Hayward Touring has announced the appointment of Anna Colin and Lydia Yee as the curators for British Art Show 8. The exhibition, which is the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK art calendar, will open in October 2015 in Leeds before touring to Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton.
The pair were selected by a panel of senior curators from Hayward Touring and representatives of the participating galleries. Both curators have experience working on major exhibitions in the UK, Europe and USA.
Colin, a curator and writer based in London, is co-founder and co-director of Open School East, a non-fee paying study programme and communal space which launched in 2013 in East London. She is also associate curator at Fondation Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
Yee is curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London, where recent exhibitions have included Bauhaus: Art as Life (2013, co-curated with Catherine Ince); Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene (2011); and Ron Arad: Restless (2010). Yee was previously senior curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, where she was responsible for the exhibition programme and collection.
Close dialogue with artists
Speaking about the appointment, Colin and Yee, said: “We are delighted to have been selected to curate The British Art Show 8 and look forward to building upon the show’s vital 40-year history and expanding its possibilities. We plan to develop the exhibition in close dialogue with emerging and established artists who reflect the complexity of artistic practice today and to foster a lively exchange between the artists, venues and audiences.”
Roger Malbert, Senior Curator, Hayward Touring, said: “Lydia and Anna bring to the role a wealth of experience and understanding of British and international contemporary art. Both have solid reputations as curators and thinkers and we are privileged to be able to share their breadth of knowledge and creative vision with our partner galleries across the UK.”
The British Art Show aims to introduce a new generation of British artists to the wider UK public, and provide a vital overview of the most exciting art produced in this country during the previous five years. British Art Show 7 attracted over 420,000 visitors in its tour to four cities in 2010 and 2011.
Venues for The British Art Show 8 are: Leeds Art Gallery; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Inverleith House Gallery and Talbot Rice Gallery (Edinburgh); Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts; and Sainsbury’s Centre for the Visual Arts (Norwich); Southampton Art Gallery and John Hansard Gallery (Southampton), which will host the exhibition in its new, city centre development.
More on a-n.co.uk:
British Art Show 7 reviewed by Beth Bramich and Susan Hendry
British Art Show 6 reviewed by Aaron Juneau
