What is the Meaning of Life?

Our spring 2026 season delves into the fundamental questions of human existence, from rule-making, to time and play.

16 May - 15 November 2026

Living by the Rule: Contemporary meets Medieval

Exploring the idea of routine and regulation, this exhibition reflected on the ‘rules’ that we live by today, through a dialogue between medieval experiments in a different way to live and modern reflections upon how life is organised.

Play Power

Exploring the concept of play in human cultures, Play Power reflected on the broader significance of play and how this is integrated into our daily lives. Would we live a more meaningful life if play were a central focus of day-to-day living?

Can We Stop Killing Each Other?

This season wrestled with one of the darkest and deadliest aspects of humanity, exploring the fundamental questions of why humans are led to kill and the culture that wrestles with this notion.

Seeds of Hate and Hope

This exhibition highlighted personal artistic responses to global atrocities, such as genocides, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity, challenging the typical representations of war and ‘trauma porn’ often dispelled through the media.

Roots of Resilience: Tesfaye Urgessa

Following a residency with the Sainsbury Centre, internationally acclaimed Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa unveiled a series of new paintings reflecting on the refugee crisis, which were created in dialogue with the museum’s collection.

Tiaki Ora ∞ Protecting Life: Anton Forde

Anton Forde’s monumental installation of 81 over-life-size figures, Papare Eighty.one (2024) with Shiree Reihana, was shown in the UK for the first time in a new site-specific configuration.

Darwin in Paradise Camp: Yuki Kihara

The UK premiere of 'Paradise Camp', a celebrated work by Yuki Kihara, an interdisciplinary artist of Sāmoan and Japanese descent.

Sea Inside

Sea Inside turned our oceanic gaze towards the sea’s more intimate spaces – whether physical, psychological or imaginary – and dived into shared watery origins, Indigenous ways of life and the items we remove from the sea to display on land.

A World of Water

What would the world be like without water? This exhibition aimed to unlock a sense of urgency, recognising that water, and possible geopolitical conflicts caused by it, will be as significant in this century as oil was in the 20th.

The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour: Reflections on Peace

The Sainsbury Centre has been selected as a partner for The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour 2025–27. The work selected for the first year was Monet’s The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil (1872).