Around Town

The problem
Ingrid, 33 ‘My sister is coming to town for the day and she wants to see some of London’s art scene. The thing is, she wants to visit Topshop, H&M and Selfridges as well, so we won’t have time to haul ourselves to the art hotspots of the East End. We’re into painting more than anything else. Are there any decent West End options?’

The prescription
Indeed there are. It takes but a short detour from Oxford Street to arrive at some great galleries and you can spend an enjoyable day threading either side of the main drag to combine culture with your clothes shopping. To the north of Oxford Circus lies a burgeoning scene. Start at The Approach W1 (74 Mortimer Street). Its sister branch is in Bethnal Green and the gallery represents painters such as Michael Raedecker and Rezi van Lankveld.
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Just around the corner is Mummery+Schnelle (83 Great Titchfield Street), a new-ish gallery with a strong roster of painters on its books including increasingly flamboyant self-portraitist Philip Akkerman. Heading south, make your next port of call Max Wigram Gallery (99 New Bond Street), currently showing landscape paintings by the Saatchi-collected Christian Ward. A little further down Bond Street is Haunch of Venison (6 Haunch of Venison Yard) where Cuban-American artist Jorge Pardo presents masks, lamps and photographs. Okay, it’s not painting but there’s plenty of that where you’re heading next. Tucked behind Selfridges, The Wallace Collection (Hertford House, Manchester Square) might be a more traditional venue than the others but it’s always worth a visit for its fantastic collection of mostly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century furniture, porcelain and paintings (including Ribera’s ‘The Boy with the Club Foot’, pictured) – as well as its restaurant. The Wallace is open daily whereas most smaller galleries are closed on Sundays and Mondays and over the Easter weekend.

Do you agree? Post your suggestions for Ingrid's day out.

Email your cultural problem to cultureclinic@timeout.com.