Waterside Contemporary

Waterside Contemporary (referred to as "waterside contemporary") was a visual art gallery in Hackney, central-east London. The gallery's programme focussed on politically- and socially-engaged artists,.[1][2][3] representing UK and European artists including Oreet Ashery, George Barber, Mirza and Butler, Nikita Kadan, and Chiara Fumai. The gallery exhibition programme involved over a hundred artists like Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Mathilde ter Heijne, Slavs and Tatars in nearly thirty exhibitions, performances, public events,[4] publishing, and institutional collaborations.[5]

Waterside Contemporary was founded in 2008 by Pierre d'Alancaisez[6] as Waterside Project Space in the Waterside building on Wharf Road, from which the gallery got its name. Initially an artist-run not-for-profit, the gallery became commercially active in 2010 with a presentation at ViennaFair.[7] Olga Ovenden became co-director with the gallery's move to nearby Hoxton.[8][9] The gallery stopped exhibiting operations under the waterside brand name in 2017.

Waterside Contemporary commissioned, curated and premiered landmark works such as Animal with a Language by Oreet Ashery,[10] The Unreliable Narrator by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler,[11] and The Freestone Drone by George Barber.[12][13]