Wolverhampton will now host British Art Show 9 in January 2022 after new dates for the touring exhibition were announced by organisers after consultation with all the partner cities.

The event – which is the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK – will take place in the city between 22 January and 10 April, 2022.

Wolverhampton was due to host the opening of the exhibition in March 2021 however, due to the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions, the dates and order of the tour have been rescheduled. British Art Show 9 will now open in Aberdeen in July 2021.

City of Wolverhampton Council Leader, Councillor Ian Brookfield, said: “It’s unfortunate and unavoidable that British Art Show 9 has been moved back to early next year but the safety of our residents and visitors to our city is paramount.

“We’re looking forward to hosting this prestigious event more than ever. It will bring talented artists to various locations across Wolverhampton including the Art Gallery and the University’s School of Art.

“The exhibition will be a great way to kick off 2022, a year which will see world class events coming to the city including the Commonwealth Games, Wolverhampton Literature Festival and big-name gigs at our newly refurbished Civic Halls.

“It also gives everyone something exiting to look forward to as better and brighter times are ahead of us following the pandemic.”

The British Art Show is widely recognised as a significant marker of recent developments in contemporary art, unrivalled in its scope and national reach, and has a track record of attracting a high volume of visitors to its touring cities.

British Art Show 8 attracted over 300,000 visitors in its tour to four cities from October 2015 to January 2017.

Maggie Ayliffe, Head of Wolverhampton School of Art, said: “We are thrilled to announce our hosting of the delayed first UK leg of British Art Show 9, when we will safely welcome visitors to our iconic Wolverhampton School of Art.

“The experiences and frustrations of the last year have made it even more important to host an event like the British Art Show that enables conversations with the artists and giving a voice to the most pressing concerns of our times. We can’t wait to begin that here in Wolverhampton.”

British Art Show 9 curators Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar were selected by a panel of curators from Hayward Gallery Touring and the participating cities. They bring international experience to the role and have both worked on major exhibitions in the UK, Europe, America and Asia.

The exhibition introduces visitors to over 40 artists practising in Britain over the past five years, providing an insight into the most exciting contemporary art being produced in this country in this extraordinary moment in our history. The exhibition 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.

Artists include: Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Simeon Barclay, Oliver Beer, Zach Blas, Kathrin Böhm, Maeve Brennan, James Bridle, Helen Cammock, Than Hussein Clark, Cooking Sections, Jamie Crewe, Oona Doherty, Sean Edwards, Mandy El-Sayegh, Mark Essen, Gaika, Beatrice Gibson, Patrick Goddard, Anne Hardy, Celia Hempton, Andy Holden, Joey Holder, Marguerite Humeau, Lawrence Lek, Ghislaine Leung, Paul Maheke, Elaine Mitchener, Oscar Murillo, Grace Ndiritu, Uriel Orlow, Hardeep Pandhal, Hetain Patel, Florence Peake, Heather Phillipson, Joanna Piotrowska, Abigail Reynolds, Margaret Salmon, Hrair Sarkissian, Katie Schwab, Tai Shani, Marianna Simnett, Victoria Sin, Hanna Tuulikki, Caroline Walker, Alberta Whittle and Rehana Zaman

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. 

In Wolverhampton, British Art Show 9 will take place at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and the University of Wolverhampton School of Art.