When Victoria Miro opened her first gallery on London’s Cork Street 40 years ago, the art world was in a state of flux. While traditional establishments still reigned, a punk spirit threatened the status quo. With her sharp instincts and artist loyalty, Miro located a sweet spot in her commercial space shaped around her own love of art.
Alice Neel, Ivan Karp, 1965
Success rapidly followed, with Miro relocating to larger premises in Hoxton in 2000, as well as opening another space in Venice in 2016. Consistently respected, weathering both a catastrophic recession and the radical changes in the art market ushered in by the Frieze Art Fair and the Young British Artists movement, Miro has held strong as the art scene has escalated to a global scale.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Na Parlour (In the Parlor), 2025
To mark the gallery’s 40th anniversary, Miro is hosting an exhibition in her Hoxton space, which, since 2006, has also included an adjoining viewing gallery and waterside sculpture garden. It will showcase work from the gallery’s roster of artists, including Sarah Sze, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Conrad Shawcross, Do Ho Suh and Paula Rego, encompassing a mixture of the new and the historic, from María Berrío’s dreamlike watercolours on linen to Celia Paul’s ghostlike portraits. Elsewhere, Miro’s ongoing support for an eclectic array of mediums is evinced in Wangechi Mutu’s sculptures in soil, wood, porcelain and bone; Doug Aitken’s high-density foam, steel and acid-etched mirror; and Grayson Perry’s glazed ceramics.
'Victoria Miro: 40 Years’ is on show until 1 August at Victoria Miro, London N1
This article appears in the July 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 5 June 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
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