“I used to put things in the window of my husband’s office. People would come in and say: ‘Oh, that’s very interesting — how much is it?’ Then I started doing pop-ups!”
Art dealer Victoria Miro smiles at the memory of her first, humble displays. Soon, she says, she was “really hooked on making exhibitions”.
Today, in a navy blazer and fashionably floppy trousers, her silvery-blonde hair falling either side of tanned cheeks, Miro — who turns 80 next month — looks too polished to have ever been “hooked” on anything. But appearances are deceptive. The elegant outfit comes “from Zara on Oxford Street”. And exhibition-making is indeed Miro’s forte.
This year, Miro’s eponymous gallery is celebrating its 40th anniversary. In the intervening decades, she has presided over a roster of acclaimed artists including Chris Ofili, who won the Turner Prize in 1998 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2003; Isaac Julien, who enjoyed an acclaimed show at Tate Britain in 2023, and Do Ho Suh, who is currently exhibiting at Tate Modern. Yet despite her prestige Miro remains, as long-term Miro painter Chantal Joffe puts it, “a mysterious person”.
An early visitor to Miro’s gallery was Francis Bacon. ‘He used to press that wonderful face up against the glass’
