British Art Show 9 – New Opening and Tour Dates Announced

Hayward Gallery Touring have announced new touring dates for British Art Show 9, which will now be opening in Aberdeen, Scotland on 10 July 2021 and touring to Wolverhampton, Manchester and Plymouth. 

The British Art Show is the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK and it is widely acknowledged as the most important recurrent exhibition of contemporary art produced in this country, unrivalled in its ambition, scope and national reach. The exhibition will be presented across numerous galleries and exhibition spaces in each city,including Castlefield Gallery, resulting in an ambitious and wide-ranging programme that explores new tendencies in artistic practice.

The curators of BAS9, Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar, have made their artist selection after extensive research and travel across the UK. Many of the participating artists are developing new works for the exhibition, 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. British Art Show 9 will also benefit from the support of Arts Council England’s Project Grant for National Activities to produce an ambitious programme of creative learning and engagement opportunities across the four partner cities.

The artists in British Art Show 9 are:

British Art Show 9 has been developed at a precarious and unprecedented 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 in the exhibition 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. 

This edition explores three overarching themes – healing, care and reparative history; tactics for togetherness; and imagining new futures – these conceptual frameworks were devised prior to the pandemic, however, with the recent global recognition of racial injustice sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, all three thematics have become even more relevant to the present moment.

The 9th edition of the British Art Show was originally scheduled to open in Manchester in September 2020. The opening was moved to Wolverhampton in March 2021. Due to the continuing impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown restrictions, and in dialogue with the partner institutions in each city and the artists in the exhibition, the dates and the order of the exhibition tour have been rescheduled again. British Art Show 9 will now be opening in Aberdeen in July. 

New Tour details:

10 July – 10 October 2021, Aberdeen: Aberdeen Art Gallery

22 January – 10 April 2022, Wolverhampton: Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Wolverhampton School of Art

13 May – 4 September 2022, Manchester: Castlefield Gallery; HOME; Manchester Art Gallery; and the Whitworth, The University of Manchester

8 October – 23 December 2022, Plymouth: KARST; The Levinsky Gallery, University of Plymouth; The Box, Plymouth; and The Gallery, Plymouth College of Art