Contemporary Art Gallery Near Me in Mayfair: Hauser & Wirth on Savile Row

Hauser & Wirth London has two free galleries on Savile Row, the street better known for bespoke suits, at 23 Savile Row, London W1S 2ET. They open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm with no advance booking, and from 13 October to 23 December 2026 the rooms hold new work by Cindy Sherman and Lorna Simpson. For anyone searching contemporary art gallery near me around Oxford Circus or Regent Street, it is about 500 metres from the Oxford Circus station exits and one of the easiest major galleries in the West End to drop into.

Hauser & Wirth opened its first London gallery in 2003 in a listed building on Piccadilly designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1922, launching with a major installation by Paul McCarthy. In October 2010 it moved to its current address at 23 Savile Row, opening with Louise Bourgeois, The Fabric Works. The location still surprises first-timers: you walk past cutters' windows and suit fittings, then step into large white rooms. The gallery's own bookshop text refers to a 30-year history, and the move has kept Savile Row on London's art map for sixteen years.

Big changes are coming. Hauser & Wirth has announced a new Mayfair flagship for 2027 on the lower floors of the Goode Building, a Grade II* listed building designed by Ernest George and Peto between 1875 and 1876. Until then, Savile Row remains the gallery's London address, and the current Sherman and Simpson pairing is the season to catch there. If you know Hauser & Wirth only from its New York or Los Angeles spaces, the Savile Row rooms are a more compact, faster way to see what the gallery champions.

There are two exhibition spaces, the North Gallery and the South Gallery, and both entrances are on Savile Row. The South Gallery can also be entered through the bookshop, which has its own street door. The detail matters for access: all public areas are wheelchair accessible, but step-free access to the South Gallery is via the main building atrium at number 23, not the bookshop. The bookshop stocks Hauser & Wirth Publishers titles and prints from Hauser & Wirth Editions, and it is the best quick stop if you want an exhibition catalogue.

Cindy Sherman's new photographic series, Fabric Matrons, runs from 13 October to 23 December 2026 according to the Galleries Now and Wallpaper listings, and Coolcuration notes it is her first London show since she joined Hauser & Wirth in 2021. Sherman again photographs herself as invented women, this time in elaborately draped textiles and selected pieces from Chanel's archives. Some of the characters wear tweed woven with leather strips, gold thread and sequins. The pictures look glamorous at first, then turn into a sharp study of ageing, wealth and how clothing performs status.

Look for Untitled #710, described by Coolcuration as a reclining woman holding a glossy magazine beside a book on physiognomy. It is a good example of how Sherman plants small clues in the props, so give each print a second look at the background rather than only the face. One honest tip: the large prints read best from the middle of the room, so resist walking straight up to the nearest frame and take in the whole wall first.

Lorna Simpson's exhibition runs on the same dates, 13 October to 23 December 2026, with new paintings, collages and sculptures built around her long engagement with defunct news photography. She draws on archival material from Ebony and Jet magazines, the publications that documented Black American life for decades. The standout object, per the Galleries Now listing, is a cylindrical sculpture made from compressed copies of Ebony, described as a monument to the archive as a store of memory. Seeing it next to her collages makes the source material physical rather than abstract.

Pairing the two shows works well because both artists have spent decades on images of women and on how magazines shape identity, from opposite directions. Sherman invents characters; Simpson rescues real photographs. Do Sherman first, then Simpson, so the move from staged fiction to archive feels like a shift in tone. Together they take around an hour. If you only have twenty minutes, choose Simpson; the sculpture and collages carry more surprises in a short visit, while Sherman's series rewards slow looking.

The gallery asks visitors not to touch or climb on the artworks, and no food or drink is allowed inside, so finish your coffee on the pavement. Sunday and Monday are closed, which rules out a weekend stroll unless you come on Saturday, when the street is busiest with shoppers heading toward Regent Street. Weekday afternoons are the calm window. Keep bags close and phones on silent, since the rooms carry sound. Staff at the front desk can tell you which door leads to each show if the two entrances feel confusing.

The gallery lists three stations: Oxford Circus on the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines, about 500 metres away; Bond Street on the Central, Elizabeth and Jubilee lines, about 650 metres; and Piccadilly Circus on the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines, also about 650 metres. Bus 22 stops on Conduit Street, and routes 12, 88, 94, 159 and 453 stop on Regent Street. Cycle docks sit on St George Street and Clifford Street, roughly 150 metres away, and there is bike parking on Cork Street.

From Savile Row, walk one block west to Cork Street, the old heart of Mayfair's dealer galleries, and then south to the Royal Academy on Piccadilly for a ticketed museum show. For a contrast in tone, Thaddaeus Ropac's Ely House on Dover Street is about five minutes away and is showing Georg Baselitz until 18 December 2026. If Savile Row is busy on a Saturday, start at Ropac and loop back, because Dover Street is noticeably quieter on weekends.

Address: Hauser & Wirth London, 23 Savile Row, London W1S 2ET. Email: london@hauserwirth.com. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm; closed Sunday and Monday. Admission: free, no advance booking necessary. Exhibitions: Cindy Sherman and Lorna Simpson, 13 October to 23 December 2026. Access: all public areas are wheelchair accessible, with step-free entry to the South Gallery through the main atrium at number 23. Nearest station: Oxford Circus, around 500 metres.

Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to string Savile Row, Cork Street and Dover Street into one Mayfair gallery afternoon with a coffee break in between.