Henry Moore exhibition at Kew Gardens is artist's largest ever outdoor display

Kew Gardens will open a vast Henry Moore exhibition in May 2026. Over 30 of Moore’s sculptures will go on display, making it the largest outdoor exhibition dedicated to the British artist ever staged.

Henry Moore: Monumental Nature will open at Kew Gardens in south-west London on 09 May 2026, and will run until 27 September 2026. It will feature major loans of famous Moore works displayed across the whole of Kew’s 320-acre site, as well as inside its Temperate House, the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world.

Reclining Woman Elbow 1981 by Henry Moore. Photo: Jonty Wilde

If that wasn’t enough for Moore fans, the exhibition will even take over Kew’s Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, where an additional 90 works will be shown, including bronzes, stone and wood carvings, prints and drawings. Collectively they will explore Moore’s unique process of ‘thinking through nature’.

Major Henry Moore loans to Kew

The new art exhibition is a major partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation which is based at Moore’s former home in Hertfordshire but also helps run the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. The Foundation is lending most of the sculptures going on show, including Large Two Forms, Oval with Points (1968-70), Reclining Woman: Elbow, Locking Piece (1981) and Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae (1968-69). Other important loans will come from the collections of Tate and the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich.

---

📩 Get London exhibition news sent to your inbox with my free newsletter

---

Henry Moore: Monumental Nature will celebrate Moore’s profound connection to ecology. He saw the outdoor landscape as vital to understanding his artistic practice, believing that landscapes provided the perfect setting for his sculptures, where the natural architecture of the environment could amplify their visual and emotional impact.

Oval with Points 1968-70 by Henry Moore. Photo: Anita Feldman

Curators at Kew Gardens — which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — will craft an inspiring interplay between art and the surrounding landscape through the display of these famous works. In turn, they hope visitors will reflect on how they perceive and interact with the natural world.

“This new exhibition will invite visitors to engage deeply with Moore’s artistic inspirations, revealing how his work was shaped by the scientific and natural discoveries unfolding during his lifetime” said Paul Denton, Director of Creative Programmes and Exhibitions at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew when announcing the exhibition. 

He added that he was “delighted to be collaborating once again with the Henry Moore Foundation.”

Henry Moore in his studio, 1968. Photo: Henry Moore Archive

This Moore exhibition is the latest exhibition in Kew Gardens’ recent attempts to become a destination in which to enjoy contemporary and modern art outdoors. In 2025, they hosted a world-premiere digital art commission focusing on one of Kew’s oldest trees by artist Marshmallow Laser Feast. While in 2024, YBA Marc Quinn exhibited across Kew, including more than 20 new works made specially for the Gardens. 

Tickets for this Henry Moore show will be part of the standard admission for Kew Gardens. Due to Moore's popularity, it's expected it'll be one of the most popular London exhibitions in 2026.

Kew publishes Henry Moore exhibition book

Unsurprisingly, this world-leading exhibition will be accompanied by a landmark book. Also called Henry Moore: Monumental Nature, the catalogue will expand on the theme presented in the show of exploring the artist’s work through the lens of nature. It will feature essays from leading art scholars and Kew experts, and stunning photography, revealing various viewpoints from which Moore’s work can be understood. It will be published in May 2026 but is available to pre-order now.

Henry Moore at Wakehurst in 2026

But if that wasn’t enough, Kew are also opening a SECOND Moore exhibition in summer 2026 too. 

At Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, they will host a parallel presentation of four of Moore’s sculptures, alongside newly commissioned pieces from contemporary artists. The exhibition — titled Henry Moore and more and opening on 05 June 2026 — will see these new commissions not only complimenting Moore’s sculptures, but also illuminating the many ways in which artists respond to nature, and how they often evoke themes of care and protection.

---

*This website may receive a small commission if you click a link and purchase something on this page, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.