Sam Rabin & The Art of the Ring
Ben Uri Gallery

108a Boundary Road,
London
NW8 0RH

5th February to 1st May 2026
Wednesday to Friday 10 am - 5:30 pm

Opening on Thursday 5th February at BEN URI GALLERY Boundary Road London ‘Sam Rabin & Art of the Ring’ an exhibition celebrating the extraordinary life and work of artist, sculptor, teacher, singer, film stuntman & Olympic athlete Sam Rabin.

Sparked by the publication and book launch of ‘Sam Rabin’ by Bill Crow and the accompanying exhibition here at Jack House Gallery in 2024 this exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery is the biggest collection of Rabin artworks brought together from private and public collections since the major retrospective at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1985 and features an important recent find that was believed lost since 1928.

As so often happens with exhibitions and proof if it were needed of just how important galleries are the exhibition and book launch ‘Sam Rabin’ by Bill Crow about the artist Sam Rabin here at Jack House Gallery in 2024 and the connections and the conversations brought to the gallery by visitors rather naturally led to this new exhibition at the Ben Uri Gallery in London. Whilst at the time a personal ambition to show the work of Rabin, an artist who inspired me in the 1980s, was fulfilled I was also delighted to meet and talk with former students - a lot of former students - from his years teaching in Bournemouth post his departure from Goldsmiths and was given a insight into the personality and importance of an influential and much loved teacher. These were primary witnesses to the man’s forceful presence and personality and as has so often been the case in my gallery experience one thing leads to another and the excitement generated by the sudden visibility of a neglected artist prompted us to go in search of further opportunities to show more of Sam Rabin.

The prestigious Ben Uri Gallery and Digital Research Institute are the foremost promoters of the huge contribution of the immigrant experience to the story of British Art since 1900 and were immediately keen to take up the story of Sam Rabin a working class Jewish man from Manchester and we are very pleased to curate another show with enthusiasm and help from one of Rabin’s former students Sharon Taylor whom we met here in Portsmouth and who has located important works that have not been shown since the 1985 exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery and a bronze which has not been shown since 1928. We have had of course Bill Crow’s wonderful book to guide us through an implausible life and artworks have been contributed by Sam Rabin’s family, The Towner Eastbourne, Doncaster Museum, the collection Manchester Metropolitan University and Darnley Fine Art as well as from private collectors. 

Head of Barnett Freedman by Sam Rabin bronze 1928
Collection Heritage Doncaster City of Doncaster Council
Gift of the Contemporary Art Society

Barnett Freedman and Sam Rabin were close friends and colleagues until Freedman’s death in 1958. Freedman was an advocate, supporter and promoter of Rabin’s work through the years of struggle as a sculptor and painter and as the more successful artist he leant money and offered opportunities. This bronze bust was therefore an incredibly important work to Rabin and indeed the only cast in bronze he made. It was a terrible blow when the piece went missing after a flood in 1928 and Rabin was never to see it again. This piece will be on show during the exhibition at Ben Uri along with a portrait of Rabin made by Barnett Freedman and around the same time. To read about the rediscovery of this important piece click here

For more information about Ben Uri and the exhibition click here and to buy the 2024 monograph by Bill Crow click here