The Serpentine Gallery is a contemporary art exhibition pavilion in Kensington Gardens, London. The gallery is one of the two venues owned by the British institution Serpentine Galleries in the capital of the United Kingdom, together with the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.
Above: the Serpentine Gallery at Kensington Gardens; photo © Riccardo Bianchini / Inexhibit
The Serpentine Gallery opened in 1970 in a former 1930s tea pavilion near the Serpentine Lake, an artificial lake in the heart of the Kensington Gardens Royal Park, from which it took its name.
The pavilion is a Grade II listed two-story brick building designed by British architect James Grey West.
The gallery is dedicated to promoting contemporary art through cutting-edge temporary exhibitions, art commissions, cultural programs, and educational activities aimed at children, families, and schools.
Not far from the Serpentine Gallery, on the opposite side of the Serpentine basin, a new venue, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, was opened in 2013; along with exhibition space, the new pavilion also contains a restaurant and a shop.
Since 2000, the Serpentine Galleries also set up a temporary Summer pavilion, designed each year by an important international architect, adjacent to the gallery, which has become one of the most popular seasonal cultural attractions in London.
The Serpentine Gallery is fully accessible to physically impaired people.
Photo © Peter Fischli David Weiss Photograph: 2013 Morley von Sternberg