[dropcap style=”font-size:100px;color:#992211;”]T[/dropcap]he British Art Show is the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK and is widely acknowledged as the most important recurrent exhibition of contemporary art produced in the UK.
The exhibition will be presented across numerous galleries and exhibition spaces in each city, resulting in a wide-ranging programme that explores new tendencies in artistic practice. Many of the participating artists are developing new works for the show, including significant new commissions supported by Art Fund that will be acquired by museum partners in each city, while others are presenting ambitious recent works which have not previously been seen in Britain.
The artists in British Art Show 9 are:
| Mark Essen | Gaika | Beatrice Gibson | Patrick Goddard |
| Anne Hardy | Joey Holder | Andy Holden | Oona Doherty |
| Celia Hempton | Mandy El-Sayegh | Sean Edwards | Jamie Crewe |
| Cooking Sections | Hussein Clark | Hurvin Anderson | Than |
| Marguerite Humeau | Michael Armitage | Simeon Barclay | Oliver Beer |
| Zach Blas | Kathrin Böhm | Maeve Brennan | James Bridle |
| Helen Cammock | Lawrence Lek | Ghislaine Leung | Paul Maheke |
| Grace Ndiritu | Elaine Mitchener | Uriel Orlow | Florence Peake |
| Heather Phillipson | Oscar Murillo | Hetain Patel | Katie Schwab |
| Hardeep Pandhal | Hrair Sarkissian | Margaret Salmon | Abigail Reynolds |
| Joanna Piotrowska | Tai Shani | Marianna Simnett | Victoria Sin |
| Hanna Tuulikki | Caroline Walker | Alberta Whittle | Rehana Zaman |
British Art Show 9 has been developed at a precarious moment in Britain’s history that has brought politics, narratives of identity and questions of agency to the centre of public consciousness. The artists presented respond in critical ways to this complex context, imagining more hopeful futures and exploring new modes of resistance.
The artists in British Art Show 9 look at how we live with and give voice to difference, while also extending our understanding of identity to beyond the human. Their projects often blur the boundaries between art and life, and imagine alternative futures. Through their works, they propose alternative economies and ways of living together that emphasise commonality, collaboration and care.
Curators Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar said: “In framing the exhibition, we have grouped practices into three expansive categories: healing, care and reparative history; tactics for togetherness; and imagining new futures. While these themes were shaped at the end of 2019, the unfolding impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the protests against racial injustice, make them even more urgent. We want the exhibition to present a multitude of voices and viewpoints in a set of presentations that accumulate and evolve from city to city; British Art Show 9 will be responsive to each city’s local collections, communities, urgencies and histories, enabling meaningful engagement for its local audiences.”
This edition of the British Art Show was originally planned to open in Manchester this September. In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, the dates and the order of the exhibition tour have been changed to the following:
6 March – 30 May 2021: Wolverhampton (Wolverhampton Art Gallery and University of Wolverhampton School of Art)
3 July – 3 October 2021: Aberdeen (Aberdeen Art Gallery)
6 November 2021 – 13 March 2022: Plymouth (The Box; KARST; The Arts Institute’s Levinsky Gallery and The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art)
6 May – 4 September 2022: Manchester (HOME; Manchester Art Gallery; Castlefield Gallery; The Whitworth and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA))
Image: Lawrence Lek, 2065, 2018 © Lawrence Lek. Courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ, London.
Naila Scargill is the publisher and editor of horror journal Exquisite Terror. Holding a broad editorial background, she has worked with an eclectic variety of content, ranging from film and the counterculture, to political news and finance.
