Chisenhale’s location has been occupied by factories for industrial manufacture since at least the mid-19th century, but the building’s precise origins are unclear. There are Tower Hamlets planning documents which point to operating factories on Chisenhale Road as early as the 1850s,^[3] and the site appears as ‘Pasteboard Works’ on a map surveyed in 1870.^[4] However, it is understood that the building as it exists today was built either partially or entirely at a later date.

The Chisenhale Works building which currently houses the gallery was built between 1942 and 1943,^[5] purportedly in the rubble of houses destroyed during The Blitz. The most recent iteration of the factory was operated by the furniture-maker^[6] Morris Cohen, trading as CHN Veneers (per the historic plaque erected by the gallery entrance, along the Bow Heritage Trail).^[7] CHN Veneers specialised in the production of wood veneer, expanding during the Second World War to cockpit veneers and propeller production for RAF aeroplanes including Spitfires. The letters C, H and N are visible as inlaid brickwork on the exterior façade of the building, which can be seen from the Grove Road bridge, spanning the Hertford Union canal. These letters, which might be conflated with the prominent consonants in “Chisenhale,” actually refer to the aforementioned CHN Veneers.

After the factory’s closure in 1972, the building was for some years unoccupied.^[8] The adjacent building, previously used as a brewery warehouse, remains derelict today. In 1980, a group of artists, evicted from their Thames-side studio spaces by property developers, negotiated a lease of the building with Tower Hamlets Council under the name “Arts Place Trust.” They proceeded to create studios on the floors upstairs and eventually put on exhibitions in the ground floor space, initially on a for-hire basis. The gallery acknowledges this artist-led history in the statement: “Chisenhale was founded by artists.”^[9]

Between 1993 and 1994, under the directorship of Jonathan Watkins, Chisenhale Gallery established its own legal status with the Charities Commission and became a separate entity from Arts Place Trust. The organisation is a registered charity and one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations.^[10]

Before the separation from Arts Place Trust, there were three consecutive acting Gallery Managers: David Thorpe (1986-1987), Emma Dexter (1987-1990) and the aforementioned Jonathan Watkins (1990-1995), who became Director of Chisenhale Gallery with the establishment of Chisenhale Gallery as an independent charity.^[11] Since, seven people have held the position of director of Chisenhale Gallery: Judith Nesbitt (1995-1998), Sue Jones (1998-2000), Tamsin Dillon (2000-2001), John Gill (2001-2003), Simon Wallis (2004-2008), Polly Staple (2008-2019) and Zoé Whitley, the current director of Chisenhale Gallery.^[12]

Since the early 1980s, Chisenhale Gallery has gained a reputation for exhibiting UK and internationally-acclaimed artists early in their careers, offering many artists their first UK institutional solo show.^[9] The gallery’s present-day Commissions Programme is devised based on curatorial research worldwide, the result of which early to mid-career artists are invited to develop new artwork for public exhibition. The work in question is produced over a one- to two-year incubation period, culminating in an exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery.^[13]

Among the artists who have exhibited at Chisenhale Gallery, there have been numerous Turner Prize nominees and several winners, including Rachel Whiteread (1993),^[14] Helen Marten (2016),^[15] Lubaina Himid (2017),^[16] and Lawrence Abu Hamdan (2019),^[17] among others. Most recently, of the four artists nominated for the 2023 award, Ghislaine Leung is a Chisenhale Alumna and Rory Pilgrim will be participating in the gallery’s 2024 Programme.^[18]

As both a non-profit organisation and a registered charity,^[19] Chisenhale Gallery’s ongoing programme is entirely funded through trusts, foundations and individuals.^[9]

Notable exhibitions that have taken place at Chisenhale Gallery include:

Common Practice edit

Chisenhale Gallery is a founding member of the small-gallery advocacy group Common Practice, formed in 2009. Today, they are joined by Afterall, Gasworks, Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), LUX, Matt’s Gallery, The Showroom, and Studio Voltaire.

Plus Tate edit

Plus Tate^[20] was launched in 2010 with an aim to share art collections and expertise with other UK galleries. The Chisenhale Gallery is one of 34 partners.^[21]

How to work together edit

How to work together was a partnership programme of contemporary art commissions and research based projects devised by Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire between 2013 and 2016. The project is supported by Arts Council England's Catalyst Arts grant scheme,^[22] Bloomberg, Cockayne Grants for the Arts and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

2.8 Million Minds edit

2.8 Million Minds began as a collaboration between Chisenhale Gallery, Bernie Grant Arts Centre and artist James Ledbitter, also known as ‘the vacuum cleaner’. The project is part of the Mayor of London’s Culture and Creative Industries Unit, funded by Baring Foundation and Thrive LDN as part of Thriving Through Culture.^[23] Conceived as a pilot project commissioned by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, 2.8 Million Minds acknowledged London’s population of 2,879,900 children and young people aged 0-25, posing the question: "how can young people use art and culture to create change in their mental health, and how mental health services are funded and delivered?"

Between November 2021 and June 2022, more than 120 young people contributed to A Manifesto for 2.8 Million Minds, a youth-led, artist-centred, and Disability Justice-informed approach to how young Londoners want to use art to begin to radically reimagine mental health support, justice and pride. The manifesto received high commendation from the Culture Health & Wellbeing Alliance's Collective Power Award 2022.^[24]

Launched at the Houses of Parliament in June 2022, the manifesto brings together the feelings, artistic processes, and actionable ideas of young people across Haringey and Tower Hamlets with artists Becky Warnock, Simon Tomlinson, Tyreis Holder, and Yomi Sode, challenging how and who makes the decisions in the lives of young people's mental health. The document includes how-to guides, resources and critical reflections.

In 2021, Chisenhale Gallery launched Chisenhale Books, a strand of the organisation’s output dedicated to the production of an artist’s first major publication to accompany their exhibition. The inaugural release say cheeeeese was published by Hurtwood Press in Summer 2022 alongside Rachel Jones’ Chisenhale commission of the same name. It included contributions from award-winning poet Anaïs Duplan and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine. The second title in the series, In a Dream You Climb the Stairs, accompanied Nikita Gale’s exhibition, and launched at Frieze London on 15 October 2022. Contributors to Gale’s first book are Pulitzer Prize-winner Hilton Als, conceptual artist Barbara Kruger and academic Dr. Bénédicte Boisseron. The third title in the series, In Cascades, was released in July 2023 to mark the conclusion of Lotus Laurie Kang’s critically-acclaimed first exhibition in Europe,^[25] featuring poet CAConrad.

• Chisenhale Gallery's official website
• How to work together website