What are the very best galleries in London? Artists select their favorites

Multidisciplinary artist Lauren Baker, who’s exhibiting on the Venice Biennale until November, named contemporary galleries — and a hotel — as her favorite places to see art in London.

“Alice Black Gallery offers daring wonderful art with deeply conceptual works,” she told CNBC via email. “It is not all pretty, there’s often some dark and strange pieces that get you contemplating the meaning of life,” she said. The gallery is in London’s Soho and represents artists similar to Rachael Louise Bailey, who works in a wide range of mediums including sculpture, and abstract artist Matthew Harris.

Baker also likes Woolff Gallery in Fitzrovia, describing its collection as joyful. “With an actual give attention to texture and tactile works and lots of sculptural elements, the works are fun and colourful, and you only wish to touch the whole lot,” she said. The gallery represents artists including Apolline Bokkerink, whose work focuses on snowscapes and forests, and Joanne Tinker, who repurposes candy wrappers, discarded foils and champagne cork cages in her work.

Upscale Mayfair hotel Claridge’s opened its ArtSpace gallery in 2021, and Baker likes to go to it for its “cool art crowd” within the evening, or goes throughout the day and takes tea afterward. The gallery has its own café, or visitors can head to the hotel’s grand Foyer and Reading Room for traditional afternoon tea.

Artist and costume designer Machine Dazzle (born Matthew Flower), likes east London contemporary galleries Amanda Wilkinson — for its “impeccable” taste — and Maureen Paley, which has shown work from the likes of Turner Prize winning artists Gillian Wearing and Wolfgang Tillmans. He also recommends Fitzrovia gallery Niru Ratnam for its “forward-thinking and intelligent exhibitions,” he told CNBC by email.

Landscape painter Katharine Edwards, currently working on pieces inspired by the “heat scorched” vistas of Andalusia, Spain, will exhibit at Cricket Nice Art in London’s Chelsea in September.

Her top London galleries include the Royal Academy of Arts, for its “wonderful” exhibitions, she told CNBC by email. The gallery is showing its Summer Exhibition, which features greater than 1,700 works chosen by seven Royal Academicians, a few of which can be found to buy.

Edwards also likes major London galleries Tate Modern and Tate Britain. “Certainly one of my favourite rooms on the Tate Modern is the Mark Rothko room, showing Rothko’s huge series of paintings which were made for the Seagram constructing in Latest York. They’re almost architectural in structure with vibrating color combos. They’re contemplative, meditative works which I find profoundly affecting,” Edwards said.

Multidisciplinary artist Komal Madar can also be a fan of Tate Modern, and is looking forward to seeing its “Expressionists: Kandinsky, Munter and The Blue Rider” exhibition, which runs until October 20. In an email to CNBC, Komal advisable trying out the gallery’s free exhibits too, including its vast turbine hall — the gallery is housed in a former power station. Madar also suggested feminist artist Judy Chicago’s “Revelations” at Serpentine North in Hyde Park (running until September 1) and the White Cube galleries in London’s Bermondsey and Mayfair areas.

Edwards also picked the Estorick Collection, which displays futurist Italian art in an Islington town house. “Futurism was a movement that got here about within the early 1900s as a way for Italian artists (primarily) to specific the energy of the trendy world. There are Modigliani sculptures, incredible abstracts and rooms for rotating shows,” Edwards told CNBC.

London-based portrait photographer Tom Oldham has taken pictures of musicians similar to Dave Grohl and sports stars including Usain Bolt, and his project The Hopefuls goals to encourage young people to vote within the U.K.’s general election on July 4.

The Photographers’ Gallery in Soho is a favourite for its “powerful and edgy selections,” Oldham told CNBC by email, and he advisable its bookshop and café. He also likes The Gilbert & George Centre, a free-to-enter gallery run by artist couple Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore, for its “three vast rooms showing different works, young and old.” Oldham suggested a drink afterward at neighboring pub the Pride of Spitalfields.

Finally, Oldham described London’s auction houses as an “art hack you possibly can’t ignore.” “I often will go see rolling exhibitions of the very best work on this planet, be it art prints, photography, ceramics or design at auction houses like Phillips on Berkeley Square,” he said — the auction home is in London’s upscale Mayfair district. Phillips and auction houses similar to Sotheby’s and Christie’s often exhibit work for several days ahead of a sale. “Viewing is free and it’s magical to see a lot work of this quality up close,” Oldham said.