East London is spoiled for art. Around Brick Lane art moves and speaks, taking over walls and doors, by bridges and stations. There are murals in tribute, indistinct tags, even 3D pieces rendered on brick. It’s everywhere; so there should be no surprise in finding an art gallery hidden just off the famous stretch.

Lurking inside the former Shoreditch Underground station is a surprising, vital exhibition by WOWNOW.

Featuring 10 artists, the focus is on portraiture – with subversive twists, often taking the recognisable and playing with those ideas to make the viewer question the accepted, and the idea of the acceptable.

The first piece encountered upon entering the exhibition is a row of three black skulls on a shelf, or at least the top of them, before the jaw bone, by Ted Reiderer. Upon closer inspection, it is revealed that these sculptures are made of manipulated vinyl; one was a reading of works by TS Eliot; the other two were difficult to read. Whether this a comment on outdated, former cultural norms and their death or just a playful creation from unexpected materials is up to interpretation, but is an immediately powerful opening.

The rest of the room has a variety of different styles, from the printwork of Sidone- portraits with architectural imposed motifs synonymous with the working urban landscape, to the large-scale acrylic works of Jessop. The largest Jessop work on display is the most powerful piece in the room. Part portrait of, and part tribute to, the urban landscape, the colours and playfulness of the piece among the detail make it extraordinarily moving. Factories, bridges, houses and even a graffiti-covered train exist in colourful flashes, calling into question the idea of a cityscape being grey. There is a narrative in the joyful palette that undoes the complacency an urbanite can build up in city living.

The other most powerful painting in the room sits next to a live feed of the show set up by Perfekt World, a piece by ZTY82. Resembling an Edwardian portrait commissioned by a wealthy family, dissected with sharp geometric slices in a deconstructive, destructive manner. The slices are aflame, perhaps suggesting a stand against those divides of wealth.

Going outside and descending the steps that once led to the platform, there’s an open air room with walls lined with more paintings surrounded by old parts of the station, adding atmosphere to an already intense show. There are more paintings that take familiar figures and distorts them; Sidone’s Churchill, religious iconography, all manipulated to change their meaning.

ZTY82 strikes again with challenging authoritarian figures. A military figure, lavishly painted, has no face but instead a pair of graffitied painted red lips, the shocking pink dripping onto the medal-adorned uniform.

The other pieces are powerful in their own way; a Wonderland magazine is cut into, the layers resembling a diorama of celebrity culture. An image of a scantily clad woman on a horse led by a topless man looks garish; painted in green along the top of the image are the words Private Estate. It looks like images often seen in celebrity magazines, a nod perhaps to the apparently revealing but ultimately staged photography we associate with magazines on celebrities.

There’s a lot to see in this interesting setting. The overarching point of this show seems to be to unsettle the idea of the complacent. There are many medias involved, with much reworking and layering to create a dense, intelligent show about reclamation of both accepted ideas and places. The venue fits the show perfectly and more would be welcomed.

Once again East London has claimed itself as the ever-adapting centre of London’s underground art world.

Find out more here.