Lazarides Gallery

Steve Lazarides' Rathbone Place gallery spans just under 4,000 square feet of space for exhibitions, studios, and offices in a five-storey Georgian building. Home to a group of contemporary artists that includes Jamie 'Gorillaz' Hewlett, and graffiti artist 'Banksy'. These are artists who work in non-traditional media like comics, spray-painted walls, and even taxidermy, and many will already be familiar from flyers, album covers and other pop culture ephemera. The Lazarides Gallery itself began life in Greek Street (in a former Soho sadomasochists' boutique, complete with dark-red walls and a sign that pointed to the 'dungeon'). However, the Greek Street venue has changed to SHOP while the Lazarides Gallery has moved to this Rathbone Place location - an altogether more respectable, more prominent (and less underground) spot. It may be in a smart five-storey Georgian building but the work shown continues to be fun, rebellious and much more accessible than most contemporary art. The brash upstart may be showing signs of growing up but continues to breath fresh life into the sometimes staid art scene.