BRITISH ART SHOW 8 OPENS THIS FRIDAY AT LEEDS ART GALLERY

Sent on behalf of the British Art Show 8:

Hayward Touring is delighted to announce that British Art Show 8 (BAS8) opens to the public at Leeds Art Gallery this Friday. Organised every five years by Hayward Touring, BAS8 launches in Leeds before travelling to Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton. For this unique occasion, Leeds Art Gallery has de-installed almost their entire collection, allowing the curators and the gallery team to completely reinvent the spaces to accommodate this complex multi-media show. The exhibition, curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, contains work by forty-two artists who were chosen after an extensive research period. Twenty-six of the artists have made new commissions for BAS8 and many others are presenting works that have never been shown within the UK.

Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, Curators of BAS8, said:

“A key area that emerged from our conversations with artists, and which came to form British Art Show 8’s broad thematic premise, involves new thinking around materiality at a time of increasing convergence between the real and virtual spheres. Artists’ engagement with the material world can take different forms: some involve revisiting skills, knowledge and traditions that have been overshadowed, while others critically explore the physical implications of our digital existence.”

Highlights include:

• Post Forma, a major new commission by acclaimed Italian designer Martino Gamper. This participatory work is driven by Gamper’s interest in how objects can be transformed and reused, rather than discarded. Post Forma sees Gamper collaborate closely with Yorkshire artisans; specialists in weaving, bookbinding, cobbling and chair caning, transforming broken objects into unique pieces of craft.

• < >’s hand-tufted rug, Diagrams of Love: Marriage of Eyes, is a new commission produced in collaboration with Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh. This sculptural work will be activated with a choreographed piece, performed by Northern Ballet, which will travel and evolve with the exhibition.

  For AMR 733V, Stuart Whipps will work throughout the duration of the touring exhibition with former workers of the Longbridge plant in Birmingham. Together they will gradually restore a Mini built in 1979, a pivotal year in British politics and industry, elements and documentation of which will be exhibited as the projects unfolds.

• Anthea Hamilton’s new freestanding sculptures which form functioning ant farms. Over the duration of the exhibition, the ants will form a colony within the complex Perspex structures.

• The new film Feed Me, produced by Film and Video Umbrella, is emerging Scottish artist Rachel Maclean’s most ambitious project to date. Feed Me is a delirious confection of multi-layered digital images, the work is part fairytale, part hyper-modern fantasia made even more extravagant by the artist’s trademark multi-character theatrics, which are all played by Maclean herself.

• A project by Ahmet Öğüt, with artists Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller, Goshka Macuga. Öğüt, a strong advocate of art as a vehicle for social or political change, presents Day After Debt (UK), Öğüt

There are also new commissions by: Åbäke, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Caroline Achaintre, John Akomfrah and Trevor Mathison, Pablo Bronstein, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Benedict Drew, Simon Fujiwara, Will Holder, Alan Kane, Yuri Pattison, Ciara Phillips, Laure Prouvost, Magali Reus, Eileen Simpson and Ben White, Daniel Sinsel, Hayley Tompkins and Jessica Warboys.

Alongside UK premieres and little seen works by: Aaron Angell, Andrea Büttner, Alexandre da Cunha, Nicolas Deshayes, Ryan Gander, Melanie Gilligan, Mikhail Karikis, Charlotte Prodger, James Richards, Cally Spooner, Patrick Staff, Imogen Stidworthy, Bedwyr Williams, Jesse Wine and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Roger Malbert, Head of Hayward Touring said:

“The British Art Show is remarkably ambitious for a touring show, with many new commissions and complex installations. Our curators have brought together a rich variety of works in an exhibition that showcases the wealth of skill, inventiveness, humanity and humour prevailing in British art today.

This year the British Art Show benefits from the exceptional support of Art Council England’s Strategic Touring Programme, which will enable far-reaching audience development activities, including new digital platforms, community engagement and artists’ projects outside the gallery which extends the reach far beyond anything we have previously been able to achieve.”

Sarah Brown, Curator, Leeds Art Gallery said:

“We are delighted that the British Art Show 8 is opening at Leeds Art Gallery. For almost four decades the British Art Show has been acknowledged as one of the important exhibitions of contemporary art in this country; each edition has captured a unique moment in British art, and this one will be no different.”

Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council said:

“It’s an absolute privilege for Leeds to be hosting an event as prestigious as the British Art Show and an ambitious statement about our credentials as a city that celebrates and promotes

art and culture.It’s been 25 years since we last hosted this event and in that time our city’s art scene has grown and flourished in so many new and exciting ways. This will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase this to the world, as well as being a massive boost to our bid to be named European Capital of Culture 2023.”Notes to Editors

About the British Art Show

Widely recognised as the most ambitious and influential exhibition of contemporary British art, the British Art Show is organised every five years by Hayward Touring. BAS8 will launch this year at Leeds Art Gallery, opening on the day of the city’s Light Night festival, before travelling to Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton.

Attracting over 420,000 visitors in 2010 / 2011 for BAS7, the British Art Show is the largest touring exhibition in the UK. Each edition is dedicated to showcasing the best work of a new generation of artists. The artists are chosen on the grounds of their contribution to art in this country in the last five years – making the British Art Show a vital measure of where contemporary art in the UK is now, and how it has developed over the past half-decade.

BAS8 is curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee. Anna Colin is co-founder & co-director of Open School East and Associate Curator at Fondation Galeries Lafayette; Lydia Yee is Chief Curator at Whitechapel Gallery and was previously curator at Barbican Art Gallery.

The artists in British Art Show 8 are:

Website: www.britishartshow8.com | Press images: http://bit.ly/1KhCQsO

BAS at Leeds Art Gallery

Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AA. Admission to the Gallery and BAS8 is completely free. Mondays closed. Tues – Sat, 10am – 5pm, Sun 12pm – 4pm. Closed on bank holidays. www.leeds.gov.uk/BAS8 / 0113 247 8256 / city.art.gallery@leeds.gov.uk

Founded in 1888, Leeds Art Gallery has designated collections of 19th and 20th century British painting and sculpture widely considered to be the best outside the national collections. The Gallery has always supported the work of living artists with the early 20th century represented by artists such as Walter Sickert and Stanley Spencer, with the development of English modernism shown through key works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, Jacob Epstein and Francis Bacon. The collection also features works by contemporary artists including Becky Beasley, Fiona Rae, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Tony Cragg and Mark Wallinger.

The Gallery is an internationally renowned centre for modern and contemporary art with an exhibition programme that has showcased work of celebrated artists such as Damien Hirst through strategic partnership projects with The Art Fund / Tate’s Artist Rooms, in addition to curating major exhibitions together with Tate (Henry Moore and Terry Frost) and in partnership with the Arts Council Collection. The Gallery has established a strong reputation for initiating, commissioning and curating solo exhibitions by significant artists attracting attention on the national stage.

Accompanying BAS8, Leeds Art Gallery have organised a strong public programme of special events, including BAS8 artist talks, weekend performances, an extensive range of family activities and an accompanying schools programme. These include talks by artists Rachel Maclean (13 Oct) and Mikhail Karikis (10 Nov). Further information to be published.

On the occasion of BAS8 opening at Leeds Art Gallery, the city of Leeds has organised a programme showcasing the range of visual arts in the city. Unfold is a programme of exhibitions, events, community activities, talks and new public art commissions, and will launch with Light Night, the city’s annual celebration of the arts, when more than 35 cultural venues in the city centre will stay open late.

Touring Dates:

• Leeds: Leeds Art Gallery; 9 October 2015 – 10 January 2016

• Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Talbot Rice Gallery, University Of Edinburgh Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh: 13 February – 8 May 2016

• < > Norwich University of The Arts, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery: 24 June – 4 September 2016 < > John Hansard Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery: 8 October 2016 – 14 January 2017 www.southbankcentre.co.uk

  Hayward Touring is delighted to announce that British Art Show 8 (BAS8) opens to the public at Leeds Art Gallery this Friday. Organised every five years by Hayward Touring, BAS8 launches in Leeds before travelling to Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton. For this unique occasion, Leeds Art Gallery has de-installed almost their entire collection, allowing the curators and the gallery team to completely reinvent the spaces to accommodate this complex multi-media show. The exhibition, curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, contains work by forty-two artists who were chosen after an extensive research period. Twenty-six of the artists have made new commissions for BAS8 and many others are presenting works that have never been shown within the UK.

  Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, Curators of BAS8, said:

  “A key area that emerged from our conversations with artists, and which came to form British Art Show 8’s broad thematic premise, involves new thinking around materiality at a time of increasing convergence between the real and virtual spheres. Artists’ engagement with the material world can take different forms: some involve revisiting skills, knowledge and traditions that have been overshadowed, while others critically explore the physical implications of our digital existence.”

  Highlights include:

• Post Forma, a major new commission by acclaimed Italian designer Martino Gamper. This participatory work is driven by Gamper’s interest in how objects can be transformed and reused, rather than discarded. Post Forma sees Gamper collaborate closely with Yorkshire artisans; specialists in weaving, bookbinding, cobbling and chair caning, transforming broken objects into unique pieces of craft.

• < >’s hand-tufted rug, Diagrams of Love: Marriage of Eyes, is a new commission produced in collaboration with Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh. This sculptural work will be activated with a choreographed piece, performed by Northern Ballet, which will travel and evolve with the exhibition.

  For AMR 733V, Stuart Whipps will work throughout the duration of the touring exhibition with former workers of the Longbridge plant in Birmingham. Together they will gradually restore a Mini built in 1979, a pivotal year in British politics and industry, elements and documentation of which will be exhibited as the projects unfolds.

• Anthea Hamilton’s new freestanding sculptures which form functioning ant farms. Over the duration of the exhibition, the ants will form a colony within the complex Perspex structures.

• The new film Feed Me, produced by Film and Video Umbrella, is emerging Scottish artist Rachel Maclean’s most ambitious project to date. Feed Me is a delirious confection of multi-layered digital images, the work is part fairytale, part hyper-modern fantasia made even more extravagant by the artist’s trademark multi-character theatrics, which are all played by Maclean herself.

• A project by Ahmet Öğüt, with artists Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller, Goshka Macuga. Öğüt, a strong advocate of art as a vehicle for social or political change, presents Day After Debt (UK), Öğüt

• There are also new commissions by: Åbäke, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Caroline Achaintre, John Akomfrah and Trevor Mathison, Pablo Bronstein, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Benedict Drew, Simon Fujiwara, Will Holder, Alan Kane, Yuri Pattison, Ciara Phillips, Laure Prouvost, Magali Reus, Eileen Simpson and Ben White, Daniel Sinsel, Hayley Tompkins and Jessica Warboys.

  Alongside UK premieres and little seen works by: Aaron Angell, Andrea Büttner, Alexandre da Cunha, Nicolas Deshayes, Ryan Gander, Melanie Gilligan, Mikhail Karikis, Charlotte Prodger, James Richards, Cally Spooner, Patrick Staff, Imogen Stidworthy, Bedwyr Williams, Jesse Wine and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

  Roger Malbert, Head of Hayward Touring said:

  “The British Art Show is remarkably ambitious for a touring show, with many new commissions and complex installations. Our curators have brought together a rich variety of works in an exhibition that showcases the wealth of skill, inventiveness, humanity and humour prevailing in British art today.

  This year the British Art Show benefits from the exceptional support of Art Council England’s Strategic Touring Programme, which will enable far-reaching audience development activities, including new digital platforms, community engagement and artists’ projects outside the gallery which extends the reach far beyond anything we have previously been able to achieve.”

  Sarah Brown, Curator, Leeds Art Gallery said:

  “We are delighted that the British Art Show 8 is opening at Leeds Art Gallery. For almost four decades the British Art Show has been acknowledged as one of the important exhibitions of contemporary art in this country; each edition has captured a unique moment in British art, and this one will be no different.”

  Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council said:

  “It’s an absolute privilege for Leeds to be hosting an event as prestigious as the British Art Show and an ambitious statement about our credentials as a city that celebrates and promotes

  art and culture.It’s been 25 years since we last hosted this event and in that time our city’s art scene has grown and flourished in so many new and exciting ways. This will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase this to the world, as well as being a massive boost to our bid to be named European Capital of Culture 2023.”Notes to Editors

  About the British Art Show

  Widely recognised as the most ambitious and influential exhibition of contemporary British art, the British Art Show is organised every five years by Hayward Touring. BAS8 will launch this year at Leeds Art Gallery, opening on the day of the city’s Light Night festival, before travelling to Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton.

  Attracting over 420,000 visitors in 2010 / 2011 for BAS7, the British Art Show is the largest touring exhibition in the UK. Each edition is dedicated to showcasing the best work of a new generation of artists. The artists are chosen on the grounds of their contribution to art in this country in the last five years – making the British Art Show a vital measure of where contemporary art in the UK is now, and how it has developed over the past half-decade.

  BAS8 is curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee. Anna Colin is co-founder & co-director of Open School East and Associate Curator at Fondation Galeries Lafayette; Lydia Yee is Chief Curator at Whitechapel Gallery and was previously curator at Barbican Art Gallery.

  The artists in British Art Show 8 are:

  Åbäke Lawrence Abu Hamdan Caroline Achaintre John Akomfrah and Trevor Mathison Aaron Angell Pablo Bronstein Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin Andrea Büttner Alexandre da Cunha Nicolas Deshayes Benedict Drew Simon Fujiwara Martino Gamper Laure Prouvost

  Ryan Gander Melanie Gilligan Anthea Hamilton Will Holder Alan Kane Mikhail Karikis Linder Rachel Maclean Ahmet Öğüt (with Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller, Goshka Macuga) Yuri Pattison Ciara Phillips Charlotte Prodger

  Magali Reus James Richards Eileen Simpson and Ben White Daniel Sinsel Cally Spooner Patrick Staff Imogen Stidworthy Hayley Tompkins Jessica Warboys Stuart Whipps Bedwyr Williams Jesse Wine Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

  Website: www.britishartshow8.com | Press images: http://bit.ly/1KhCQsO

  BAS at Leeds Art Gallery

  Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AA. Admission to the Gallery and BAS8 is completely free. Mondays closed. Tues – Sat, 10am – 5pm, Sun 12pm – 4pm. Closed on bank holidays. www.leeds.gov.uk/BAS8 / 0113 247 8256 / city.art.gallery@leeds.gov.uk

  Founded in 1888, Leeds Art Gallery has designated collections of 19th and 20th century British painting and sculpture widely considered to be the best outside the national collections. The Gallery has always supported the work of living artists with the early 20th century represented by artists such as Walter Sickert and Stanley Spencer, with the development of English modernism shown through key works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, Jacob Epstein and Francis Bacon. The collection also features works by contemporary artists including Becky Beasley, Fiona Rae, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Tony Cragg and Mark Wallinger.

  The Gallery is an internationally renowned centre for modern and contemporary art with an exhibition programme that has showcased work of celebrated artists such as Damien Hirst through strategic partnership projects with The Art Fund / Tate’s Artist Rooms, in addition to curating major exhibitions together with Tate (Henry Moore and Terry Frost) and in partnership with the Arts Council Collection. The Gallery has established a strong reputation for initiating, commissioning and curating solo exhibitions by significant artists attracting attention on the national stage.

  Accompanying BAS8, Leeds Art Gallery have organised a strong public programme of special events, including BAS8 artist talks, weekend performances, an extensive range of family activities and an accompanying schools programme. These include talks by artists Rachel Maclean (13 Oct) and Mikhail Karikis (10 Nov). Further information to be published.

  On the occasion of BAS8 opening at Leeds Art Gallery, the city of Leeds has organised a programme showcasing the range of visual arts in the city. Unfold is a programme of exhibitions, events, community activities, talks and new public art commissions, and will launch with Light Night, the city’s annual celebration of the arts, when more than 35 cultural venues in the city centre will stay open late.

  Touring Dates:

• Leeds: Leeds Art Gallery; 9 October 2015 – 10 January 2016

• Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Talbot Rice Gallery, University Of Edinburgh Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh: 13 February – 8 May 2016

• < > Norwich University of The Arts, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery: 24 June – 4 September 2016 < > John Hansard Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery: 8 October 2016 – 14 January 2017 www.southbankcentre.co.uk