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"View Slide Show\n\nWith London in full celebration mode this summer, the city's irrepressible art scene is contributing an impressive slate of exhibitions and public artworks. The most spectacular project also happens to be the most controversial: The ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, designed by sculptor Anish Kapoor and architect Cecil Balmond and located next to the Olympic stadium, officially debuts on July 27 (arcelormittalorbit.com). Early responses to the twisting red metal structure have been skeptical\u2014one critic said it looked like the \"Eiffel Tower after a nuclear attack.\" At 376 feet high, the sculpture (or is it architecture?) is by far Britain's tallest. Plus, it has a viewing platform and caf\u00E9 at the top.\n\nWhen it comes to grand gestures, Britain's most famous living artist, Damien Hirst, has never been shy, and the Tate Modern's blockbuster retrospective of his work is sure to be the season's splashiest draw. All of his greatest hits\u2014pickled animals, medicine cabinets, and the \"spin,\" \"spot,\" and \"butterfly\" paintings\u2014will be on view (April 4\u2013September 9; tate.org.uk).\n\nTwo of Hirst's fellow Young British Artists who rose to prominence in the '90s, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whiteread, star at the Whitechapel Gallery. Wearing gets a major survey of her conceptual photographs and films (through June 17), while Whiteread is creating a permanent frieze of gilded-bronze leaves to ornament the museum's long-empty historic fa\u00E7ade (to be unveiled in June; whitechapelgallery.org). Meanwhile, Charles Saatchi, the megacollector once closely associated with the YBAs, is showing contemporary photography in \"Out of Focus\" at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea (April 25\u2013July 22; saatchi-gallery.co.uk).\n\nLondon's premier photocentric institution, the respected but under-the-global-radar Photographers' Gallery, is making a timely bid to raise its profile. The nonprofit space opens expanded quarters on May 19 with an exhibition of Edward Burtynsky's large-scale landscapes (through July 1; photonet.org.uk).\n\nStraddling the gap between contemporary art and Old Masters, \"Metamorphosis: Titian 2012\" at the National Gallery features set designs created by artists Chris Ofili, Conrad Shawcross, and Mark Wallinger for a trio of new ballets inspired by the museum's three great Titian paintings (July 11\u2013September 23; nationalgallery.org.uk). The interdisciplinary project includes a performance by the Royal Ballet on July 16 that will be broadcast on a giant screen in Trafalgar Square. Also in the spirit of public engagement, Martin Creed is enlisting every willing person in Britain to join in a collective ringing of bells (any bell), starting at 8 A.M. and lasting for three minutes, on July 27.\n\nFinally, a list of must-see shows has to include the National Portrait Gallery's \"The Queen: Art and Image,\" which presents some 60 depictions of Elizabeth II, from Pietro Annigoni's 1954\u201355 portrait to more recent likenesses by Lucian Freud and Annie Leibovitz (May 17\u2013October 21; npg.org.uk). The Queen's Diamond Jubilee festivities will peak on June 3 with a pageant on the Thames, featuring the monarch on a barge decorated by master carvers and accompanied by music, fireworks, and a flotilla of 1,000 boats. It should be quite a spectacle. Let's call it performance art.\n\nClick to see a selection of can't-miss exhibitions and events."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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