Autumn is shaping up to be an exciting season for art lovers across the Liverpool city region. From immersive installations exploring our increasingly digital lives to exhibitions centred on community, identity, ancestry and overlooked histories, galleries across the city are welcoming a brilliant mix of established names and emerging talent.
Here are some of the standout autumn exhibitions to add to your cultural calendar.
Julia Carter Preston at the Bluecoat, Bluecoat (11 September – 8 November 2026)
Celebrating the centenary of much-loved Liverpool artist Julia Carter Preston, this fascinating archive display explores her long relationship with Bluecoat, where she maintained a studio overlooking the garden for many years.
Featuring photographs, documents and specially commissioned plaques, the exhibition offers an insight into the life and work of an artist known for her distinctive ceramics and revival of the centuries-old sgraffito technique. It forms part of a wider celebration taking place across five Liverpool venues, including Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool Hope University, Walker Art Gallery and Victoria Gallery & Museum.
BRB, FACT Liverpool (18 September – 6 December 2026)
Taking its name from the early internet abbreviation for “be right back”, BRB asks whether it is still possible to properly step away from our screens. Through film, animation, sculpture and interactive installations, North West-based artists Livi Wilmore, Mrs Luva-Luva and Ellie Hoskins explore how constant connectivity is reshaping our identities, relationships and sense of self. From an unsettling adult soft-play environment to a towering rollercoaster and a surreal supermarket powered by personal data, the exhibition takes a playful but thought-provoking look at life in an age of endless notifications, artificial intelligence and algorithmic feeds.
Seema Mattu: LOCAL SUPERSTAR II, FACT Liverpool (18 September 2026 – 14 February 2027)
Step aboard a tour bus and enter the ever-expanding world of Saheli, a fictional band created by artist Seema Mattu.
A series of films follows the group through auditions, rehearsals, interviews and jam sessions, while interactive instruments invite visitors to make music alongside the band and contribute to an evolving sonic landscape. Exploring caste, queer desire, technology and collective creativity, LOCAL SUPERSTAR II presents music as a space where people can gather, experiment and create something together.
For Mattu, superstardom is not simply about global fame, but the excitement of ideas taking shape at a local level, supported by the people and places around them.
Rae-Yen Song 宋瑞渊: •~TUA~• 大眼 •~MAK~•, FACT Liverpool (18 September 2026 – 14 February 2027)
Rae-Yen Song transforms the gallery into a living, otherworldly environment inspired by family mythology, ecology and Daoist ways of understanding the world.
At its centre is a glowing pond containing organic matter, microscopic life and invertebrates, whose movements influence the shifting light and sound around the space. Handmade objects created using textiles, glass, ceramic, willow, hair and even cat fur appear throughout the installation.
Inspired by the story of an ancestor who drowned at sea in 1950s Singapore, the exhibition brings together the visible and invisible, encouraging visitors to think of heritage and ancestry as something living, changing and deeply interconnected.
Next Up-2026, Open Eye Gallery (18 September – 1 November 2026)
Open Eye Gallery’s annual graduate exhibition returns with new work from early-career photographers connected to its MA in Socially Engaged Photography, delivered in partnership with the University of Salford.
Featuring Yaqeen Amir, Ella Horniman, Jack Smith and Helen Constantinou, this year’s exhibition explores subjects including displacement, LGBTQI+ history, working-class creativity and environmental damage.
From photographs documenting the 1988 protests against Section 28 to collaborative zines created with underrepresented communities in North Manchester, Next Up-2026 highlights stories and experiences that can often be overlooked, while offering an exciting glimpse at the future of socially engaged photography.
New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share, Open Eye Gallery (18 September – 20 December 2026)
Bringing together artists, community participants and museum collections from across the UK, New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share explores journeys, identity and the meaning of home.
Created through residencies in the Liverpool city region, Armagh and Aberdeenshire, the exhibition places the experiences of communities affected by migration and displacement at its heart. Photography, sculpture, sewing and writing sit alongside objects from museum collections, revealing how everyday items can hold powerful memories of family, heritage and belonging.
Related displays will also take place at The Atkinson, Kirkby Gallery and The World of Glass, before the exhibition continues its journey to Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Becky Beasley: A Gentle Man (Part II) (1975–2029), Bluecoat (26 September 2026 – 3 January 2027)
Becky Beasley’s touring exhibition completely transforms Bluecoat’s gallery, with a large green linoleum artwork stretching across the floor, hand-cut lake silhouettes and adjustable “conversation” or “kissing” benches where visitors can pause and rest.
Pastel-pink curtains shaped into the letters H, S and P — an acronym for Highly Sensitive Person — hang alongside ceramics, photographs and sculptural furniture. At the centre of the exhibition is a four-part video portrait of an imaginary figure combining elements of American writer Bernard Malamud and the artist’s father.
Narrated by actor Russell Tovey, the work moves through four major parts of life: work, family, chosen family and dying. Entry is free.
To discover more exhibitions and events taking place across Liverpool and the city region, explore Uncover Liverpool’s What’s On listings.