Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.

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Viewing Making Egypt at The Young V&A

The Wick Culture - Lancelot Crane, from a wall painting in the tomb of King Haremhab (1350-15 B.C. Photo courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.

Above Lancelot Crane, from a wall painting in the tomb of King Haremhab (1350-15 B.C. Photo courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Wick Culture - Vase decorated in an abstract design in lustre and coloured
pigments, made by Diaa el-Din Daoud, Egypt, 2018. Photo courtesy of Victoria
and Albert Museum.

Above Vase decorated in an abstract design in lustre and coloured pigments, made by Diaa el-Din Daoud, Egypt, 2018. Photo courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Wick Culture - Ra by Marjan van Aubel. Photo courtesy of Pim Top.

Above Ra by Marjan van Aubel. Photo courtesy of Pim Top.

Above Lancelot Crane, from a wall painting in the tomb of King Haremhab (1350-15 B.C. Photo courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.

Above Vase decorated in an abstract design in lustre and coloured pigments, made by Diaa el-Din Daoud, Egypt, 2018. Photo courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum.

Above Ra by Marjan van Aubel. Photo courtesy of Pim Top.

Making Egypt

Young V&A
15 February – 2 November 2025

The Young V&A has opened its second temporary exhibition – following on from its hugely popular opening exhibition on Japanese manga. The upper gallery has had a complete overhaul for the new show on one of the most captivating and mythologised periods in history, ancient Egypt. Making Egypt runs to November (a single ticket purchases will get you access throughout the show run).

As we’ve come to expect from the Young V&A’s exhibitions, everything is tailormade with children and families in mind, from the wall texts to the exhibition design, here riffing on the colours and materials of the ancient African civilisation. But it’s not only about kids: the Young V&A’s pioneering way of remixing our responses old artefacts from the V&A’s collections with the new, allows for an entirely different interaction with the objects and their histories.

Among the highlights is the inner sarcophagus of Princess Sopdet em-haawat, cerulean Shabti figures from 664 – 332 BC, and LEGO model of the Great Pyramid of Giza. There’s plenty of moments to pause and create too – including designing your own amulet. The exhibition pays homage to a period of history that still dazzles in its creative genius, inventiveness and legacy.

Viewing Flowers: Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture at Saatchi Gallery

The Wick Culture - Viviane Sassen, In Bloom (shot for Dazed & Confused magazine), 2011. Photo courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

Above Viviane Sassen, In Bloom (shot for Dazed & Confused magazine), 2011. Photo courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

The Wick Culture - Rebecca Louise Law, installation. Photo courtesy of Matt Chung

Above Rebecca Louise Law, installation. Photo courtesy of Matt Chung

The Wick Culture - Pedro Almodóvar, Menina, 2019. Photo courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

Above Pedro Almodóvar, Menina, 2019. Photo courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

The Wick Culture - Marc Quinn, The Sunny Side of the Moon (In The Night Garden), 2010. Photo courtesy of Marc Quinn studio.

Above Marc Quinn, The Sunny Side of the Moon (In The Night Garden), 2010. Photo courtesy of Marc Quinn studio.

Above Viviane Sassen, In Bloom (shot for Dazed & Confused magazine), 2011. Photo courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

Above Rebecca Louise Law, installation. Photo courtesy of Matt Chung

Above Pedro Almodóvar, Menina, 2019. Photo courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

Above Marc Quinn, The Sunny Side of the Moon (In The Night Garden), 2010. Photo courtesy of Marc Quinn studio.

Flowers: Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture

Saatchi Gallery
12 February – 5 May 2025

The Saatchi Gallery has stepped up its programming of late, and the latest in a run of engaging group shows is this mega exploration of flowers in art through the ages, perfectly timed to run into late spring.

Flowers is a massive undertaking, with a participating artist list that reads like a who’s who of art, occupying nine gallery spaces over two floors. From large-scale installations to photography, archival objects to fashion, there are an incredible array of more than 500 artworks on show here, including an awe-inspiring installation of 10,000 dried flowers taking over an entire room.

One thing this does is show the perennial, universal artistic impulse to immortalize nature, but also just how many different ways flora can be perceived and depicted, as symbols, subjects and sources of inspiration. And of course, the undercurrent looks to the future, and to what is under threat in the current climate emergency.

Viewing Bianca Raffaella at Flowers Gallery

The Wick Culture - The Leaves Hast Never Known, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Above The Leaves Hast Never Known, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

The Wick Culture - Viewless Wings, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Above Viewless Wings, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

The Wick Culture - Murmurous Shadows, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Above Murmurous Shadows, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Above The Leaves Hast Never Known, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Above Viewless Wings, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Above Murmurous Shadows, 2024. Photo courtesy of Antonio Parente

Bianca Raffaella: Faint Memories

Flowers Gallery
12 February – 15 March 2025

The Wick have been looking forward to this one, since Bianca Raffaella featured as Spotlight in November 2024. The Margate-based artist’s debut solo exhibition at Flowers Gallery, Faint Memories, marks an exciting moment for the young artist and features all new paintings.

A recent graduate of the Tracey Emin Artist Residency (TEAR), Bianca Raffaella creates evocative works. As a partially sighted artist, her ephemeral paintings draw viewers into her world by way of memory and sensory cues, capturing fleeting moments and images that appear only briefly as faint flickers or flashes of light.

This new collection of textured, tactile flower paintings relate to the artist’s experience of beauty in braille. Painted using touch as a guide, never losing contact with her canvas, there is a unique kind of expressionism in Raffaella’s sensual, fluid works, the result of a mix of tools worked over the surface. As Raffaella’s Champion for the Wick, Flowers’ director Matthew Flowers, put it “her ability to distill and communicate fleeting impressions into beautiful, ethereal, textural compositions is remarkable”.