British Art Show 9, Wolverhampton School of Art, George Wallis Building, University of Wolverhampton

British Art Show 9

The largest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK

BAS9 is recognised as the most important and ambitious recurrent exhibition of contemporary art produced in the UK. Taking place every five years it brings the work of artists defining new directions in contemporary art to four UK cities.

Over 40 artists exhibited in Wolverhampton in 2022 and were selected by independent curators: Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar. Our curators met 230 artists in 23 cities before making their final selection.

The exhibition included film, photography, painting, sculpture, and performance, as well as multimedia projects that don’t sit easily in any one category.

The list of artists features:

  • Jamie Crewe – multi-media installation
  • Sean Edwards – Quilts
  • Mandy El-Sayegh – installation
  • Mark Essen – School of the Underkraft/ workshop
  • Laurence Lek – multi media installation
  • Elaine Mitchener – Installation
  • Oscar Murillo – painting/installation
  • Hardeep Pandhal - film
  • Abigail Reynolds – glass sculpture
  • Margaret Salmon – photography
  • Caroline Walker – Painting
  • Rehana Zaman – installation

More information available at: www.britishartshow9.co.uk

British Art Show 9 Comes to Wolverhampton

Maggie Ayliffe, Head of the University of Wolverhampton School of Creative Industries, and Marguerite Nugent, Manager: Arts and Culture at City of Wolverhampton Council Wolverhampton Art Gallery, talk about the benefits of bringing British Art Show 9 (BAS9) to Wolverhampton.

Maggie Ayliffe, Head of the School of Creative Industries, said: “We are thrilled to be hosting the second leg of British Art Show 9 in Wolverhampton. We are looking forward to welcoming many visitors to the iconic Wolverhampton School of Art. There will be a wealth of opportunities for new audiences, students, school children and the artist community to come and engage with some of the most exciting contemporary art being produced in the UK today."

BAS9 Ambassadors

BAS9 Ambassadors are representatives from the local community in each City of the British Art Show 9 tour. Our Ambassadors in each City will be working with gallery staff and the BAS9 team to be part of the British Art Show 9 experience. They will help to promote the exhibition to friends, family and their wider community building new relationships in each city.

Wolverhampton BAS9 Ambassadors:
  • Kathryn O’Connor – BAS9 LGBTQ+ Ambassador
  • The Good Shepherd – (Kate Penman)
  • Georgia Goodman – installation Student
  • Amarjit Nar
  • Alex Vann
  • The Way
  • The Wolverhampton Business Improvement District (BID)

More information about BAS9 Ambassadors available at: www.britishartshow9.co.uk

GAIKA discusses the inspirations behind ZEMEL

A self-described ‘hard-to-place person’, GAIKA is an experimental rapper, producer, writer, visual and performance artist. His debut album, Basic Volume, and his first art installation, SYSTEM, a vast experiential audio-visual sculpture, were launched simultaneously in 2018. Both projects draw directly on his Caribbean heritage. While Basic Volume is an elegy to GAIKA’s late father, a Windrush-generation immigrant, SYSTEM marked the 70th anniversary of Windrush by exploring the impact of migration on music in the UK, sound system culture and the history of the Notting Hill Carnival. GAIKA’s new installation, ZEMEL (2022), a smaller-scale relative of SYSTEM, is a shrine to his murdered uncle and other Windrush-generation deportees.

GAIKA, ZEMEL, 2022. © GAIKA. Installation view, British Art Show 9, 2021-22, Wolverhampton Art Gallery. A Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition organised in collaboration with galleries across the cities of Aberdeen, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Plymouth. Photo © Stuart Whipps

More information available at: britishartshow9.co.uk/artists/gaika

3D Tour

Click on the image above and take a tour around our the BAS9 exhibition, please note the Mattertag hotspots (white circles) – these contain information about specific equipment.

We are thrilled to be hosting the second leg of British Art Show 9 in Wolverhampton. We are looking forward to welcoming many visitors to the iconic Wolverhampton School of Art.

Maggie Ayliffe, Head of the School of Creative Industries

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.

Councillor Stephen Simkins, Cabinet Member for City Economy

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.

Brian Cass, Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery Touring

We are thrilled to present the second iteration of BAS9 in Wolverhampton, where we focus on an intersectional approach to living with difference.

Hammad Nasar and Irene Aristizábal, Curators of British Art Show 9

 

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