Exhibitions in London: 46 events this week (19 Aug to 25 Aug)

Few cities rotate their exhibitions as constantly as London. Between the national museums, the commercial galleries, and the steady churn of project spaces, there is always something new going up and something else coming down. The result is a calendar that rewards regular checking: a blockbuster retrospective one month, a quiet photography show in a back room the next, an artist you have never heard of in a converted warehouse after that.

The big institutions set the headline shows. Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the National Gallery, the V&A, the British Museum, and the Royal Academy all run major temporary exhibitions alongside their permanent collections, and these tend to be ticketed and busy. They are the shows that book out, so timed entry and an early or weekday slot make a real difference. The Barbican, the Hayward, and the Design Museum fill in the contemporary and design end with programmes that are often more adventurous than the nationals.

The gallery scene is where the breadth really opens up. Mayfair and St James carry the blue-chip commercial galleries, most of them free to walk into. East London, around Vyner Street, Hackney, and the streets off Bethnal Green, has a denser run of independent and artist-run spaces. South London galleries cluster around Peckham and Camberwell. Openings cluster on weekday evenings, and entry to commercial galleries is almost always free, which makes a gallery crawl one of the cheaper ways to spend an afternoon in the city.

A few things to keep in mind. The permanent collections at the national museums are free, but the headline temporary exhibitions usually carry a separate ticket. Popular shows sell timed slots and fill up at weekends, so booking ahead and going midweek pays off. And exhibitions run for fixed windows, so a show you have been meaning to see can close without warning. The listings below pull together what is on across the city now, so you can catch things before they come down.