Raven Row

{{Short description|Art exhibition center in Spitalfields, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:56 & 58 Artillery Lane.JPG

File:Consider the Lillies of the Field by Padraig Timoney, 2009..JPG in his Fontwell Helix Feely exhibition of 2013]]

Raven Row is a free art exhibition centre in Spitalfields. It was constructed from numbers 56 and 58, Artillery Lane. These properties were built about 1690. The area was formerly used for testing artillery and this portion of the lane was known as Raven Row until 1895. No. 56 and 58 had been rebuilt in the 1750s for use by Huguenot silk weavers and traders. The buildings were converted into a gallery in 2009 by 6a architects on behalf of Alex Sainsbury, who established a charity to run it.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/mar/27/raven-row-architecture-review-spitalfields|title= Raven Row art gallery: east London architecture at its finest|work= The Guardian|author= Jonathan Glancey|date = 27 March 2009|access-date= 23 December 2021}} The inaugural exhibition was of work by New York artist Ray Johnson.{{citation |url=http://www.timeout.com/london/venue/16004/raven-row |journal=Time Out |title=Raven Row}}{{citation |title=Quiet London |author=Siobhan Wall|authorlink=Siobhan Wall |page=121 |chapter=Raven Row |isbn=978-0-7112-3190-0 |year=2011}} Raven Row has held exhibitions by K.P. Brehmer, Iain Baxter, Adam Chodzko, Suzanne Treister, Peter Kennard, Hilary Lloyd, Harun Farocki, Eduardo Paolozzi, Stephen Willats and Yvonne Rainer. Other exhibitions have been curated by Richard Grayson,{{cite web|title=Polytechnic|url=http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/polytechnic/|website=Raven Row}}{{cite web|last1=Grayson|first1=Richard|title=Polytechnic, catalogue essay|url=http://www.richardgrayson.co.uk/texts/Polytechnic.html}} Lars Bang Larsen{{cite web|last1=Bang Larsen|first1=Lars|title=Reflections from Damaged Life. An exhibition on psychedelia|url=http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/reflections_from_damaged_life_/|website=Raven Row}} and Alice Motard.{{cite web|last1=Motard|first1=Alice|title=Běla Kolářová|url=http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/bela_kolarova/|website=Raven Row}}

Raven Row suspended its exhibition programming in 2017, with the intention to resume it in 2020 (subsequently delayed to 2021).{{Cite web|title=Raven Row|url=http://www.ravenrow.org/events/raven_row_2013/|access-date=2021-02-03|website=www.ravenrow.org}} In the interim, the Artillery Lane building was used by non-profit groups and organisations including the gallery Piper Keys, Asia-Art-Activism Research Network, London Renters Union, and East London Cable.