Victoria Miro Gallery Is Opening a Space in Venice, Launching During the Biennale

This will be the gallery's first location outside of London.

The London-based gallery Victoria Miro has announced that it is opening a new space in Venice, which will launch on May 10—coinciding with the preview of this year’s Venice Biennale—with an exhibition of work by Chris Ofili.

The Venice location—housed in the former Galleria il Capricorno in the San Marco district—will be the gallery’s fourth venue, joining London’s Mayfair and two Wharf Road sites.

Originally opened by gallerist Bruna Aickelin in 1971, Galleria il Capricorno has a history of working with Victoria Miro, having staged exhibitions by gallery artists including Hernan Bas, Verne Dawson, NS Harsha, Chantal Joffe, Wangechi Mutu, and Grayson Perry.

“For some time now, Bruna and I have been talking about the legacy of Galleria il Capricorno, which has championed the very best contemporary art over the past five decades,” Victoria Miro said in a statement.

“We have worked together over many years, and I have long admired her strong and simple approach to presenting works in this small jewel box of a gallery in the heart of Venice,” she added.

“Peggy Guggenheim, Ileana Sonnabend, Paula Cooper, Barbara Gladstone, Lisa Spellman, Sadie Coles, and Victoria Miro are some of the pioneering women gallerists whom I have had the great fortune to know andwork with over many years. Our lives are forever woven together, and I feel privileged to hand over the baton of my gallery to Victoria,” Bruna Aickelin said.

Chris Ofili, <i>Poolside Magic 8</i> (2012). Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Chris Ofili.

Chris Ofili, Poolside Magic 8 (2012). Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London, ©Chris Ofili.

For the exhibition, entitled “Poolside Magic,” Chris Ofili will present pastel, charcoal, and watercolor works on paper that are being shown together for the first time.

It marks the artist’s third time to show in the City of Canals, after he represented the UK at the 2003 Biennale, and was included in the Okwui Enwezor-curated exhibition “All the World’s Futures” at the 2015 Biennale.


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