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Contemporary Art London

Nine London galleries and institutions, from a free Camberwell room open since 1891 to a St James's flagship with a Paris outpost, where the programming, not the postcode, sets the standard.

London's contemporary art world is often described through its auction houses and its art fairs. The venues that actually define it are quieter than that. Some are free and public: the Whitechapel Gallery gave England its first Picasso exhibition in 1938; the South London Gallery has shown ambitious work in Camberwell, without charge, since 1891. Others are commercial rooms built on decades of curatorial judgement, or artist-run spaces where the institution is the artists themselves. What connects the nine venues here is not size or address but standing — each has an exhibition programme worth crossing London for, on its own terms, regardless of what happens to be on this week.

9 venues

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