The Showroom

Opened in 1984, the Showroom was one of the first galleries to be established in what is now a thriving East End London art scene, occupying its Bonner Road site in Bethnal Green for over twenty years. The Showroom’s new 3,000 square foot building on Penfold Street has been reconfigured by Berlin-based architects, ifau + Jesko Fezer in collaboration with London’s Working Architecture Group, to provide a dynamic flexible space for the gallery.

The Showroom is a non-profit contemporary art space that is committed to exploring emerging artistic practices and ideas. The gallery supports the production of ambitious and challenging new work, often offering artists their first major solo exhibitions in London.

The Showroom’s program has an emphasis on discursive and process-based practices, cross-disciplinary approaches, forms of artistic research, projects that are situated in the public realm.

4 to 5 projects are exhibited yearly.

Most outstanding projects of the last 3-5 years:

The Otolith Group, A Long Time Between Suns (Part 2): 8 September – 25 October 2009

Emily Wardill, Game Keepers Without Game: 10 February – 27 March 2010

Hannah Rickards, May – June 2007

Daria Martin January – March 2005

A number of the gallery’s projects have involved forms of participation, and have ventured into dialogue with the gallery’s local neighbourhood, such as The Estrangement Project and Emily Wardill’s Full Firearms and Communal Knowledge.

The gallery is also pursuing a number of long-term collaborative research projects that will come into fruition during 2010/2011.

Circular Facts: A collaborative endeavor between three European contemporary art organizations: Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht, Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp, The Showroom, London in partnership with Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen and Electric Palm Tree. The project is an informal think-tank and a mutual support structure that works as a hub for the production and dissemination of artistic projects.

Cinenova: In Autumn 2009 The Showroom began a year long research project around the Cinenova collection involving a group of women filmmakers, artists, writers and theorists, who will seek to explore the archive, producing specific projects that publicly research the archive, creating visibility for it, and discussing its future.

Signal:Noise: An experimental cross-disciplinary research project that aims to explore the influence of cybernetics and information theory on contemporary cultural life by testing out its central idiom, “feedback,” through debates, performances, events and an exhibition.

After all and The Showroom are collaborating on an ongoing series of seminars and events that take place at The Showroom alongside the publication of each issue of Afterall journal.

Communal Knowledge is a program of collaborative projects with local and international artists, and young people from The Showroom’s neighborhood that employ methods of group activity and critical reflection.

The Showroom’s 2800 square foot space is arranged over two floors.

Board of Directors: Prue O’Day (Chair), Director, Anderson O’Day Fine Art; Russell Martin, Artist/Programme Coordinator, Artquest; Andrew Renton, Programme Director, MA Curating, Goldsmiths, University of London; Suzanne Cotter, Curator, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Simon Grant, Editor, Tate Etc.; Roland Fejfar, Morgan Stanley; Sarah Robinson, Head of Corporate Development, Tate; Louise Robson, Former Financial Director of Serpentine Gallery.

Director: Emily Pethick

The Showroom is funded by the Arts Council and the gallery’s Supporters’ Scheme.

Circular Facts is supported by a Cooperation Measures Grant as part of the European Unions Culture 2007 program. Communal Knowledge is supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the John Lyons Charity.