What are the best galleries in London? Artists choose their favorites

London has long been home to some of the world's leading art galleries — Tate Modern, Somerset House and the National Gallery are among the U.K.'s most visited attractions.

CNBC asked a mix of artists to name their favorite public and commercial galleries to visit in London — large or small.

Multidisciplinary artist Lauren Baker, who is exhibiting at the Venice Biennale until November, named contemporary galleries — and a hotel — as her favorite places to see art in London.

"Alice Black Gallery offers daring fine art with deeply conceptual works," she told CNBC via email. "It's not all pretty, there's often some dark and strange pieces that get you contemplating the meaning of life," she said. The gallery is in London's Soho and represents artists such as Rachael Louise Bailey, who works in a variety of mediums including sculpture, and abstract artist Matthew Harris.

Baker also likes Woolff Gallery in Fitzrovia, describing its collection as joyful. "With a real focus on texture and tactile works and many sculptural elements, the works are fun and colorful, and you just want to touch everything," she said. The gallery represents artists including Apolline Bokkerink, whose work focuses on snowscapes and forests, and Joanne Tinker, who repurposes candy wrappers, discarded foils and champagne cork cages in her work.

Upscale Mayfair hotel Claridge's opened its ArtSpace gallery in 2021, and Baker likes to visit it for its "cool art crowd" in the evening, or goes during the day and takes tea afterward. The gallery has its own café, or visitors can head to the hotel's grand Foyer and Reading Room for traditional afternoon tea.

Artist and costume designer Machine Dazzle (born Matthew Flower), likes east London contemporary galleries