. It’s always fun to see well-known artists displayed alongside new and emerging talent. And it’s all on sale with prices from just £100 to £10,000. There are displays of ‘Finds Under £500’ and ‘Finds Under £1000’ to help you on your art collecting journey, along with a ‘Director’s Cut’ of artists to watch. The Fair features several curated displays including Invested in Her, celebrating female diversity; Quiet Joy, highlighting the connection between art and mental wellbeing; and A Place We Know, featuring artworks inspired by the local Hampstead area.
Hampstead Heath, 7-11 May 2025.
Photo London
Photo London brings the finest international photography to the English capital every year. The Fair presents the best historic and vintage works while also spotlighting fresh perspectives in photography. Alongside a selection of the world’s leading photography dealers and galleries, the Fair celebrates the most exciting emerging galleries and artists. There’s also a unique public program including special exhibitions, talks, installations and numerous awards, headlined by the Photo London Master of Photography Award. There’s even a specialist photographic book market. Photo London returns to its home in Somerset House on The Strand for this special 10th anniversary edition, dedicated to the past, present and future of photography.
Photo London at Somerset House, The Strand London WC2 15-18 May 2025.
Festival of Korean Dance
A Festival of Korean Dance returns for its eighth year, bringing five South Korean dance companies to the UK for performances in London and beyond. The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company headlines the Festival with Jungle, an impressive ensemble piece for 17 dancers. Jungle is full of wildly instinctive movements that expand and unfurl, rich with the energy of survival. Closing the Festival will be Ham:Beth by the all-male dance company Modern Table. Loosely inspired by depictions of madness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, the work combines traditional Korean songs with a live rock band to create a powerful gig atmosphere. The seven dancers in slick suits battle against the pressure to conform with fast and furious choreography building the sensation of relentless energy, danger and emotional charge.
Festival from 7-24 May at The Place, 17 Duke’s Road, London WC1, and venues in Bournemouth, Newcastle and Lowry.
Faces on stage – May
There’s always an opportunity to see a famous face from film and television live on stage in London. Ewan McGregor stars in My Master Builder at Wyndham’s Theatre with Elizabeth Debicki and Kate Fleetwood; Chris O’Dowd, much-loved as Roy from The IT Crowd, is in The Brightening Air at The Old Vic (read ArtsHub‘s review here); Martin Freeman explores the road to recovery in The Fifth Step at Soho Place from 10 May; and Imelda Staunton stars alongside her daughter Bessie Carter in the George Bernard Shaw classic Mrs Warren’s Profession at the Garrick Theatre.
This article was amended after publication, at 8:40am on 9 May 2025, to extend the closing date of Regent’s Park Open Air Season from August to September.
