London gets ‘CUTE’: Why an exhibition all about cuteness is getting us excited for 2024

“I don’t get cute, I get drop-dead gorgeous.”

Food for thought there from American drag performer and choreographer Alyssa Edwards, who might not be as excited as we are about an upcoming London exhibition that focuses less on gorgeousness and more on cuteness. Exclusively, in fact.

Indeed, if there’s one exhibit to mark in your calendars for the first quarter of 2024, it’s the new exhibition at Somerset House, which is going to explore how cuteness influences culture and society.

It’s simply – and appropriately - entitled ‘CUTE’, and will open on 25 January 2024.

Curated by Claire Catterall, Senior Curator at Somerset House, the exhibition will look at everything from emojis to internet memes, video games to plushie toys and food, bringing contemporary artists together from a variety of disciplines to navigate our relationship to the adorable aesthetic.

‘CUTE’ promises to be “a landmark exhibition exploring the irresistible force of cuteness in contemporary culture” which will “examine the world’s embrace of cute culture and how it has become such an influential measure of our times.”

Contributing artists include Mike Kelley, Yumeji Takehisa, Aya Takano, Ado Mizumori, Juliana Huxtable, Wong Ping, Rachel Maclean, Ram Ham and more.

One we’re particularly excited for is the immersive visual and sonic music installation by multidisciplinary artist Hannah Diamond. 

Inspired by a girl’s sleepover, featuring a curated collection of videos from the likes of SOPHIE, Charli XCX, A.G. Cook, GFOTY, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, felicita and more, as well as from Diamond herself, the artist brings her affirmative vision of hyper pink girlhood to showcase the best of the super cute electronic dance music.

As you can probably guess, cats will play an