Each month, we bring you a selection of UK exhibitions that complement each other or draw on similar themes. You can discover more about these exhibitions on Bloomberg Connects, a free app which allows access to museums, galleries and cultural spaces around the world. For unique content and behind-the-scenes commentary, download the app today.

This month, we look at how museums and galleries are spotlighting our capacity to fight oppression, or how artists express turbulent world events.

Art has frequently been a powerful tool for instigating social or political change, with many artists making work that responds to inequalities or which challenge the status quo. While protest is at the heart of modern art's rejection of traditional forms of art, political activism shaped twentieth-century art in much more significant ways: Picasso's Guernica remains a powerful anti-war statement in its reflection of the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

More recently, artists have used art to continue to protest against war and political conflict – works about the Miners' Strike, for example, or Jeremy Deller's Battle of Orgreave (2001) – as well as standing up against racism, sexism and climate inaction. The five exhibitions below draw attention to different forms of resistance – from street protests and anti-slavery movements, to more personal reflections on tumultuous world events or social injustices.

'Resistance', Turner Contemporary, Margate (until 1st June 2025)

This exhibition, conceived by artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen, looks at a century of protest in Britain and the way in which photography shaped our understanding of this period. There are many acts of defiance covered here: beginning with the suffragette movement in 1913, the show takes in the Miners' Strike, anti-Iraq marches, demonstrations against the National Front, and fights for gay liberation.

Head to the Bloomberg Connects app for bespoke audio content related to the exhibition: hear, for example, about the Battle of Cable Street or the Grunwick dispute, in which thousands of workers united against the treatment of migrant workers between 1976 and 1978.

'Rise Up', Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (until 1st June 2025)

The fight to end transatlantic slavery is the focus of this thematic exhibition, which brings together historic works alongside contemporary interpretations by artists such as Joy Labinjo and Kimathi Donkor.

Particular attention is paid to the battle for abolition during the period 1750–1850 in order to highlight the undervalued role played by Black Georgians and Victorians, making clear the important contributions by abolitionists such as Olaudah Equiano. A portrait by John Russell of the more complex figure of the Countess of Huntingdon is included, indicating her role as both an enslaver and an abolitionist.

The Right Honourable Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (1707–1791), Foundress and Benefactress

'Arpita Singh: Remembering', Serpentine North, London (until 27th July 2025)

Indian artist Arpita Singh (b.1937) has been painting for more than 60 years but this is her first UK solo exhibition. Her colourful figurative paintings (165 works are on show here) filled with scenes from everyday life, especially detailing the inner lives of women, may be read against a broader backdrop of turbulent Indian history. Disparate imagery jostles for our attention in a world that appears messy and violent: guns are a frequent motif, as are references to displacement.

1990, oil on canvas by Arpita Singh (b.1937)

Alongside a detailed introduction which points out Singh's debt to Surrealism, as well as her interest in Indian court paintings and folk narratives, the Bloomberg Connects guide to the exhibition includes a video interview with the artist by Serpentine director Hans Ulrich Obrist. 'What is Arpita Singh's definition of art,' he asks. 'Art is a parallel life,' she replies. You can also listen to an audio introduction by curator Tamsin Hong and look at numerous highlights from the show with descriptions about each work.

2005, oil on canvas by Arpita Singh (b.1937)

'Htein Lin: Escape', IKON Gallery, Birmingham (until 1st June 2025)

Burmese painter Htein Lin (b.1966) made numerous paintings while a political prisoner in Myanmar from 1998–2004. Forty-five works from this period – titled 000235 after the number assigned to him during his incarceration by the International Committee of the Red Cross – are on show in this exhibition, revealing how Htein used prison uniforms as his canvas as well as utilising found objects such as soap, toothpaste tubes and syringes.

Sitting at Iron Gate, from the series 000235 (1998–2004)

An in-depth audio guide to the exhibition on Bloomberg Connects picks out some key works, with the artist offering his own insights. A new work, Fiery Hell, for example, references the current civil war in Myanmar, with Htein relating his experience of witnessing the plight of those affected.

'Rhea Storr: Subjects of State, Labours of Love', Wolverhampton Art Gallery (until 8th June 2025)

Filmmaker Rhea Storr's 16mm film tells the story of Caribbean community groups in Wolverhampton and Sheffield, giving some sense of their shared joys and struggles. More broadly making work about Black cultural representation, Storr here asks what it means to sustain a community and the wider cultural impact such groups have for people of colour.

Installation view, 'Rhea Storr: Subjects of State, Labours of Love', Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 2025

You can find out more about the exhibition on Bloomberg Connects, which tells us that Storr's body of work is presented as an immersive video installation and gives some additional information about Storr's art more widely.

Imelda Barnard, Commissioning Editor – Exhibitions and Bloomberg Connects, Art UK

The Bloomberg Connects app is free to download from the App Store or Google Play. Download Bloomberg Connects today

This content was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies