White Cube

One of the leading art galleries for (very) contemporary and (very) commercial art in London. The building is imposing with a large white space on the ground floor and a smaller one on the 1st floor. The gallery is very open and welcoming to passers-by, with doors wide open and unintimidating staff. We saw a show from Raqib Shaw called “Absence of God” which was good and which our children liked a lot (something to do with the colorful butterflies and the bleeding beheaded monsters which they found very funny…). Definitely somewhere to stop if you are doing an East London tour or obviously if you are into art. Hoxton square has changed a lot since the days artists had their cheap studios around the square (15 years ago) but it retains a great simplicity and roughness that it is worth experimenting and the White Gallery is very well integrated in the local scene.

It’s one of those places you have to pop by when you’re in East London, ‘doing the galleries’, isn’t it? With its prolific reputation and placing at the epicentre of Shoreditch’s social hubbub it’s frankly rude not to. Maybe it’s just me, but since I’ve been going (which has been pretty frequently, since I lived a stone’s throw away from the place, moving when Shoreditch’s bar scene became too ‘Islington-esque’) it has attracted some pretty intimidatingly large scale works.

Does anyone remember that huge structure that was erected in the middle of Hoxton Square by Gabriel Orozco? Or those dramatically lit photographs by Gregory Crewdson that were so big you could almost pretend you were part of the action in the image? That’s why the White Cube will always host a dear place in my heart. Despite my Dalstonite pals groaning ‘ooohh, it’s sooo oooo-ver’ whenever I suggest a visit, it definitely knows it’s raison d’etre: namely, big, intense, make-you stagger-backward artworks.

Andreas Golder was no exception. You are immediate immersed into some gaudy filmset by means of his paintings, where an indefinable disaster has just taken place. The grotesque is a constant theme within his paintings (although personally I thought the skinned bleeding monster sculpture took things way too far - I thought I was going to wretch. But maybe that was the point!).

The otherwise majestic-looking mis-en scenes of a ball, circus or banquet, besmirched with splashes of red, and hints of skulls, eyeballs and tongues. Not one for the faint hearted, or delicate of constitution!

White cube is, well, a white cube. From a brief entrance hall you walk straight into this single room gallery. It’s up to the artist what they do with it.

On a couple of occasions I walked past here on my way home from work, complete with shopping bag of food picked up at a local supermarket, only to find the whole of Hoxton Square outside heaving with people. On both occasions it turned out to be the opening night of an exhibition. So, thanks to White Cube I’m able to say I’ve met Tracey Emin and Gilbert and George. G and G were lovely and I had a good natter with them (Tracey was too busy talking to someone else!). The exhibitions were good as well.

I don’t think it’s especially friendly, but it’s worth checking out the website and seeing what’s on. As can be seen from the above, they do get some major artists doing shows there.

The White Cube gallery on Hoxton Square is the landmark which re-vitalized the East End into the trendy (now commercial) Shoreditch. The artsy crowd followed fashion designers, artists and Jay Jopling's White Cube project to the streets of E1 and E2.
Housed in a modern space, the White Cube is literally that, a white cube, stripping away all other possible interferences and allowing for maximum exposure and showcasing of contemporary art including some of the finest gallery roster names like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, The Chapman Brothers, Doris Salcedo, and Andreas Gursky.
Perfect for a cultural afternoon layover while roaming around the East, be sure to stop by the Macondo café on Hoxton Square just around the corner from the gallery for some post-art critique and tea.