British Art Show is a national touring exhibition that provides a vital overview of some of the most exciting contemporary art produced in the UK. Organised by Hayward Touring at Southbank Centre, London, and taking place every five years, it introduces a broad public to a new generation of artists.
Curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, British Art Show 8 features the work of 42 artists who have made a significant contribution to art in this country over the past five years. The result of the curators’ research across the UK and beyond is a wide-ranging exhibition that encompasses sculpture, film, video-installation, photography, painting, performance and design. Twenty-six of the artists have created new works especially for the exhibition, making this the most ambitious British Art Show to date.
A central concern of British Art Show 8 is the changing role and status of the object at a time of increasing convergence between the real and the virtual. In response to this condition artists have developed new ways of thinking about, and approaching, materiality. While some revisit traditional craft-based skills or make use of industrial techniques, others use data as a starting point for their work, or investigate the material conditions of our digital existence. Within the exhibition ordinary objects – a car, a hard drive or an egg – are considered as archaeological finds or narrative devices. Operating within a complex web of relationships, these objects reveal new ways of being, thinking and acting in the world.
British Art Show 8 will be presented in Southampton at John Hansard Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery, as well as off-site at Bargate Monument, a Grade I listed medieval gatehouse in the city centre of Southampton and at the University of Southampton’s Highfield Campus.
John Hansard Gallery artists:
John Akomfrah & Trevor Mathison / Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin / Melanie Gilligan / Ahmet Ögüt (with Susan Hiller) / Will Holder / Patrick Staff / Imogen Stidworthy /Stuart Whipps
Southampton City Art Gallery artists:
Åbäke / Lawrence Abu Hamdan / Caroline Achaintre / Aaron Angell / Pablo Bronstein / Andrea Büttner / Alexandre da Cunha / Nicolas Deshayes / Benedict Drew / Simon Fujiwara / Anthea Hamilton / Martino Gamper / Ryan Gander / Alan Kane / Mikhail Karikis / Linder / Rachel Maclean / Ahmet Ögüt (with Liam Gillick) / Yuri Pattison / Ciara Phillips / Charlotte Prodger / Laure Prouvost / Magali Reus / James Richards / Daniel Sinsel / Cally Spooner / Hayley Tompkins / Jesse Wine / Jessica Warboys / Bedwyr Williams / Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Off-Site: Bargate Monument
Eileen Simpson & Ben White: Auditory Learning
Off-Site: University of Southampton, Highfield
Ahmet Ögüt (with Goshka Macuga)
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