Hackney Art Week returns from 4 to 14 June — here’s what to see and where to go
Across Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington and Hackney Wick, more than 130 artists take over 60 venues with exhibitions, performances, markets, workshops and late-night events .
Hackney Art Week expands for its second edition this summer, turning the borough into a ten-day programme that moves across studios, pubs, cafés, libraries and public space. The work is spread across Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington, Haggerston and Hackney Wick, asking audiences to move through the borough rather than arrive at a single destination.
Among the larger shows, Pink Chaos at Prokofiev Studio brings together more than 30 artists in a maximalist group exhibition spanning sculpture, fashion, installation and performance, all filtered through an unapologetically pink lens. At St Augustine’s Tower, Vertical Resistance takes a different approach, using the building’s narrow, vertical architecture to stage a site-specific exhibition of sculpture, sound and installation.
Across the borough, projects move in and out of everyday space. On weekends, a free pop-up portrait booth on London Fields invites visitors to sit for People of Hackney, contributing to a growing photographic archive of the area’s communities. Photographer Manal Massalha presents work rooted in shared space and social life at Dalston Curve Garden, while Liaqat Rasul’s collage works, shown across Dalston and Clapton, draw on migration, labour and collective memory.
The programme extends into nightlife and social space. The Queen Adelaide hosts a three-day takeover of queer-led events, DJs, tattoos and installations, timed with Pride Month, while Dalston’s cultural quarter opens up for a weekend of studios, markets and workshops. Participation runs throughout the festival, from Clare Qualmann’s Walking Scores for Hackney, which invites audiences to navigate the borough through prompts and movement, to Dream Dinner Tables at Tonkotsu East, where art and food are brought together in a conversation about memory and imagination.
Several works stay close to Hackney’s shifting social landscape. Tara Darby’s The White Cage, presented at Homerton Library, focuses on a football pitch on the Regent’s Estate, one of the area’s last gang-neutral spaces, while GG the Illustrator’s Estate of Mind documents council estates and everyday life as neighbourhoods change. Talks and events run alongside the exhibitions, including Richard Yeboah on gentrification at The Cannery and a conversation on Jamie Reid’s legacy at Strongroom.
The festival opens with a large-scale programme at The Rose Lipman Building and closes at Unlock with live music curated by Gabriel Prokofiev, bringing together artists from across the line-up.
Founded in 2025 by Lisa Baker and Anna McHugh as a grassroots platform for independent artists, Hackney Art Week continues to respond to the pressures on creative space in London by building a temporary network across the borough.
Hackney Art Week 2026
Dates: 4–14 June 2026
Locations: Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington, Haggerston, Hackney Wick
Venues include: Rio Cinema; Chats Palace; St Augustine’s Tower; The Rose Lipman Building and more
Price: Free (some ticketed events)
Website: www.hackneyartweek.com
Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
