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Countdown to British Art Show: One Week to Go!

17/01/2022

Wolverhampton Art Gallery and the University of Wolverhampton School of Art are gearing up to the official opening of the prestigious British Art Show 9 (BAS9) this weekend (Saturday 22 January 2022).

The British Art Show 9 will be in the city from Saturday 22 January to Sunday 10 April and is a major boost and sign of recognition for arts and culture in Wolverhampton.

Over the course of the free exhibition each venue will be hosting events  as well as working with creative partners and schools, colleges, and community groups to get them involved with the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK.

In Wolverhampton, the exhibition will focus on how we live with and give voice to difference, showcasing 34 artists whose works investigate identity from an intersectional perspective. By exploring coexisting identities such as class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, these works will be presented in critical dialogue with Wolverhampton’s cultural history which has been shaped by the diverse populations that came to work and live there during the post-war period. Wolverhampton Art Gallery houses one of the most significant collections of art on ‘The Troubles’ outside Northern Ireland. It also collects works linked to the British Black Arts movement which has its roots in the city as many of its members studied at Wolverhampton School of Art. As part of the BAS9 exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery there will be a capsule display of selected works from its collection.

Councillor Stephen Simkins, Cabinet Member for City Economy said: “This is a really exciting partnership with the University, and we are really excited about hosting the British Art Show 9.

“The prestigious exhibition will generate enormous benefits for the region, not just for the local economy, but for its contribution to the local art community and creative industries across the West Midlands.”

Brian Cass, Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery Touring, said: “We are delighted to be working with Wolverhampton Art Gallery and University of Wolverhampton School of Art on British Art Show 9. The collections and histories of these two iconic institutions provides an important context for BAS9. We hope the extraordinary range and variety of outstanding work in BAS9 will give everyone who lives and visits Wolverhampton an opportunity to engage with the most exciting contemporary art being produced in the UK today.”

Maggie Ayliffe, Head of the Wolverhampton School of Art at the University of Wolverhampton, said: “We’re really thrilled that BAS9 is coming to Wolverhampton and the really exciting thing about the show is that it’s the most diverse group of artists ever represented in the exhibition to date.

“That’s really important in relation to it coming to Wolverhampton because it’s such a diverse city. I hope that people will come to this show and actually see their lives and their issues represented through art in meaningful ways. What we want is for people who wouldn’t normally come into the Art School or the Art Gallery, to come along and see how artists are showcasing ordinary, everyday issues that people can relate to.”

There will be over 60 events to get involved in and an Offsite 9 Project in partnership with Creative Black Country. For more information on British Art Show 9 visit https://www.wlv.ac.uk/schools-and-institutes/faculty-of-arts-business-and-social-sciences/wolverhampton-school-of-art/british-art-show-9/.

Visit British Art Show 9 for more images.

Image Credit: Helen Cammock, Changing Room, 2014 (still). © the artist. Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

About Hayward Gallery Touring

Hayward Gallery Touring organises contemporary art exhibitions that tour to galleries, museums and other publicly funded venues throughout Britain. In collaboration with artists, independent curators, writers and partner institutions, Hayward Gallery Touring develops imaginative exhibitions that are seen by up to half a million people in over 45 cities and towns each year.

About Southbank Centre

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 11 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.

About Irene Aristizábal

Irene Aristizábal is the Head of Curatorial and Public Practice at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, where she has curated Judy Chicago’s first major survey in the UK and Abel Rodríguez first solo exhibition. Before BALTIC, Irene worked as Head of Exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary (2013–9), where she curated exhibitions and commissioned projects by Lis Rhodes, Pia Camil, Steffani Jemison, Otobong Nkanga, Simon Starling, Michael Beutler, Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz, Sun Ra, Rana Hamadeh, Danai Anesiadou, Danh Võ, Carol Rama and Asco. Recent group exhibitions include Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender Resistance (2018–9 – co-curated with Rosie Cooper and Cédric Fauq) and States of America: Photography from the Civil Rights Movement to the Reagan Era (2017 – co-curated with Abi Spinks). She was curator at the FRAC Nord Pas de Calais, Dunkirk in 2010–1, and was the recipient of the H+F Curatorial Grant (2010). Prior to that she co-directed the not-for-profit space Bétonsalon in Paris (2005–6). She has also curated exhibitions at the Fundació Miró, Barcelona; Maison Rouge, Paris; Form Content, London and the Museum of Health Sciences, Bogota

About Hammad Nasar

Hammad Nasar is Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Principal Research Fellow at the University of the Arts, London. He was the inaugural Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation, London (2018-19); Head of Research & Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (2012-16); and, co-founded (with Anita Dawood) the non-profit London art space, Green Cardamom (2004-12). Known for collaborative, research-driven and exhibition-led inquiry, his recent exhibition projects include: Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition (2018-19 – with Kate Jesson); Structures of Meaning | Architectures of Perception (2018-19 – with Sophie Persson); Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play – the UAE’s national pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); Excessive Enthusiasm: Ha Bik Chuen and the Archive as Practice (2015 – with Michelle Wong, Ingrid Chu and Vivian Poon); and Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space (2005-2013 – with Iftikhar Dadi, Ellen Avril, Nada Raza, Sophie Persson and Justine Blau). Nasar is a member of the board of Mophradat (Belgium), and of the editorial board of Tate’s magazine, Tate Etc. He is an advisor to numerous organisations including the Lahore Biennial Foundation (Pakistan); Alserkal Avenue (UAE); Manchester Art Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery (UK).

About Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Wolverhampton Art Gallery was purpose built in 1883 to house the city's collections of fine and decorative arts. It has one of the UK's best regional holdings of modern and contemporary art, including the renowned Pop Art collection and art focusing on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Another important area for collecting is that of the British Black Art movement that began in the city in the 1980s. The Art Gallery is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and attracts around 150,000 visitors annually. For further information please visit http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/

About Wolverhampton School of Art

Wolverhampton School of Art has been at the centre of the City's creative and industrial strategy since the 1850's when our first purpose-built art school was commissioned. Our current home was formally opened to students in October 1970 - 50 years ago. Charles Wheeler's brave and iconic architecture has dominated the Wolverhampton skyline ever since.

Students on our Art, Design and Screen based courses join a creative, practice led community in which they find the time, space and resources to gain high level skills as makers and learn to understand the historical and contemporary scope of their subject.

Socially engaged and community arts practice is core to our history and vision and the Wolverhampton School of Art has a long tradition of working with industry, civic and community partners. We embrace a diverse student body and aim to provide targeted and public access opportunities through an outreach programme that includes school/college experience days, the annual Artsfest and degree shows, exhibitions, conferences and public lectures.

1/ For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Oliver Bhurrut, Communications Manager, on 01902 551220 or email oliver.bhurrut@wolverhampton.gov.uk.

 

 

 

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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