"In a former gunmaker's this superb gallery shows work by upcoming artists and is very much a part of Londons current creative landscape. It's an understatedly cool place."
TIME OUT - June 2006
"Aim for the coolest art space in town, in Soho, the art world's hip new location"
The Vogue List, VOGUE magazine, December 2006
"Iwona Blazwick (Whitechapel Gallery director) also points out that artists are currently clamouring to hold shows in the modest domestic settings of Soho's Riflemaker and the Frith Street, barely converted Georgian buildings patinated by age, "where art is embedded in the domestic and the everyday"
Financial Times, 'Out-there Space'
Interview by Edwin Heathcote, Friday Oct 13, 2006
"The London gallery Riflemaker has somehow managed to blow the roof off again"
The Guardian's Laura K. Jones reviews Gavin Turk's 'Me as Him', SAATCHI website 11.7.2007
Opened in May 2004 by collectors Virginia Damtsa and Tot Taylor, Riflemaker is housed in the West End's oldest public building, a Georgian riflemaker's workshop dating from 1712. The gallery has worked closely with English Heritage to conserve this unique space. Exhibitions are usually eight weeks long (two different shows run consecutively on separate floors) and take on the look of a privately-owned museum whilst presenting the most ambitious and extraordinary work by today's best international young artists. Apart from these debuts, we have one 'retrospective' each year: 2004: 'Martin Kippenberger and MoMA at Syros', 2005: 'The Unseen Art of William Burroughs', and upcoming in November 2006: 'Riflemaker becomes Indica'.
Riflemaker exhibitions have been both critically acclaimed and extremely well attended by art insiders as well as the general public. Last October, in excess of 30,000 people visited our William Burroughs exhibition following major attention for Jamie Shovlin, Marta Marce and Jaime Gili. Shovlin has recently had a solo show at Tate Britain and also in New York (at Freight & Volume). Gili created a six mile long installation 'Ruta Rota' (broken route) for London Architecture Week. Julie Verhoeven created a virtual 'garden' at the Economist Plaza. Talks, film programmes and Monday night events accompany all of our shows.
Riflemaker works not just from its unique base in Soho but also originates off-site projects involving the gallery's artists. Previous and current collaborators include the Contemporary Art Society, Selfridges department store, The Economist, Sotheby's, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy, Bonhams, the Soane Museum, British Museum, Photo-London, the German Embassy, Modus Operandi, Transport for London, Platform for Art, the Miami Art Fair and the Zoo Art Fair.
Riflemaker publishes a hardback book to accompany each exhibition. For more information
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