Five London gallery shows feature Gabriel Orozco, Mary Ramsden and more

Gabriel Orozco is among five artists whose London commercial-gallery exhibitions feature in a Guardian guide published on 30 September 2026. Shows by Mary Ramsden, Martine Syms, Colin Self and Somaya Critchlow are also on view. The Guardian describes the exhibitions as free to enter, though admission terms have not been confirmed by every gallery listing.

The exhibitions offer different kinds of visit: Orozco brings together objects and images from across his career; Ramsden presents large abstract paintings; Syms combines films with a concept store. Self’s work addresses war and its aftermath, while Critchlow shows portraits. Closing dates range from 7 to 14 November, so visitors can use the individual gallery pages to check current arrangements before travelling.

Gabriel Orozco at White Cube Bermondsey

Orozco’s Chronotopic runs until 8 November at White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ. It opened on 16 September. White Cube says art historian Briony Fer curated a display of approximately 200 new and existing works, spanning sculpture, painting, photography, assemblage and works on paper.

Among the works White Cube identifies are La DS (Cornaline), a spliced Citroën from 2013, and pieces the gallery says have not previously been shown in the UK. The gallery presents the exhibition as a journey through time and space, drawing on Orozco’s interest in games, geometry and everyday materials. Guardian critic Eddy Frankel describes altered cars, toys and other familiar objects arranged in ways he found fragmented and disorienting.

Mary Ramsden at Pilar Corrias

Mary Ramsden’s The Feeling of What Happens is at Pilar Corrias on Conduit Street until 7 November. The exhibition opened on 10 September. The gallery describes this as Ramsden’s seventh solo exhibition with it and lists nine oil-on-canvas works, several measuring more than two metres in one dimension.

Pilar Corrias says Ramsden uses painting to explore consciousness and sensation rather than to make direct representations of the world. Its account places the new paintings in a longer engagement with abstraction and perception. Frankel’s Guardian review focuses on their colour: he describes broad areas of pink, green, purple, mauve and blue, with possible glimpses of petals or daylight inside the abstract forms.

The gallery also says Ramsden has exchanged ideas with scientist Brian Swimme over the past year and that selected notes from their conversation will be available during the show. That detail offers another way into paintings which, according to the gallery, keep the artist’s physical decisions visible on the canvas.

Martine Syms at Sadie Coles HQ

Martine Syms’s Knot Eye runs until 7 November at Sadie Coles HQ, 62 Kingly Street, London W1B. It opened on 17 September. The gallery says the exhibition combines two new films with an iteration of Dominica Publishing, which operates both as an artwork and a concept store at the front of the space.

One film, RW-LO, is a 22-minute work that mixes reenactments with home movies. Sadie Coles HQ describes it as following the life of Brent David Freaney and his teenage interest in a reality-television personality. The second film, Ex Voto, centres on three people after a wrap party in a New York apartment. Frankel reads the exhibition more broadly as an exploration of public personas, memory and pop culture.

Visitors expecting a conventional display of objects should know that the two films are central to the show. The concept store extends Syms’s interest in how identities and ideas are presented to a public, according to the gallery’s description.

Colin Self and Somaya Critchlow: closing dates

Colin Self’s Unseen runs at Frith Street Gallery’s Golden Square location until 7 November. Frankel’s Guardian review describes early works shaped by anxiety about the Second World War and nuclear destruction during the Cold War. He points to images of missiles and weapons, as well as newer landscapes depicting Self’s native East Anglia. The gallery lists an 18 September opening date.

Somaya Critchlow’s Pastels is listed at Maximillian William, 47 Mortimer Street, London W1W 8HJ, through 14 November, after opening on 17 September. In his Guardian review, Frankel contrasts the erotic, confrontational portraits he associates with Critchlow’s earlier work with a less threatening mood in this exhibition. His account gives visitors a sense of the change in tone without treating it as a change to the artist’s entire practice.

The Guardian presents all five exhibitions as part of a series about free entry to commercial galleries. Visitors should check admission and opening arrangements directly with the venues: the available gallery information does not independently establish the entry terms for every show. The published closing dates also make the practical choice clear: four shows end by 8 November, while Critchlow’s is listed through 14 November.