Victoria Miro Gallery

So far, I’ve only been talking about places that I have an undisputed and passionate bias towards and the Victoria Miro is no exception. On a desolate road on the Hackney-Islington border and perilously close to McDonalds, it’s the last place you’d expect to find a paragon of aesthetic brilliance… until you walk in. Boasting the likes of Chris Ofili, Grayson Perry and Isaac Julien on its roster (who also happen to be three of my favourite artists - if they exhibited Jake and Dinos Chapman too I’d move into the place), it is now hosting a jaw dropping show by Elmgreen and Dragset, in which visitors are met by a total transformation of the gallery’s interior architecture via several new interconnecting large-scale installations. You will walk through what is described as “a party that’s already over: lights are still blinking and the disco ball sadly spinning, but there’s no-one on the dance floor, and the last round has been served long ago.”
If you’re lucky enough in future to get into one of the previews (for that try First Thursday, or just get onto their mailing list; mere mortals are allowed - you don’t have to be the next Charles Saatchi or anything) you’ll also get to relax, drink wine and pretend to be intellectual on their gorgeous venranda, which has a paradoxically not-so-gorgeous view of weeds, a pond backing onto some old warehouse. The show ends on the 15th so best hurry on down!

The huge space of this gallery takes you by suprise. The outside street is your typical East London ‘gallery street’ that at first seems like the backend of warehouses until you notice the sleekly designed titles on the doors denoting their art secrets inside. When I visited this space, I was fortunate enough to see the wonderful and crazy Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition. The vastness of the gallery space clearly facilitated Kusama’s famous psychedelic environments, allowing an enjoyable playground of madness for spectators! Also, there is a garden and a third gallery space that’s actually located in the building next door, which houses the Parasol Unit. This can be abit confusing, but on the up hand, why not take in two shows?

The Victoria Miro gallery is unprepossessing from the outside: it's tucked behind McDonald's just off City Road and you press a bell to be admitted. Inside it isn't that easy to find your way around - the gallery consists of the original building, plus an extension over the neighbouring Parasol Unit Foundation of Contemporary Art. You nip from one to the other via the back terrace.

The extension would be worth seeing even if it was empty. Conceived by minimalist Claudio Silvestrin, it's wonderfully open, white, clean and sleek, with views over this rapidly changing part of London. When I visited it was occupied by huge, dense and disorientating black and white paintings by Yayoi Kusama, commissioned for the space and suiting it perfectly.

The original building is less arresting and even slightly run down - it felt slightly dangerous picking my way up a wooden staircase in the dark to see Phil Collins' video installation - but it's another large and versatile space.

The gallery is free and you'll find your way into the Parasol Unit at the same time. Well worth a visit.