Whitechapel Art Gallery presents exhibitions, working with international, national and regional partners to bring contemporary ideas and art practice to a diverse audience. The gallery runs an extensive education and outreach programme, and a wide range of talks, events and film screenings, as well as a cafe and bookshop. Our funding supports core costs, artistic programme and education.
An urban excavation investigating all living things beneath the surface of the city, with the Gallery's young people's group. Hosted by Vinnie O'Connell (Fellow of the Linnean Society of London) and founder of New Leaf Project, the event involves digging in the local area and transporting a spade of earth back to the gallery to explore with Dr. David T Jones (soil ecologist and earthworm expert from the Natural History Museum) and Dr. James Bone (environmental scientist from Imperial College London), both members of OPAL (Open Air Laboratories).
Filmed by JointSight Productions
Archive Curator Nayia Yiakoumaki introduces the cult 1960s magazine Aspen, which featured contributions by prolific artists, musicians and writers including Peter Blake, William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Ossie Clark, Marcel Duchamp, David Hockney, John Lennon, Lou Reed and Yoko Ono.
For more info visit: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/aspen-magazine-1965-1971
Every summer the Gallery commissions an artist to make a work of art that engages with children. The London-based Irish sculptor Eva Rothschild has made a film which shows what happens when young boys are let loose in a gallery.
Rothschild's remarkable sculptures use shape, colour, crafts techniques and scale - they have ranged from domestic sized objects to the epic zigzag she created to transverse the galleries at Tate Britain -- to fuse form with, in her words, 'ideas of faith, death, magic, things that are all very messy...'. Her film shows a group of boys, aged between 6 and 12, each entering a gallery full of her sculptures. Slowly and tentatively the boys begin their interaction with the space by looking, then touching.
They proceed however, to totally dismantling the sculptures, revelling in the joys of play and of destruction. In this revelatory film, Rothschild investigates the particularly physical interaction boys have with the material world and with making things, while drawing attention to how sculpture in modern and contemporary art has been dominated by men.
Every summer the Gallery commissions an artist to make a work of art that engages with children. The London-based Irish sculptor Eva Rothschild has made a film which shows what happens when young boys are let loose in a gallery.
Rothschild's remarkable sculptures use shape, colour, crafts techniques and scale - they have ranged from domestic sized objects to the epic zigzag she created to transverse the galleries at Tate Britain -- to fuse form with, in her words, 'ideas of faith, death, magic, things that are all very messy...'. Her film shows a group of boys, aged between 6 and 12, each entering a gallery full of her sculptures. Slowly and tentatively the boys begin their interaction with the space by looking, then touching.
They proceed however, to totally dismantling the sculptures, revelling in the joys of play and of destruction. In this revelatory film, Rothschild investigates the particularly physical interaction boys have with the material world and with making things, while drawing attention to how sculpture in modern and contemporary art has been dominated by men.
Each year the Whitechapel Gallery hosts an all day Art and Music festival for young people. 2011's festival, Under Your Eyelids, saw musicians from east London including Naga MC with Ben Bezinna, Connell & Jeneath, Mammoth Sound and BOSS perform live amongst Wilhelm Sasnal's paintings and premiere new songs inspired by his work.
Artist Matt Stokes immerses himself in communities to look at the culture that shapes people lives and identities. This new work of art for The Street is inspired by the people who live around the Whitechapel Gallery in east London, home to the largest Bangladeshi community in the UK.
Over the last year Stokes has searched archives, talked to people locally and travelled to Dhaka, learning about language, music and activism. He discovered generations whose relationship with Bangladesh holds different meanings. His film, Give to Me the Life I Love, weaves these stories together in a movie script voicing the views of young and old.
This season of artists' film explores collective memory and personal and political histories. Ben Hagari's Invert (2010) is an homage to celluloid film in which we see the world inverted in the colours of the photographic negative, while Sefer Memisoglu's film Breeze (2011) reflects the artist's interest in the power of iconic documentary images and new digital media.
Artists' Film International showcases artists working with film, video and animation, selected by 12 partner organisations around the world. Ben Hagari is selected by the New Media Centre, Haifa, Israel; Sefer Memisoglu by Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey; Nguyen Trinh Thi by San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Karim Debbagh by Cinemathèque de Tanger, Tangier, Morocco.
For over a century the Whitechapel Gallery has premiered world-class artists from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo to contemporaries such as Sophie Calle, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George and Mark Wallinger.
With beautiful galleries, exhibitions, artist commissions, collection displays, historic archives, education resources, inspiring art courses, dining room and bookshop, the Gallery is open all year round, so there is always something free to see.
The Gallery is a touchstone for contemporary art internationally, plays a central role in London's cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of the world's most vibrant contemporary art quarter.
This exhibition showcases the most dynamic work being made in London in 2012. Take a journey through a selection of the latest art trends and see potential stars of the future amongst 35 artists chosen by a panel of international artists, curators and collectors
Free live performance as part of The London Open exhibition from artists Ruth Proctor, Lucienne Cole, Sarah Dobai, Charlie Tweed and Martin John Callanan
Art and Opera joined forces at Swarovski Whitechapel Gallery Art Plus Opera on Thursday 15 March.
The Whitechapel Gallery's Art Plus Party is a unique event, which explores the dynamic fusion of the visual arts with other cultural forms including drama, dance, film or music - culminating each year in a one-night only, unforgettable party and performance event; a celebration of creativity.
Gillian Wearing's debut feature film introduces a cast of untrained actors to a Method acting teacher. Drawing upon their own experiences, each participant creates and stars in their own mini-film.
Self Made is a Fly Film Production, in association with Third Films. It is supported by the UK Film Council and Northern Film & Media, in association with Arts Council England, Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation and Abandon Normal Devices. Distributed by Cornerhouse Artist Film.
Thursday 15 March 2012, 7.30pm-Late
An evening of art, opera and live performance, raising funds for the Whitechapel Gallery's Education Programme working with thousands of children and diverse community groups.
The Gallery is transported into the style and spirit of the 1920s, featuring performances by the Royal Opera Chorus and an auction of works by major contemporary artists led by Sotheby's. With oyster bar, fizz and vintage cocktails, Italian menu by Angela Hartnett with Smart Hospitality, followed by DJs and dancing into the night.
Tickets are £145 http://whitechapelgallery.org/art-plus-opera
Chief curator Achim Borchardt-Hume introduces Wilhelm Sasnal.
The paintings of Wilhelm Sasnal chronicle the complex experience of life today. Mixing art historical references with images taken from the internet, their subject matter knows no limits: from icons of popular culture such as Roy Orbison to much admired paintings of the past such as Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnières (1884), from the lonesome cowboys in a Steven Spielberg film, to the shocking photographs of Mexican photographer Enrique Metinides.
Forty years in the making, artist Lynn Hershman Leeson's film !Women Art Revolution: A Secret History pieces together a first-hand account of the Feminist Art Movement in the United States. Using rare and previously unseen footage and interviews with artists, historians, curators and critics, she tells the story of the politicisation of women artists and their strategies for freedom of expression and empowerment that created dynamic changes across the culture.
See !Women Art Revolution at the Whitechapel Gallery from October-December.
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/index.php/fuseaction/shop.category/category_id/46
An evening of live performance, art and drama at the Whitechapel Gallery on Thursday 24 March 2011 to raise funds for the Education and Community Programme that works with over 3,000 children and 30 diverse community groups each year.
Curator Nayia Yiakoumaki introduces to Rothko in Britain.
The Whitechapel Gallery's archives of original photographs, letters from the artist and recordings of visitors' memories, alongside Rothko's painting Light Red Over Black (1957) bring the original 1961 exhibition vividly to life.
Curator Daniel F. Hermann introduces sculptor and writer Josiah McElheny's exhibition: The Past is A Mirage I'd Left Behind.
Seven large-scale, mirrored sculptures are arranged as multiple reflective screens for displaying abstract films, selected by a group of invited collaborators and programmed to change throughout the year. The sculptures reflect and refract the projected film selection, saturating the whole gallery and visitors in images and light. Refracted, distorted and multiplied, the moving images explore how abstraction is used to depict an image of visual enlightenment.
Whitechapel Gallery Urban Ecology Dig
Archive Curator Nayia Yiakoumaki introduces Aspen Magazine
Childrens Art Commission: Eva Rothschild: Boys and Sculpture Teaser
The Making Of - Childrens Art Commission: Eva Rothschild: Boys and Sculpture
Art and Music Festival: Under Your Eyelids
The Street: Matt Stokes: Give to Me the Life I Love
Trailer: Artists Film International: Karim Debbagh, Ben Hagari, Sefer Memisoglu, Nguyen Trinh Thi
History of the Whitechapel Gallery
Curator Kirsty Ogg introduces The London Open exhibition
Swarovski Whitechapel Gallery Art Plus Opera 2012
Gillian Wearing: Self Made, 2010 Trailer
Curator Introduction to Gillian Wearing
Swarovski Whitechapel Gallery Art Plus Opera
Curator Introduction to Wilhelm Sasnal
!Women Art Revolution: A Secret History by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Curator's introduction to Rothko in Britain
Curator's introduction to The Bloomberg Commission: Josiah McElheny
Curator Introduction to Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010
