What’s on: European artists and cultural events to look out for in London and the UK this month
From the visual arts to music and theatre, London and the UK host a wealth of European culture. December sees the opening of a fascinating exhibition on the Palace of Versailles as a site of scientific thinking, at the Science Museum in London, and the display of Parmigianino’s The Vision of Saint Jerome at the National Gallery. Here is a guide to the events planned in the coming weeks.
From 5 December to 9 March 2025 – Parmigianino: The Vision of Saint Jerome at the National Gallery. This exhibition explores the creation of Parmigianino’s ‘The Madonna and Child with Saints’, also known as ‘The Vision of Saint Jerome’. It returns to public display for the first time in 10 years following conservation. Born in the Northern Italian city of Parma, after which he was nicknamed, Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (1503‒1540) was a child prodigy. At age 21 he moved to Rome, where he impressed the Pope and was praised as a ‘Raphael reborn’. This altarpiece was his first major work there. In 1527, the Sack of Rome erupted around him while he finished the painting. According to legend, looting Imperial soldiers invading his studio were so amazed by it that they let him continue.
11 December – Folk Noir Stories and Myths from Cyprus: Songs of Fate and Love, an enchanting evening of music and storytelling at the Cyprus High Commission.
From 12 December to 21 April 2025 – Versailles: Science and Splendour, an exhibition on how the Palace of Versailles used science as a tool of power, at the Science Museum in London. The Palace of Versailles is famous around the world for its opulent architecture and rich history. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it also became a major site of scientific thinking. On display, spectacular objects including Louis XV’s rhinoceros, an extraordinarily detailed map of the moon by Jean-Dominique Cassini and the world’s most famous watch, designed for Marie Antoinette. The exhibition also tells the stories of significant figures associated with the pursuit of knowledge at Versailles, including the pioneering Madame du Coudray, who trained thousands of midwives across rural France.
Until 12 December – 32nd French Film Festival UK. Over 200 screenings of 60 movies in more than 25 venues throughout the UK and online. The selection showcases a broad spectrum of French language movies, from major hits to creations by cutting edge directors, and includes Q&A sessions with film-makers and actors.
13 December – Marcello Mastroianni: the ‘accidental’ star of Italian cinema, a symposium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the renowned actor, at the Italian Cultural Institute.
13 December – ‘Romania, 35 Years On: The Resurgence of History’, an outdoor documentary exhibition that delves into Romania’s dark past, the screening of Tudor Giurgiu’s “Freedom” (2023) and a community event honouring the memory of the December 1989 victims, organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London.
14 December – Dragos ‘Hot Gossip’ show at Comedy Store in London. A citizen of the world that appeals to an international minded crowd, Dragos is a Romanian standup comedian who started his comedy journey in Singapore. During the lockdown, he spent his time writing for Comedy Central and building up a massive social media audience. The latest show brings new perspective on the world promising to be “dark, inquisitive and hilarious”.
14 December – Singer Andria Antoniou and London-based musicians perform Christmas songs from all over the world including carols from Greece and Cyprus at the Hellenic Centre.
From 15 December to 7 February – ‘Alain Delon: An Odyssey’, a cinematic journey through the career of a true icon of French cinema whose influence has transcended borders and eras, at Ciné Lumière in London.
Until 22 December – Antonio Calderara: A Certain Light, at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London. Beginning his career during the 1920s, Antonio Calderara (1903-1978) moved from an expressive figurative style to that heightened or ‘magic’ form of realism explored by many artists in Italy during the inter-war years, while his paintings of the 1930s already hinted at the subsequent direction his art would take in their precision and fascination with atmospheric effects. By the late 1950s, he had refined and distilled his depictions of the landscape to essential, geometric forms, creating images pervaded by silence and suffused with light that teetered on the brink of abstraction. From 1959, his works eliminated all references to the objective world, yet continued to explore the same harmonious formal relationships as before.
Until 4 January 2025 – Pinocchio, at Theatre Royal Stratford East. From the pen of Italian author Carlo Collodi (1826-1890), wooden puppet Pinocchio and his poor toy maker father Geppetto get to London this Christmas. Will Blue Rinse Fairy and Krik Krak the cricket be able to keep Pinocchio off the crooked path, as he battles the trials and tribulations of becoming a “real boy”?
Until 5 January 2025 – Małgorzata Mirga-Tas at Tate St. Ives, Cornwall. Born in 1978, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is a Romani visual artist, educator and activist who lives and works in Czarna Góra, in southern Poland. Mirga-Tas is known for her textile collages created with materials and fabrics that are mainly gathered from family and friends. Often working in collaboration with other women, she sews pieces of clothing, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, curtains and sheets to create vivid portraits and scenes from everyday life. Mirga-Tas was the official Polish representative at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, the first Roma artist to represent any country.
Until 5 January 2025 – Paula Rego – Visions of English Literature, at Lakeside Arts, the University of Nottingham’s public arts centre. Paula Rego was a Portuguese-British visual artist, widely considered the pre-eminent woman artist of the late 20th and early 21st century. She is known particularly for her paintings and prints based on storybooks. This exhibition casts a spotlight on the British literary influences that inspired her most ambitious bodies of works in printmaking: Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre.
Until 11 January 2025 – Sonia Boué and Ashokkumar D Mistry exhibition ‘Las Gemelas (the twins): arrival (a lexicon of unmaking)’, at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. On 23 May 1937, the SS Habana docked in Southampton with almost 4,000 Basque child refugees on board. The British government pursued a policy of ‘neutrality’ regarding the Spanish Civil War, but as the children took flight from the aerial bombardments, the people of Southampton improvised their shelter. The Special Collections at the University of Southampton holds the archives relating to this event.
Until 19 January 2025 – Monet and London – views of the Thames, at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Claude Monet (1840-1926) is the leading figure of French Impressionism, the movement that changed the course of modern art. Less known is the fact that some of Monet’s most remarkable paintings were made in London. They depict extraordinary views of the Thames, full of evocative atmosphere, mysterious light and radiant colour. Begun during three stays in the capital between 1899 and 1901, the series — depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament — was unveiled in Paris in 1904. The exhibition realises Monet’s unfulfilled ambition of showing these paintings in London, and just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel where many of them were painted.
Until 19 January 2025 – Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, at the National Gallery in London. Over just two years in the south of France, Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) revolutionised his style in a symphony of poetic colour and texture. This exhibition looks at this time in Arles and Saint-Rémy as a decisive period in his career. Inspired by poets, writers and artists, his desire to tell stories produced a landscape of poetic imagination and romantic love on an ambitious scale.
Until 24 January – The Czech Centre London presents ‘A Shocking Experience Behind the Curtain’, an exhibition of new paintings by Jakub Matuška aka Masker, the award-winning representative of new figurative painting in Central and Eastern Europe, renowned for detailed combinations of digital manipulations, airbrushes and traditional drawing and painting techniques.
Until 30 January – Slovak artist Ivan Pavle exhibition at the Slovak Institute London. Ivan Pavle is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. His artwork is of a distinctive style, blending traditional finest artworks with a contemporary content.
Until 31 January – In the public space outside of the Czech Embassy, London, you can immerse yourself in the captivating world of Franz Kafka’s The Castle through an open-air exhibition showcasing black & white prints of renowned Czech illustrator and musician, Jaromír 99 created for the David Zane Mairowitz’s comics adaptation. From the solitary figure of K. with his pilgrim’s stick to the ethereal presence of the chateau looming in the clouds, the exhibition captures the essence of Kafka’s surreal universe.
Until 16 February 2025 – Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. On 25 January 1504, Florence’s most prominent artists gathered to advise on an appropriate location for Michelangelo’s nearly finished David sculpture. Among them was Leonardo, who – like Michelangelo – had only recently returned to his native Florence. The exhibition explores the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo, and the influence both had on the young Raphael.
Until 23 February 2025 – Letizia Battaglia: life, love and death in Sicily, at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Born in Palermo, Sicily in 1935, Battaglia began her photographic career in the early 1970s. She reported for the daily newspaper L’Ora documenting everyday life, alongside the brutal reality of the Mafia and their victims during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Her images are some of the best-known records of life in the shadow of the Mafia.
Until 2 March 2025 – Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, an exhibition at the British Library on the rich and complex lives of women in medieval Europe, with over 140 extraordinary items that reveal their artistry, resourcefulness, courage and struggles. They include The Book of the Queen by Christine de Pizan, the first professional woman author in Europe; the 12th-century ivory cross of Sibylle, countess of Flanders, who went on Crusade to the Holy Land; and a silk textile made in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain), where Muslim women labourers were fundamental to the silk industry. A series of events accompany the exhibition.
Until 9 March 2025 – Drawing the Italian Renaissance at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The exhibition displays the widest range of drawings from this revolutionary artistic period (1450-1600) ever shown in the UK, featuring around 160 works by over 80 artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian.
Until 30 March 2025 – Franciszka Themerson – Walking Backwards at Tate Britain in London. Films, drawings and paintings mingle tragedy and humour to explore the turbulent years before and after the Second World War. Born in Poland in 1907, Franciszka Themerson trained as a musician, graphic designer and painter in Warsaw. There, she met her husband, Stefan Themerson. At a time of rising fascism in Europe, the Themersons’ work challenged social conformity and revealed their belief in individual freedoms. In 1938, the pair moved to Paris to continue their work. They volunteered for the Polish army in France but were separated during the war. Following the Nazi invasion in 1940, Franciszka was able to leave for London while Stefan remained in hiding, fearing persecution. The couple were reunited in 1942, but only one member of their families survived the Holocaust. Franciszka and Stefan remained in London for the rest of their lives, where she continued to work across multiple disciplines: drawing, painting, illustration, theatre and book design.
Until 30 March 2025 – Picasso printmaker at the British Museum. In addition to his many paintings, sculptures and drawings, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) made over 2,400 prints during his career. This exhibition offers insights into the life of the Málaga-born artist, from his early years in Paris to his old age in the South of France, including his complex relationships with women and his partnerships with printers, publishers and other artists.
Until 26 April 2025 – A Polish Heart Beats Here, exhibition at the National Civil War Centre, Newark-on-Trent. Co-produced with members of the local Polish community, the exhibition explores Newark’s ties to Poland, from the Polish Armed Forces’ historical presence to the twin town of Sandomierz, and the vibrant Polish community that now call Newark home.
Until 15 May 2025 – Women & Freud: patients, pioneers, artists, an exhibition at the Freud Museum in London about the women who helped Freud invent psychoanalysis, and their legacy in its practice. The Freud family moved to England as refugees, having escaped Austria following the Nazi annexation in March 1938. The museum is Sigmund Freud (1856-1839) family home, with his study and famous psychoanalytic couch. Here is where he spent his final days, and where his daughter, psychoanalyst Anna Freud, also lived, worked and died.
Until 4 June 2025 – Once upon a time… For European History Wednesdays the French Association of Historians (L’Association des Historiens) offers a series of lectures on the Roman civilization, with a renowned French academic discussing each month the story of the peoples that preceded us in Europe.
Ongoing – ABBA Voyage, at the ABBA Arena in London. The concert features the Swedish band, one of the biggest pop acts of all time, as digital versions of themselves backed by live musicians playing their most popular hits.
Ongoing – ‘Lost & Found: a European literary map of London’, by University College London (UCL). An online map to explore London through the eyes of European writers and reflect on the city as a place where people and cultures meet and are transformed. You can also submit new entries via the website.
For more events check the following organisations:
- Austrian Cultural Forum
- Battersea Spanish
- British Czech and Slovak Association
- CinemaItaliaUK
- Cyprus Culture in the UK
- Czech Centrę London
- Dutch Centre
- Finnish Institute
- Goethe Institut
- Hellenic Centre
- Institut Français
- Irish Cultural Centre
- Italian Cultural Institute
- London Irish Centre
- Polish Jazz Café POSK
- Polish Cultural Institute London
- Settled website with European cultural events in Wales
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