It's the most visited contemporary art gallery in the world, with over 3.8 million visitors walking through the doors in 2022. That also makes it the fourth most visited art museum — covering any period — on the planet. So it's no wonder you want to find out what Tate Modern's 2024 exhibitions are.
The gallery on the South Bank of the Thames is planning a packed programme of blockbuster shows in 2024. The subjects are eclectic, meaning it'll be even more of a go-to destination for art lovers in London this year.
Here's what's on right now, and what you've got to look forward to.
— now open, until 20 Oct 2024
The Blue Rider Group — also known as Der Blaue Reiter — were a circle of artist friends and close collaborators. They were founded in Munich in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and they all shared an interest in expressing a spiritual dimension in painting.
They experimented with colour, sound and light, and they created bold and vibrant works. Together they wanted to transform modern art, which is why they are the subject of this major show at Tate Modern.
30 works by The Blue Rider circle are on show. Visitors will experience a collection of masterpieces from paintings, sculpture, and photography to performance and sound.
It's a huge collaboration with the German gallery Lenbachhaus in Munich who have offered Tate unprecedented access to their collection. The artworks on show in London are the first time they've been brought together in the UK in 80 years.
— now open, until 26 January 2026
Acclaimed photographer Zanele Muholi gets a major career retrospective — in what is actually a second attempt. The first iteration of this show was massively curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of 2020.
This second incarnation is even bigger, and includes new works produced in the intervening three years. In total over 260 photographs are on display, representing the full breadth of the artist’s career to date.
Muholi describes themself as a visual activist. From the early 2000s, they have documented and celebrated the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities.
A number of Muholi’s key photographic series are the standout highlights of this exhibition. These include the early series Only Half the Picture, and Faces and Phases, where each participant looks directly at the camera, challenging the viewer to hold their gaze.
Other key series of works include Brave Beauties, which celebrates empowered non-binary people and trans women, many of whom have won Miss Gay Beauty pageants, and Being, a series of tender images of couples which challenge stereotypes and taboos.
— now open, until 27 Apr 2025
The immersive artworks of English-born, US-based artist Anthony McCall come to Tate Modern in what's described as a 'focused' exhibition.
Seen as a pioneer of film environments — and most famous for his ‘solid-light’ installations — McCall is now 77 years old. His exhibition lets visitors enter and explore his huge artworks, which are mostly created from a thin mist pierced by slowly evolving planes of projected light.
A major highlight is Anthony McCall's first ever 'solid-light’ installation: Line Describing a Cone. Created in 1973, the 30-minute-long work tests the boundaries between cinema and sculpture and takes the form of a projected white dot that slowly grows to fill the dark space with a cone of light. It immerses its audience members in its field.
— now open, until 9 March 2025
An entire career-spanning exhibition on the American artist Mike Kelley shows how the artist produced provocative art from the 1970s until his death aged 57 in 2012.
The art world celebrated him, praising his unsettling multimedia work, which often used installation, performance and music. And despite his artwork appearing in galleries around the globe, there’s never been a major exhibition dedicated to him in Britain before.
Drawing on references from popular and underground culture, literature, and philosophy, Kelley explored how the roles we play in society are entangled with historical fact and imaginary characters from the films and images we consume. The exhibition brings together his diverse body of experimental and performance pieces: from sculptures made with plush toys to multi-media installations set to music such as Day Is Done.
— opens 28 November 2024 until 1 June 2025
Tate Modern are really building anticipation for this show — they are saying it will be one of the "most ambitious exhibitions" they've ever held. It will celebrate the early innovators of optical, kinetic, programmed and digital art, who pioneered a new era of immersive sensory installations and automatically-generated works.
With a focus on art produced between the 1950s and 1980s — from the birth of op art to the dawn of cybernetics — it will bring together groundbreaking works by a wide range of international artists who engaged with science, technology and material innovation.