In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transformed by a £15 million capital redevelopment that doubled its exhibition spaces, restored period features and opened itself up to its surrounding park.

[1] On 26 April 2003, three paintings thought to be worth a total of £4 million — Van Gogh's The Fortification of Paris with Houses, Picasso's Poverty and Gauguin's Tahitian Landscape — were stolen from the gallery.

[8][9] After an anonymous tip-off, they were found rolled up in a nearby public toilet with a note claiming that the motive of the theft was to highlight poor security at the gallery.

The gallery consisting of two storeys and a basement is constructed of red brick with bands and dressings of matching terracotta and has green slate roofs.

[13] The refurbishment works, undertaken by architects MUMA envisaged the gallery reopening to the public by summer 2014,[13] but complications delayed the opening.

Developers have constructed a glass, stainless steel and brick extension consisting of two wings which extend into Whitworth Park from the back of the gallery building.

The gallery also focuses on modern and contemporary artists, and the art collections include works by Degas, van Gogh, Gauguin, Pissarro, Picasso, Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Walter Sickert, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ford Madox Brown, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Bacon, William Blake, David Hockney, L. S. Lowry, and a fine collection of works by J. M. W. Turner.

[citation needed] Sook-Kyng Lee became director and took up her role at the Whitworth in August 2023 and become Honorary Professor of Transcultural Curating at the University of Manchester.