Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021

75 emerging and early career artists—from UK art schools and alternative peer-to-peer learning programmes—have been selected to take part in Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. The exhibition will launch 25 September 2021 for the first time at Firstsite, Colchester, UK, which has been named the 2021 winner of the world's largest museum prize, Art Fund Museum of the year. To complement the exhibition, New Contemporaries will present an exciting online platform and a range of public programmes allowing audiences to further engage with the artists’ work, available at platform.newcontemporaries.org.uk. 

This longstanding and vital organisation gives visibility and recognition to an incredible breadth and depth of emerging talent whilst also providing access to other development opportunities that enable artists’ practices to become more sustainable long-term.

New Contemporaries open submission’s rigorous two-part selection process was headed by a panel of three internationally renowned artists comprising Hew Locke, Tai Shani and Michelle Williams Gamaker. They have selected a new generation of artists in what has been a challenging year for all, especially those emerging from art education. Their selection celebrates the tenacity of the artists who applied.

Selected artists for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021 are: Susan Atwill, Mataio Austin Dean, Christopher Bond, Shannon Bono, Alice Bucknell, Richard Burton, Thomas Cameron, Maya Gurung-Russell Campbell, Anna Choutova, Bo Choy, Kedisha Coakley, Noemi Conan, Lauren Craig, Angelina May Davis, Femi Dawkins, Charles de Agustin, Darya Diamond, Pete G. Donaldson, Freya Douglas Ferguson, Karolina Dworska, Max Göran, Janina Frye, Enorê, Aoibheann Greenan, Benjamin Hall, Tom Harker, Christopher Hartmann, Serena Huang, INCURSIONS, Asuf Ishaq, Elsa James, Nisa Khan, Sarah Khan, David Leal, Jinjoon Lee, Hannah Lim, Laila Majid, Seren Metcalfe, Haeji Min, Karabo Monareng, Willy Nabi, Christof Nüssli, Sora Park, Rebecca Parkin, Krystle Patel, Hanne Peeraer, Lydia Pettit, Sandra Poulson, Leon Pozniakow, Anne Carney Raines, Katarina Ranković, Aaron Ratajczyk, Davinia-Ann Robinson, Bryan GIUSEPPI Rodriguez Cambana, Rebeca Romero, Benjamin Rostance, Temitayo Shonibare, James Sibley, Billy Smith-Morris, Sid Smith, Sean Synnuck, Agnieszka Szczotka, Jukan Tateisi, Liorah Tchiprout, Beth Waite, Jaime Welsh, Adrianna Whittingham, Tom Connell Wilson, Nana Wolke, Zhuanxu Xu, Rafał Zajko, Orsola Zane, Adam Zoltowski and Žaneta Zukalová.

Each year the cohort is surrounded by a specific cultural framework that informs their practices. This year, more than ever, issues of equality, diversity and social justice are present throughout the exhibition. Some of the themes addressed by this year’s artists include:

Staging and identity politics: Bryan GIUSEPPI Rodriguez Cambana explores the ”theatre” of interpreting, processing and tracing lived-experience as a strategy to decipher Afro-diasporic histories in the moving image work The Sexy Smell of Growth Hormones. Elsa James’ moving image Black Girl Essex: Here We Come, Look We Here explores the historical, temporal and spatial dimensions of what it means to be black in Essex. In his work A HOLE in Space ATH-BER Aaron Ratajcyzk stages a one-to-one rehearsal via video conferencing, a series of choreographed movements where shared memories of queer clubbing pre Covid-19 are re-enacted. 

Archeology of the past and present: Davinia-Ann Robinson’s practice including the installation Earth, Body, examines Black, Brown and Indigenous people’s relationships to land and what she terms as ”colonial nature environments.” In Archeological Vestige IV, Rebeca Romero’s 3D printed ceramic explores connections between technology and an all too often imposed Western vision of history. Asuf Ishaq, in the work Becoming Nature is concerned with themes of embodiment, fragmentation, displacement, migration and memory, often presenting the physical diasporic body as an evolving archive that transmits experience with cultural and political meaning. 

Horror and the macabre: Lydia Pettit’s work explores the uncanny and references troupes from horror and fantasy juxtaposed with figures in isolation. Her two-metre embroidered fabric glove Trouble in the House explores the experiences of living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Rebecca Parkin’s works splice together images of the witch and the siren in a rebellious reappraisal of feminism and erotic energies as in her pastel on paper Creepy Chromium whilst the meditative state of dreaming, the surreal and the strangeness of inhabiting fragile bodies is investigated by Karolina Dworska through knitted textile including the work Year-Long Dream. 

Kirsty Ogg, Director, New Contemporaries, says, “Artists’ lives and livelihoods have been severely impacted by the precarity of the pandemic. In response, New Contemporaries is supporting and giving a platform to 75 incredible emerging and early career artists, many of whom are directly addressing issues of equality, diversity and social justice in response to these times. We are really pleased to be launching our 2021 exhibition with Firstsite, giving diverse audiences in Essex a first view of the work by these new and exciting artists.

As well as participating in the annual exhibition and the newly launched online platform, this year’s New Contemporaries will have access to digital residences and projects, studio bursaries, mentoring, talks and workshops all of which are intended to help them develop as artists. As we start to emerge from the immediate impact of the pandemic, this support is even more vital.”

Sally Shaw MBE, Firstsite Director, says: “We are absolutely delighted to continue our 10th anniversary year celebrations by hosting the launch of the hugely influential and inspiring Bloomberg New Contemporaries—which will open just before our building’s 10th birthday event! This collection of work, produced under the most difficult of circumstances—demonstrates the ingenuity, resilience and talent of this diverse group of artists and will provide a show which celebrates creativity and encourages us to explore new perspectives and ideas, which is just what is needed right now.”

New Contemporaries has held a vital role in the UK’s contemporary art scene, showcasing emerging artists who have become the most internationally renowned artists of recent history including post-war figures Frank Auerbach, Bruce Lacey and Paula Rego; pop artists Frank Bowling, Patrick Caulfield and David Hockney; new media pioneers Stuart Brisley, Helen Chadwick and Derek Jarman; YBAs Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili and Gillian Wearing; alongside contemporary figures such as Tacita Dean, Sunil Gupta, Mark Leckey and Mona Hatoum; in the new millennium exceptional artists including Monster Chetwynd, Rachel Maclean, Haroon Mirza, Laure Prouvost and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye; and more recently a new generation including Hardeep Pandhal, Joanna Piotrowska, Shen Xin and Imran Perretta.

After launching at Firstsite, Colchester, from September 25 to November 28, 2021, the exhibition will travel to the South London Gallery for the fourth consecutive year, from December 10, 2021 to February 20, 2022.

Online platform: Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021 online platform includes all of the selected work, artists’ biographies, interviews, selectors’ introduction and a bibliography of research material generated by the artists. platform.newcontemporaries.org.uk

Associated Events: NCStreams, November 11, 2021, 6pm. An online screening event, will include a number of the artists featured in the exhibition who work digitally using moving image and performance to camera. See newcontemporaries.org.uk for more details on these and future events.