What is Moco?
Most of London’s art museums have been around for decades, even centuries, so the arrival of a new one is big news. Moco – a three-storey art gallery in Marble Arch housing the private collection of Kim and Lionel Logchies Prins plus some loans – is the latest to open its doors, and the question is: are those doors a portal to art hell, or a pathway to art ecstasy?
The answer to that will depend on who you are, what you like, and your tolerance for portraits of the Queen. Assembled within the building’s freshly painted walls is a collection of some of the most divisive artists of modern times. Banksy, Hirst, Koons, Beeple, Murakami. Combine all that with the Warhols and Basquiats on display, an NFT room and an immersive mirror room, and you have a recipe for the poppiest, most #trending art space imaginable.
This is Moco’s third outpost, joining permanent spaces in Amsterdam and Barcelona.
What’s on display?
The opening room is an all-out pop assault: a trio of Jeff Koons works, some Damien Hirst dots, a wall of Keith Harings, a Yayoi Kusama painting, a full-size, crystal-studded Porsche by Daniel Arsham and a handful of Warhols. These are some of the most popular, most commercial artists of the past century, all packed relentlessly, eye-poppingly into a single room.
Upstairs, they’ve squeezed a bunch of Banksys in next to a couple of Tracey Emin neons, a huge Murakami alongside a couple of KAWS works, a vast Julian Opie and a giant wall of multicolour portraits of the Queen by Chris Levine.
Down in the basement you’ll find a room full of screens showing NFTs (including an endless scroll of images by the genre’s biggest star, Beeple), an infinity mirror room almost indistinguishable from all the other infinity mirror rooms, an arcade game, interactive art, a zen garden.
How to get tickets
Mosey your browser over to the Moco website, where you’ll find tickets ranging in price from £20-24.90. It’s open every day from 9am to 9pm. More details here.