Pop, pots and prints: V&A museums' full exhibition schedule for 2027 and beyond revealed
A bit of chintz, a bit of George Micheal, and a whole lotta culture
The V&A has announced its line-up of major exhibitions for 2027, covering off a decent chunk of 2028 too.
V&A’s London South Kensington museum is getting three exhibitions next year, while the second exhibition for the new V&A East site has been announced.
Let’s take a closer look at what's in store...
V&A 2027 exhibitions
First up at the main V&A site in South Kensington is Punk to Pop. It opens on 13th March, 2027, and covers the changing face of art from 1972 to 1985.
But as the name suggests, this one will be represented through the prism of music and pop culture — which in this era were closely tied to UK politics. Acts the V&A team mentions in an early teaser include Wham!, Eurythmics, Joy Division, The Slits and The Sex Pistols.
Punk to Pop will include upwards of 300 exhibits, from photographs and music videos to costumes.
It will be a long-running exhibition, set to run until 2nd January 2028.
Sculpture in Clay opens slightly later in the year, from 29th May, and will stick on until 6th February 2028. The name tells you a lot of what you need to know here too.
The show will feature the work of British artists working from the 1980s onwards within the medium of ceramics. It’s about “how clay and ceramic have expanded the possibilities of sculpture.”
Featured artists include Antony Gormley — known in part for his series of human figures (cast in his own likeness) peppered around London’s South Bank from 2007 — Edmund de Waal and Jacqueline Poncelet.
The final V&A South Kensington exhibtiion we know about has what initially seems a slightly more opaque title: Chintz.
However, it really is about the history of Chintz fabric, a flowery pattern that emerged from South India more than 400 years ago, and has since been weighed down with all sorts of preconceptions and cultural baggage.
It “re-discovers the story of chintz” according to the V&A, which it dubs one of the “most coveted, copied and contentious fabrics in history.”
Over on the other side of London, we’ve also heard about the second major exhibition coming to V&A East, which only opened in April.
South Asia Now: Fashion. Art. Design. takes over from the current exhibition on black British music on 24th April 2027, and runs until 23rd January 2028. It will feature upwards of 200 pieces with roots in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Tickets for these four exhibitions will be “available soon.” And if they are enough to make you consider a V&A membership, those start at £86 a year via direct debit, or £60 for those aged 16-25.
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