Rivington Place is a purpose-built international visual arts centre in Shoreditch,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Origins and history

Rivington Place was commissioned by two publicly funded visual arts organisations, Iniva and

Autograph ABP Autograph ABP, previously known as the Association of Black Photographers, is a British-based international, non-profit-making, photographic arts agency. History Autograph was originally established in London in 1988. Founders included the photog ...

, with the intention of establishing the new venue as a major international visual arts centre in Shoreditch,

. In the late 20th century, this part of the East End emerged as a new arts quarter, famous for harbouring the YBA movement, with leading private galleries such as White Cube in nearby

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digit ...

. Both Iniva and Autograph were founded to reflect and promote cultural diversity in the visual arts, and it was hoped that the new building would advance this aim. The five-storey building was designed by leading architect

David Adjaye Sir David Frank Adjaye (born 22 September 1966) is a Ghanaian-British architect. He is known for having designed many notable buildings around the world, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. ...

and opened to the public on 5 October 2007. It cost £8 million to complete and was the first publicly funded new-build international art gallery in London since the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...

opened more than 40 years earlier.

Function and activities

Primarily a free public gallery, for most of the year, the two exhibition spaces are used to show contemporary visual art shows. With of space, the venue also houses education facilities and seminar rooms as well as the offices Autograph.

Significant exhibitions

Featuring in the programme of exhibitions held in the building have been shows by Ghanaian photojournalist

James Barnor James Barnor HonFRPS (born 6 June 1929) is a Ghanaian photographer who has been based in London since the 1990s. His career spans six decades, and although for much of that period his work was not widely known, it has latterly been discovered b ...

, British sculptor

Hew Locke Hew Donald Joseph Locke (born 13 October 1959) is a British sculptor and contemporary visual artist based in Brixton, London. In 2000 he won a Paul Hamlyn Award and the EASTinternational Award. In 2010 he was shortlisted for the Fourth plinth, ...

, French film maker Zineb Sedira and Nigerian/British fine-art photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode."Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)"
Rivington Place.

References

External links

Official website for AutographOfficial website for Iniva
{{coord, 51.5263, -0.0794, type:landmark_region:GB-HCK, display=title Arts centres in London Contemporary art galleries in London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hackney Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Hackney Art galleries established in 2007 Shoreditch 2007 establishments in England