Overview
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Route
My tour connects several pockets of galleries in the East End with pit stops for food and refreshments, as well as optional extensions to nearby non-profits. To optimise my tour, leave late morning – and on an empty stomach! My itinerary doesn’t take in all galleries along the way, so please feel free to adjust according to your time permits. [Read my full route description below] -
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Union Pacific 17 Goulston Street London E1 7TP [Ground floor wheelchair accessible] ChIJBTBdlrQcdkgRfiZFCyZOCoY 51.51622605096252,-0.07493237484204683 Union Pacific is a contemporary art gallery based in London, representing challenging and ambitious new artworks and artists. It was founded in 2014 by Grace Schofield and Nigel Dunkley, with... View gallery
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Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix 19 Goulston Street London E1 7TP ChIJBTBdlrQcdkgRoDqN77xTSMQ 51.51613920498902,-0.07497565925463374 local yet cross-cultural View gallery
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Project Native Informant 48 Three Colts Ln, London E2 6GQ [Wheelchair accessible] ChIJB4ndfysFdkgRcV6CyO1hc6A 51.52495101804457,-0.056010077243879255 Contemporary art gallery established in 2013 with a strong interest in expanded institutional critique View gallery
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mother's tankstation 58-64 Three Colts Lane London E2 6GP [Wheelchair accessible] ChIJixEkitAcdkgRlsAgvHndxbQ 51.52454,-0.05734 Established in Dublin, 2006, mother’s tankstation privileges the development of emerging and complex practices, presented within critical/polemical frameworks. In addition to the Dublin base, mother’s opened a London space in... View gallery
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Maureen Paley 60 Three Colts Lane London E2 6GQ [Wheelchair accessible] ChIJa0FEfNAcdkgRKrbjLXiIpwk 51.524380,-0.057650 Maureen Paley is a long established art gallery and was amongst the first to present contemporary art in London’s East End. The gallery has been a pioneer of the current... View gallery
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Herald St 2 Herald Street London E2 6JT ChIJozrofdAcdkgRAgL5jg5KBPk 51.52488,-0.05541 ESTABLISHED IN 2005, HERALD ST HAS TWO SPACES ACROSS LONDON AND REPRESENTS 25 INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS View gallery
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Rose Easton 223 Cambridge Heath Road London E2 0EL ChIJSVrwidocdkgRnCHzrlZZdZw 51.52495,-0.05519320 Rose Easton opened in London in October 2021 View gallery
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NiCOLETTi 12A Vyner Street London E2 9DG ChIJ-4lv2NEddkgRkd9hnJoHtzc 51.53431,-0.05609 NıCOLETTı is a London-based gallery dedicated to supporting the development of emerging artists View gallery
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Soft Opening 6 Minerva Street London E2 9EH [Wheelchair accessible] ChIJdXlCRMMcdkgRlwKZgO6dGBU 51.531520,-0.059530 EMERGING CONTEMPORARY IN EAST LONDON View gallery
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ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY Unit 9, 472 Hackney Road London E2 9EQ [Wheelchair accessible] ChIJjfEKN8McdkgRCIZsMzRdpSc 51.531981,-0.057968 Presenting Contemporary Art and Crypto Art View gallery
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Unit 1, 2 Treadway Street London E2 6QW ChIJk8KQaKEddkgR6Blp-kkC1h4 51.531886778003454,-0.06019948831686435 Sherbet Green is a contemporary art gallery, located on Treadway Street since September 2022. View gallery
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The Approach 47 Approach Road London E2 9LY ChIJ315Pt94cdkgR_rac7r19pbM 51.53194,-0.05074 Located in Bethnal Green above The Approach Tavern, for over twenty years The Approach has operated an internationally recognised programme from its East London base. Founded in 1997, The Approach... View gallery
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Tabula Rasa Gallery Unit One, 99 East Road London N1 6AQ [Wheelchair accesible] ChIJSSu8E6QcdkgRuprpGR3TTio 51.529150,-0.087340 A leading contemporary art gallery offering a platform for East and South-East Asian artists in Europe View gallery
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Victoria Miro 16 Wharf Road London N1 7RW [Wheelchair accessible] ChIJ28bNtlgbdkgR1yXFqkfZR0I 51.5325,-0.09668 Founded in 1985, Victoria Miro quickly earned acclaim for showing the work of established and emerging international contemporary artists. View gallery
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My tour connects several pockets of galleries in the East End with pit stops for food and refreshments, as well as optional extensions to nearby non-profits. To optimise my tour, leave late morning – and on an empty stomach! My itinerary doesn’t take in all galleries along the way, so please feel free to adjust according to your time permits.
Let’s start at Union Pacific where up-and-coming Libyan artist Nour Jaouda presents a series of her beautiful, yet distressed textiles that reference the contemporary state of migration and the unravelling and restoration of personal and collective identity. Her work serves as an interesting counterpoint to French-Congolese artist Anthony Ngoya’s work next door at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix. Ngoya employs everyday objects, ready-mades and even waste to conjure memories of the past and new readings of the world around us.
From Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, you have two delicious options to fill your belly for the rest of our journey: Duck & Waffle (110 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AY) or Momlette (8 Cheshire Street E2 6EH). Duck & Waffle is the upscale option and requires reservations, often far in advance. Located on the 40 th floor of 110 Bishopsgate, you’ll get sweeping views of London and the journey before you. The advantage of Momlette is that it is in bustling Spitalfields Market, halfway to our next destination.
The galleries around Herald Street are our next stop. First to Project Native Informant, which celebrates it 10th anniversary with a group show of the gallery’s artists. Their stellar roster includes DIS, Sophia Al-Maria, Flo Brooks, GCC and Juliana Huxtable – artists and collectives who are defining this generation of contemporary art. Just down the road, mother’s tankstation presents a solo installation of Irish film/video artist Myrid Carten, whose carefully constructed moving image works often blur fact and fiction.
If you have time, you might also want to visit Maureen Paley, Herald St, and Rose Easton – all a minute or two walk away. From Herald Street, head north on Cambridge Heath Road where you can get a shot of caffeine at many local cafes such as Beehive (305 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9LH), which is halfway to our next destination. Our next stop is Nicoletti, which stages a group exhibition that critically unpacks how structures and systems deeply rooted in colonialism have complicated our relationship to the environment. The show features several previous participants in our residencies and programmes at Delfina Foundation such as Candice Lin, Patricia Dominguez and Ali Cherri, who received the Silver Lion in the 2022 Venice Biennale of Art.
Soft Opening exhibits ceramic works by the Japanese-Nigerian artist Narumi Nekpenekpe, which were produced during her residency at Rochester Square in London. The touch of Nekpenekpe’s hand is evident in her colourful figures and objects that are often inspired by pop culture, American cartoons, Japanese anime, and perhaps her own inner child.
My curated tour now jumps to Old Street but before departing this area, consider popping into Annka Kultys Gallery and Sherbet Green, or walking more eastwards to The Approach as well as local non-profits, Auto Italia and The Chisenhale Gallery – both of which are well worth the detour.
Unless you need the exercise, I would travel to our next destination by bike, uber, or the number 55 bus (and then walking up from Old Street). Founded in Beijing, the London branch of Tabula Rasa presents a solo show by Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying stemming from his residency with us at Delfina Foundation in 2021 and artist’s interest in decolonization in relation to Asia. Tabula Rasa shares its space with a bookstore – do pause for a browse.
Our final stop is Victoria Miro. If you want to take the longer but scenic route: walk up and around Regent’s Canal; otherwise, it’s less than ten minutes direct. Victoria Miro has new works by two iconic Black British artists, Isaac Julien and Chris Ofili. Julien’s photographic series complements his film installation that forms part of his highly acclaimed retrospective currently at Tate Britain. Ofili presents a major suite of paintings relating to the seven deadly sins, which will surely captivate audiences during London Gallery Weekend and beyond.
All these artists explore the human condition through different creative strategies and responses to materiality and immateriality, shaped by the diverse contexts in which they work – and we all live.