The winning and commended images from the 2009 competition are now on show in a stunning new exhibition space at the Natural History Museum.

http://london.londinium.com/102150

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 presents the very best in contemporary portrait photography, showcasing the work of some of the most talented emerging young photographers , alongside that of established professionals, photography students and gifted amateurs.

http://london.londinium.com/102147

For the first time in the history of gastroenterology, an international conference will take place which joins together the forces of four pre-eminent organisations: GASTRO 2009, UEGW/WCOG London. The United European Gastroenterology Federation (UEGF) and the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO), together with the World Organisation of Digestive Endoscopy (OMED) and the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), are jointly organising a landmark meeting in London from November 21 – 25, 2009. This collaboration will ensure the perfect balance of basic science and clinical practice, will cover all disciplines in gastroenterology (endoscopy, digestive oncology, nutrition, digestive surgery, hepatology, gastroenterology) and ensure a truly global context; all presented in the exciting setting of the city of London.

http://london.londinium.com/99227

Paccar Gallery, British Library
Price: Free

From the first tentative ‘drawings of shadows’ produced in the mid-1830s to its universal acceptance as a leisure pursuit, photography was swept along by a tide of entrepreneurial activity throughout the 19th century.

As an influential new artistic and documentary medium, photography rapidly developed into a lucrative profession. Science, government, industry and a growing media quickly recognised its power both to reflect and to shape society, while both artists and amateurs embraced its potential for personal expression.

Organised by subject matter, the exhibition asks: ‘Who was taking the photograph and why?’ Section by section, items are presented within their cultural context to explore some of the major themes of the 19th century – from expansion to industrialisation, science, and the rapid changes taking place in society. The final section reveals how technology responded to the demands of a developing mass market for photography, which continues to the present day.

http://london.londinium.com/93848

The Wallace Collection

This collection by Damien Hirst is being shown for the first time in the UK. Consisting of 25 new paintings, it is sure to create a sensation. Hung in the traditional galleries of The Wallace Collection, visitors will be able to enjoy the visual dialogue between Hirst’s works and the Old Master paintings.

http://london.londinium.com/93846

Design Museum

David Chipperfield has earned worldwide fame with his restrained and thoughtful designs, and is one of Britain’s leading architects. David Chipperfield has designed buildings from Berlin to Henley, Japan to Spain. This display is a comprehensive overview of key moments in his developments, as well as a look at some of his major recent international projects.

http://london.londinium.com/93845

Tate Modern

This exhibition examinese how artists since the 80s have cultivated their public persona as a product, with a dazzling mix of media, commerce and glamour, creating their own ‘brands’. This exhibition begins with the iconic grandfather of Pop, Andy Warhol, and also showcases Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring, Richard Prince, Martin Kippenberger, the YBAs and Takashi Murakami.

Tate Britain

The Turner Prize returns to Tate Britain, and this year the shortlist is: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer, Richard Wright. You can view works of the finalists at the Tate Britain, including Roger Hiorns’ piece ‘Seizure’ 2008, and Lucy Skaer’s piece ‘Black Alphabet’ 2008.

http://london.londinium.com/93844

Tate Modern
Price: Free

This is the 10th commission in the Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. This exhibition showcases Polish Artist Miroslaw Balka, with installations, sculpture and video by him. These works explore themes of personal history and common experience, and is intimate and self-reflective, demonstrating his central concerns of identifying personal memory within the context of historical memory.

http://london.londinium.com/93843

Royal Academy

This exhibition at the Royal Academy showcases Kapoor’s career, as well as showing new and previously unseen works by this seminal sculptor. One of the highlights of this exhibition is his work Svayambh, a vast corridor of imperceptibly moving red wax, which leaves a residue in it’s wake as it traverses the breadth of Burlington House.

http://london.londinium.com/93842

British Museum

Moctezuma II was the last elected ruler of the Aztecs, and this exhibition tells the story of his life and reign, including his controversial death during the Spanish conquest. To his people he was revered as semi-divine, but shortly after the Spanish landed on Mexican shores in 1519, violence ensued and Moctezuma was captured and met his death. After his death the Spanish went on to conquer his empire. This exhibition contains a variety of objects telling the story of Moctezuma’s life, ranging from sculpture, gold and mosaic items to codices and European paintings, drawn from Mexican, European, US collections and the British Museum’s own collection.

http://london.londinium.com/93841

Tate Britain
Price: Free

This free exhibition showcases Turner’s exploration of methods and techiniques, of colour and line. It follows Turner’s travels through Europe and his responses to different places, lighting and materials available. This ongoing exhibition will change exhibits every 6 months.

http://london.londinium.com/91509

Victoria and Albert Museum

This exhibition by the Royal College of Art displays highlights from 2008 graduates’ final collections. It shows the garments themselves, and the process of designing them from ideas to complete clothes.

http://london.londinium.com/91338

Trafalgar Studios

Production by the Northern Broadsides and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Starring Lenny Henry in the lead role.

http://london.londinium.com/91322

Imperial War Museum
Price: Free

Breakthrough is an art exhibition showcasing British art from both WWI and WWII, focusing particuarly on non-official and contemporary work. Official works shown will include some by Paul Nash, CRW Nevinson, John Piper and Eric Ravilious. Until the 28th June an additional display ‘The Neo-Romantics At War’ will also be on show, exploring the rise of British Neo-Romanticism during World War Two.

http://london.londinium.com/90055

Imperial War Museum
Age: 8-12

Taken from the Horrible History series of books, this exhibition lets visitors learn more about live in the trenches. Visitors can discover battle plans and living conditions, and can even try on strange clothes for living in trenches and climbing into mining tunnels, peering through periscopes and much more!

http://london.londinium.com/90054

Natural History Museum
Daily: 10am – 5:30pm

Several major artists and writers exhibit new and existing works inspired by Charles Darwin’s book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. The exhibition explores the idea that expressing emotions is not unique to humans, but shared with other animals.

http://london.londinium.com/88695

Science Museum
Cost: Free

Explore how astronomy has changed the way we see our universe – and ourselves – through this object-rich exhibition. From ancient heritage to cutting edge technology, trace the history of people and the stars through different stories drawn from around the world.

http://london.londinium.com/88640

Science Museum
Cost: Free

The exhibition has four sections focusing on 100 years of making plastics: The Birth of Plastics, Plastic Dreams, Plastics Now, and Plastic Futures.

http://london.londinium.com/88638

Science Museum
Cost: Free

This temporary exhibition showcases 20 examples where F1™ technology is impacting on our lives, from changing the way we look after patients and design our sports equipment, to maintaining the heating systems in our homes.

http://london.londinium.com/88637

FASHION, JEWELLERY & ACCESSORIES
Magnificence of the Tsars, Magnificence of the Emperors: From The Moscow Kremlin Museums Collection

10 December 2008 – 29 March 2009, Fashion, Room 40,
The grandeur of Imperial Russia is captured in this display of the dress and uniforms of Emperors and officials of the Russian court. Starting in the 1720s with the lavishly embroidered coats and elaborately patterned silk banyans from the wardrobe of Tsar Peter II, the display spans a period of almost two centuries.

Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones.

24 February – 31 May 2009, The Porter Gallery
Working with radical hat designer, Stephen Jones, the V&A presents an ‘anthology of hats’. Drawn from V&A and international collections and ranging in style and period from a 17th-century Puritan’s hat to a 1950s Balenciaga couture piece to hats by Jones and his contemporaries including to the latest creations by young milliners such as Noel Stewart, the exhibition investigates the cultural and historic importance of millinery. The exhibition is arranged in four main themes – Inspiration looks at the myriad of sources including historicism, exoticism and the natural world; Creation explores the techniques, materials and processes; The Salon focuses on the buying and selling of hats and the millinery shop; and The Clients which examines the wearing and etiquette of hats and features headgear worn by well known clients of some of the world’s top milliners including Audrey Hepburn, Anna Piaggi, Dita von Teese.

The Olympic Stadium Project – Le Corbusier and Baghdad
9 October 2008 – 29 March 2009,  Architecture, Room 128a
This display examines one of the last projects by Le Corbusier, begun in 1957, his fascinating design for a sports stadium in Baghdad. With specially commissioned models, it gives a sense of what this marvellous structure would have looked like had the project come to fruition. The stadium was planned around a set of innovative radially arranged ribs or “voiles”, the designs for 20 of which also feature in the display.
Le Corbusier regarded athletes as metaphors for modern man, and with Pierre Jeanneret he created an experimental design for a huge stadium for 100 000 people for athletic/cultural use. Le Corbusier referred to it as a “civic tool for a modern age.”

‘Seasons through the Looking Glass’ Tunnel Installation
28 March 2008 – 29 March 2009, Tunnel Entrance
Alice’s adventures began when she fell into a tunnel that unexpectedly twisted downwards to form a deep well. She landed abruptly on a heap of sticks and dry leaves. This notion of mythical underground spaces is the subject of CJ Lim’s installation, a multi-sensory and tactile intervention which explores the spatial possibilities of a subterranean garden.

Libraries of Light: Photographic Books from the V&A Collection
24 April 2008 – 19 April 2009, Photography, Room 38a
Photographic books are almost as old as photography itself. Indeed, one of the inventors of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot, was also author of one of the very first books to include photographs, The Pencil of Nature (1844). This display features highlights of historic, classic and contemporary photographic books from the Museum’s library alongside prints from the photographs archive.

The Booker Prize, 6 September 2008 – 17 May 2009
This display celebrates the 40th anniversary of the leading literary award, The Booker and Man Booker Prize. It presents winning and shortlisted books from the past forty years, alongside promotional material and the original Booker trophy, created by the artist Jan Pienkowski. It explores the practice of collecting Booker Prize books, featuring signed limited first editions and proof copies from the collection of the literary agent and book collector Peter Straus. The display demonstrates how the design of book jackets has changed since the first prize was awarded in 1969 and includes examples of bespoke bindings of shortlisted books created by members of one of the foremost societies devoted to the craft of fine bookbinding, the British Society of Designer Bookbinders.

Capturing the Moment. Photographs by Reg Wilson
18 March 2009 – 10 January 2010, Theatre and Performance Temporary Exhibition Gallery, Room 104
Reg Wilson is one of Britain’s most prolific performance photographers.  From the 1960s he has recorded four decades of the performing arts in all their richness and variety, capturing the great and the good on stage, backstage and in the studio. This selection from Wilson’s archive, chosen by the artist, shows every aspect of the performance process from the studio to the finished product.  It also demonstrates a range of techniques, from the staged photo-call to the snatched backstage shot and includes some of the earliest stage photography and colour productions.

Contemporary Drawings ‘Wine, Women and Song 1′, Martin Fuller,
7 March – 30 July 2009,Leighton, Room 102
The V&A has recently acquired an extensive group of contemporary drawings by artists who work across all the fine art disciplines: painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers and installation artists. The drawings in this display are very diverse, ranging from the figurative, to the abstract, to the conceptual. What connects them is the versatile medium of drawing itself, the essential foundation of all art practice.

Medieval & Renaissance highlights – Makers and Markets
26 March 2007 – 27 April 2009 Sculpture, Room 117
This small display highlights the growing market in 16th century Europe for decorative goods – from costly lustreware, enamels and sculptures to more modest domestic stoneware pots. Works by some of the greatest sculptors of the period, such as Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini and Giambologna, are included. These artists were celebrated figures in their own lifetimes and princes, popes and the rising merchant classes were keen to acquire works by such celebrated masters.

Cultural Connections: Africa
July 2008 – June 2009, Sackler Centre, Room 220
This display presents a diverse group of objects with links to the African diaspora interpreted by an invited artist. Maria Amidu is interested in the relationships between people and public collections. Here she reflects on the role museum curators play in determining what appears on display and how it is presented.

The Art of Drinking
26 September 2007 – 26 April 2009, Room 66,
For the past 500 years drinking has stimulated a rich material culture. Specific situations and drinks require particular vessels, from stoneware beer mugs to jade wine cups and silver goblets. This display explores the varied and often curious designs of drinking vessels in order to explain their function and importance.

Fragments
10 November 2008 – 8 November 2009, Room 116, The Belinda Gentle Metalware Gallery
The metalwork collection includes fragments of objects. These are often beautiful, intriguing and revealing in their own right. On first seeing them, we often wonder what they are. By examining a detail we can understand more about the whole object, what it is made of, and how it was made. This display showcases fragments of objects and looks at how they were made.

http://london.londinium.com/1833

A mother. A daughter. 3 possible dads. And a trip down the aisle you’ll never forget!

Over 32 million people all around the world have fallen in love with the characters, the story and the music that make MAMMA MIA! the ultimate feel-good show!

Writer Catherine Johnson’s sunny, funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father brings 3 men from her mother’s past back to the island they last visited 20 years ago. The story-telling magic of ABBA’s timeless songs propels this enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship, and every night everyone’s having the time of their lives!

http://london.londinium.com/19541 – Mamma Mia

Turner and the Masters will juxtapose Turner’s greatest paintings alongside works by old masters and contemporaries that he hoped to imitate, rival and surpass. Featuring around 100 works the exhibition will include paintings by Claude, Canaletto, Ruisdael, Van de Velde, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt, Constable, Bonington and many others known by Turner at first hand. This will be a unique exhibition exploring how Turner’s responses to other artists were both acts of homage and a sophisticated form of art criticism. Not to be missed.

http://www.londinium.com/london/68606.html