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Viewing The Fourth Plinth

Above Photo: The Wick

The Wick Culture - Portrait of Tschabalala Self, 2025. Photo: Christian DeFonte

Above Portrait of Tschabalala Self, 2025. Photo: Christian DeFonte

Above Photo: The Wick

Above Portrait of Tschabalala Self, 2025. Photo: Christian DeFonte

Above Photo: The Wick

Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
10 September 2026 – Summer 2028

Trafalgar in blue.

Trafalgar Square gets a new figure this September as Tschabalala Self’s ‘Lady in Blue’ takes her place on the Fourth Plinth. Unveiled on 10 September, the work becomes the 16th commission in a programme that began in 1998, following Teresa Margolles’s ‘Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant)’.

Self conceived the figure as a contemporary ‘everywoman’, a young metropolitan woman walking forward with purpose. Made in bronze, the sculpture is patinated in a vivid lapis lazuli blue, taking its colour from a pigment prized since antiquity. In place of the historic figure traditionally expected on a plinth, Self places an everyday woman in Trafalgar Square, casting her as a contemporary symbol of London and the people who move through it every day.

The New York-based artist works across painting, printmaking and sculpture, with the female figure a longstanding focus of her practice. London has particular significance for Self as well – the artist has spoken about the city supporting important milestones in her career, including her first institutional exhibition.

‘Lady in Blue’ will also be one of the works to seek out during the fifth edition of London Sculpture Week from 19 – 27 September. The citywide celebration connects the Fourth Plinth with Frieze Sculpture, East Bank, Sculpture in the City and The Line, encouraging Londoners to encounter and engage with sculpture beyond gallery walls.

The Fourth Plinth has spent decades giving London something to talk about, and Self’s blue figure looks set to continue the conversation.

The Wick is excited to be a media partner for London Sculpture Week 2026.

Viewing The Bayeux Tapestry

Above © LFPN A. Cazin

The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3DG
10 September 2026 – 11 July 2027

Seventy metres of history.

Almost a thousand years after it was made, the Bayeux Tapestry travels to England this September for a historic exhibition at the British Museum. The loan from France marks the first time the work has been displayed in the UK since its creation.

Despite its name, the Bayeux Tapestry is technically an embroidery, worked in wool thread across linen cloth and stretching an extraordinary 70 metres. Across 58 scenes, 626 figures populate the story of the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, amid ships, ceremonies, domestic life and warfare.

Details of clothing, architecture and seafaring offer a close look at life on either side of the Channel in the 11th century, while the procession of scenes turns history into something remarkably cinematic centuries before cinema existed.

The British Museum will use works from its own collection alongside other loans to expand the story around the embroidery. Its arrival forms part of a major cultural exchange with France, with British Museum treasures including objects from Sutton Hoo and the Lewis chess pieces travelling to museums in Normandy in return.

For the many generations who first encountered the Bayeux Tapestry as a strip of images in a schoolbook, seeing all 70 metres in person should be another matter entirely – an unmissable opportunity to see one of the most familiar works in British medieval history at full scale.

Viewing London Design Festival 2026

Above

The Wick Culture - Credit: Visualisation: Expolight

Above Credit: Visualisation: Expolight

The Wick Culture - The Point of Unity, by Mykola Kabluka, produced by Expolight. Credit: Visualisation: Expolight

Above The Point of Unity, by Mykola Kabluka, produced by Expolight. Credit: Visualisation: Expolight

The Wick Culture - Material Matters London 2023. Photo: Sophie Mutevelian

Above Material Matters London 2023. Photo: Sophie Mutevelian

Above MADE x Barbican

The Wick Culture - Albert Yonathan Setyawan - Metamorphic Modulation. Part of V&A x LDF: Awakenings

Above Albert Yonathan Setyawan – Metamorphic Modulation. Part of V&A x LDF: Awakenings

The Wick Culture - Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, owned by Glass Castle Foundation. Photo: Philippa Gedge

Above Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, owned by Glass Castle Foundation. Photo: Philippa Gedge

The Wick Culture - Huang Lu, Symbiosis of Chrysanthemums II. Part of Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind by Sun Media Group at Somerset House

Above Huang Lu, Symbiosis of Chrysanthemums II. Part of Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind by Sun Media Group at Somerset House

The Wick Culture - © Studio Saar, Atelier One

Above © Studio Saar, Atelier One

Above Credit: Visualisation: Expolight

Above The Point of Unity, by Mykola Kabluka, produced by Expolight. Credit: Visualisation: Expolight

Above Material Matters London 2023. Photo: Sophie Mutevelian

Above MADE x Barbican

Above Albert Yonathan Setyawan – Metamorphic Modulation. Part of V&A x LDF: Awakenings

Above Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, owned by Glass Castle Foundation. Photo: Philippa Gedge

Above Huang Lu, Symbiosis of Chrysanthemums II. Part of Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind by Sun Media Group at Somerset House

Various venues
London
12 – 20 September

Made in London.

London Design Festival returns for its 24th edition this September, spreading design across the capital through installations, exhibitions and 11 Design Districts. Exhibitions, open studios and new launches stretch from Park Royal in the west to Shoreditch in the east.

The Global Design Forum runs at the V&A from 12 – 14 September under the theme ‘Worlds in Motion’, with Es Devlin among those taking to the stage. Material Matters also returns for its fifth London edition at UNLOCKED Shoreditch from 15 – 17 September, with projects exploring everything from bacteria-grown tiles to AI-informed design.

The 2026 edition comes with an updated map: Soho joins as a design district for the first time, tapping into the neighbourhood’s long creative history with a programme across its stores and cultural spaces. Shoreditch Design Triangle has meanwhile grown into Shoreditch Design Week, bringing over 60 showrooms, galleries and creative spaces into the programme. Blackhorse Creates also takes visitors behind the scenes around Blackhorse Lane in Waltham Forest.

At Strand Aldwych, Studio Saar and Atelier One present ‘The Pangolin Shield’, a pavilion inspired by the protective scales of the pangolin. Built around a bamboo structure and layered with traditional Indian police shields and woven rain shields known as knups, the work transforms materials associated with protection into a place for gathering, while also exploring colonial histories and the movement of people across borders.

The Barbican gets a domestic rethink through MADE x Barbican, a new collection informed by the Estate’s archives and the work of Miriam Howitt.. Meanwhile, Craft x Tech Tokai Project pairs Japanese craftspeople with international designers including Bethan Laura Wood and Philippe Malouin, bringing traditional techniques into decidedly contemporary territory.

The V&A joins in with ‘Awakenings’, a museum-wide programme of installations exploring how design, craft and technology are changing the way we experience the world, with new commissions by Aziza Kadyri, Eunjo Lee and Playfool. Meanwhile, St Paul’s Cathedral also gets a contemporary intervention, as Ukrainian artist Mykola Kabluka and Expolight bring The Point of Unity to the UK for the first time alongside ‘Soul’, an audiovisual work projected onto the cathedral façade after dark.

Also worth the detour is Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, which opens to the public after 13 years for ‘The Art of Sound’, an immersive programme from L-Acoustics featuring Max Cooper and Chris Watson.

With more than 300 events on the programme, seeing everything is out of the question. Pick a neighbourhood and go where your eyes take you.