20 UK Exhibitions


ANCIENT INDIA LIVING TRADITIONS


Reaching back more than 2,000 years, this new exhibition explores the origins of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist sacred art in the ancient and powerful nature spirits of India, and the spread of this art beyond the subcontinent. One of the first major


exhibitions in the world to look at the early devotional art of India from a multi-faith, contemporary, and global perspective, it will highlight the inspiration behind now-familiar depictions of the deities and enlightened teachers of these world religions – and how they were shared across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and along the Silk Roads to East Asia. Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain


religious imagery have been brought together to trace the


Ganesha made in Java from volcanic stone, circa 1000 to 1200 © The Trustees of the British Museum


• Until 19 October, British Museum, London, britishmuseum.org


transformation from ancient symbolic representations to the human forms we recognise today. Tese living religious traditions and their sacred art are now integral to the daily lives of almost two billion people around the world, including in the UK. From the symbolic footprints which preceded portrayals of the Buddha in human form to the cosmic serpents incorporated into Hindu art and the nature spirits who attend Jain enlightened teachers, this exhibition relates the ancient stories behind these traditions to trace their journey to what devotees, pilgrims, and worshipers see today.


HIROSHIMA


PAT SUET-BIK HUI & THE THREE PERFECTIONS


Painting with poem by Xin Qiji, Pat Suet-Bik Hui, and Wucius Wong (1987) © Ashmolean Museum


Amid intensifying conflicts around the world, some of them associated with nuclear threats, Hiroshima’s experience as history’s first nuclear target is increasingly remembered and highlighted. Te city’s image both as a site of war devastation and as a symbol of peace has been emphasised and selectively used for political purposes and in attempts to shape narratives, whilst the everyday reality of its inhabitants and their personal memories have largely been overlooked. To mark the 80th


anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, this exhibition of work by three


acclaimed Japanese women artists shifts its gaze to another side of the city and its people – the changes, the things that remain, the personal and genuine memories – the everyday, the ordinary, and contemporary society. Tis exhibition encourages us to see Hiroshima differently, as a city that was traumatised, once again teeming with life. Ishiuchi Miyako breathes


new life into personal belongings, reviving the individual memories of those who once lived in Hiroshima. Trough this process, she seeks to liberate these objects from the confines of a fixed historical


narrative. Fujioka Aya captures the city’s current tensions and dynamism through street photography from the perspective of the people living in present-day Hiroshima, seeking to evoke the memory of Hiroshima’s past from its present. Sasaoka Keiko has spent years photographing Hiroshima as a ‘park city’, documenting the traces of memories that have vanished from today’s urban landscape to allow us to consider the significance of seeing what is no longer visible.


• Until 24 November, Daiwa Foundation, London, dajf.org.uk


MIEUMWANBO Strolling Through Korean Gardens


Pat Suet-Bik Hui (b 1943) is a US-based Hong Kong artist. Tis exhibition showcases her work alongside others who engage with the tradition of the ‘three perfections’, which brings together the three art forms of poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Te exhibition includes works by Hui, her contemporaries, her teacher Lui Shou-Kwan, and others of his generation, as well as earlier examples from the


17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Seeing Hui alongside these other artists will give visitors the context to understand her as both innovator and standard- bearer of tradition. In this tradition, calligraphic brushstrokes are as integral to compositional balance as those used in painting. Likewise, images conjured by a poem and those rendered in a painting combine to


GHOST OBJECTS


Summoning Leighton’s Lost Collection Here is an intriguing exhibition that recreates four missing objects from the artist’s original collection as life-size paper sculptures. Reimagining the presence of these long-lost treasures, the works are intricately handcrafted in white paper, featuring hand-cut details and using techniques like layering, embossing and sculpting. Tese recreations will be installed in the historic rooms where the originals once stood, adding a ghostly presence to the rich and colourful interiors of the house. One of the objects is a distinctive brass jardinière, long believed to be Indian and


now thought to be a hybrid Anglo-Indian object likely created for Western decorative tastes, remains an enigma as no comparable example has been identified. Also on show is Te View from Here:


• Until 1 March 2026, Leighton House, London, rbkc.gov.uk/museums


Contemporary Art from the Middle East and North Africa, an exhibition in collaboration with the Oriental Museum, Durham University, showcasing works by emerging contemporary artists who employ assemblage and collage to tackle themes of displacement and cultural continuity.


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create effects neither can achieve alone. Hui’s modern


interpretation fuses abstract and semi-abstract washes of colour and ink with simple, restrained calligraphy inscribing poems reflecting on a variety of themes, from love to loss to the pleasures of drinking.


• Until 28 June 2026, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, ashmolean.org


Cheongamjeong Pavilion is built on a turtle-shaped rock is in Dalsil village, Bonghwa


A new exhibition that reimagines Korea’s rich garden heritage through a contemporary lens offers the opportunity to encounter the philosophy, beauty, and poetic sensibility of traditional Korean gardens through digital technologies, sensory environments, and interdisciplinary storytelling. By using large-scale digital projections, immersive soundscapes by composer Jang Young-gyu, and multisensory environments, the exhibition brings to life celebrated gardens such as Soswaewon, Bokildo, and the Secret Garden of


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Changdeokgung Palace. Visitors can also experience


the key aesthetic concept of chakyung (borrowed scenery) in a recreated pavilion space, and reflect on gardens as places of ritual, memory, and imagination. A gallery space recreates the experience of sitting inside a jeongja, or open pavilion, offering a carefully framed view of nature beyond, a fleeting moment held still. Tis gesture captures the essence of Korean garden design as an act of perception as much as of cultivation, where space and view are


composed like poetry. Also on show are


contemporary works by Ellie Kyungran Heo and Jihae Hwang sitting alongside literary reflections such as Korean Tea Classics. Te exhibition aims to present the Korean garden not only as a historical legacy but also as a living source of artistic and philosophical inspiration. It offers a pause in the flow of daily life, inviting visitors to reflect on where nature and art meet.


From the series Park City (2022) by Sasaoko Keiko © Sasaoka Keiko


• Until 14 November, Korean Cultural Centre, London, kccuk.org.uk


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