Moco Museum, London: 6 works to seek out in the capital’s newest art gallery
A whistlestop-tour of contemporary art’s biggest names a stone’s throw away from Hyde Park.
If “I don’t get it” is your lizard brain reaction to being faced with the prospect of a day spent staring at contemporary art, the Moco Museum might be the gateway location to a new-found appreciation for boundary-breaking creative works.
It is ‘art-gallery-as-theme-park-attraction’, a pick-n-mix greatest hits selection of some of the biggest names in contemporary art, all under one roof and easily browseable in the same amount of time it takes to watch a football match. Spread across three floors, there’s Andy Warhol opposite Pablo Picasso, Damien Hirst opposite Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tracey Emin opposite Richard Prince.
Following in the footsteps of popular spots in Barcelona and Amsterdam, the new Moco Museum in London, situated by Marble Arch station (at the top of ‘Candy Store Mile’, aka Oxford Street), opened at the tail end of last year, and has quickly cemented itself as the high(er)-brow TikTok stage of choice for those looking to amplify and authenticate their social clout with a Banksy-backed selfie.
But don’t let that put you off — Moco Museum London lures visitors in with its Instagram-friendly space, but acts as an accessible entry point to what can sometimes feel like an opaque or elitist corner of modern culture. If you go in for the Keith Haring T-shirt and come out with the Cliff Notes tour of the last 80-or-so years of art embedded into your brain, more power to you.
Now boasting an interactive installation from Marina Abramović called Healing Frequency, we headed to the gallery to single out the can’t-miss works you have to seek out on your visit.
1. Mickey Mouse USA
Keith Haring, 1985
One of the first characters that Keith Haring learnt to draw, Mickey Mouse is a regular fixture in his work. Perhaps the world’s favourite contemporary artists — if at least judged by the amount of people wearing his prints (knowingly or otherwise) — Mickey Mouse USA is a perfect example of Haring’s fascination with pop culture and consumerism, complete with his signature heavy line style.
2. Reflecting my Heart In You
Lorenzo Quinn x BREAKFAST, 2003
An interactive exploration of love and memory, this kinetic sculpture, featuring a stainless steel heart held aloft by aluminium hands, has a mechanical ‘screen’ that reflects the movements of the person standing in front of it.
3. Lost Memories in a Fragmented Paradise
Damien Hirst, 2003
If he’s not turning your stomach with dissected cows, he’s questioning what we’re putting in them. Damien Hirst here looks at the seductive power of pharmaceutical promise, and the industrial medicinal industry that channels us all into its clutches.
4. With You I Want to Live
Tracey Emin, 2007
Tender, confessional and audacious, Emin has become one of Britain’s most loved — and controversial — artists. With You I Want to Live takes neon signage’s flashy commercialism and turns it on its head with an intimate proclamation that mirrors Emin’s own hand-writing, making it all the more evocative and personal.
5. I’m Not Linda
Richard Prince, 1992
Come for the joke, stay for the heartbreak — of Richard Prince’s monochrome Joke Paintings, I’m Not Linda might be the most affecting. Separating newspaper cartoons from their art and reframing them in stark colour, the series challenges the root of our humour with its abstract presentation — “especially in Europe, if you can’t speak English”, as Prince memorably joked himself.
6. EQUANIMITY (Jubilee Edition)
Chris Levine, 2022
London’s Chris Levine specialises in creative portraiture, combining lasers, holograms and photography — light-based ‘materials’ — to transform his subjects. This series of portraits of Queen Elizabeth II in a later-life meditative state, is an echo of Warhol’s screen printing series, softening the monarch where Warhol’s series pop portraiture played with the Queen’s position as the most famous face in the world — as the figurehead of the Commonwealth’s currency.
Moco Museum is located at 1 Marble Arch, London, UK. Timed entry tickets start at £19.90, with student, senior and military and emergency services discounts available. Anyone under 16 must be with an adult. Kids under 7 enter for free.
