Date of issue: 26 November 2015
New Art West Midlands 2016
highlights region’s best new art talent

New Art West Midlands returns in 2016, extending to mac birmingham for the
first time

43 artists from five regional art schools exhibit new work at four leading West
Midlands galleries

Five artists will win cash prizes of £1000

A Turning Point West Midlands initiative, New Art West Midlands is the largest
partnership of its kind in England
New Art West Midlands returns in 2016 to showcase exciting new contemporary art
produced by recent graduates of five West Midlands art schools.
This year mac birmingham join Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Wolverhampton
Art Gallery and the Herbert Gallery & Museum, Coventry, in hosting exhibitions. The
exhibiting artists have all graduated within the last three years from five of the West
Midlands’ art schools: Birmingham City University, University of Wolverhampton,
University of Worcester, Staffordshire University and Coventry University. 80,000 people
visited New Art West Midlands 2015.
The four New Art West Midlands exhibitions will open in stages through spring 2016,
beginning on Friday 12 February at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Visitors can
expect a mixture of painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation, in what is a
unique opportunity to see the latest developments in contemporary art.
The artists selected to be part of New Art West Midlands 2016 were chosen by a panel of
leading figures in the art world: artist and academic Sonia Boyce, artist John Stezaker
and Katharine Stout, Head of Programme at ICA, London.
New Art West Midlands offers an insight into the current trends and concerns of
contemporary art, and highlights promising artists right at the start of their careers. Five
artists will win a cash prize of £1000.
A highlight of New Art West Midlands 2016 are Laura Haycock’s extraordinary selfportraits in which she reclines, nude, in the style of Venus - a reference to Velasquez’s
17th century oil paintings. For the viewer, the images are simultaneously compelling and
uncomfortable, a quality also shared in video and installation work by Jack Marder, which
examine gluttony in the modern age.
BCU graduate Matt Parker’s audio-visual installation, The Imitation Archive, is exhibited
across all four venues. A recent artist-in-residence at The National Museum of
Computing at Bletchley Park, Parker has traced the history of digital technology from the
early computer Colossus at Bletchley Park to the Cloud technology of today.
Themes of heritage and identity are found in many works. Ally Standing’s photographs
explore the remains of Birmingham’s Brutalist architectural legacy, whilst Kyle Cartlidge’s
paintings of a featureless-head reference his youth growing up in post-industrial Stoke on
Trent.
The traditional subject of landscape is represented in New Art West Midlands 2016. At
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Jakki Carey presents a painterly video work, Ís,
capturing a glacial lake in Iceland in what appears to be a direct warning from nature
about climate change. Frederick Hubble’s installation Harvesting dew to make a cup of
coffee with is a warm take on the romantic notion of living amidst nature. Meanwhile at
Wolverhampton Art Gallery visitors can find Rachel Bint’s photographs of Hengistbury
Head in Dorset and Aaron Sehmar’s lone figures in desolate rural and urban settings,
both works tinged with a sense of mystery and drama.
New Art West Midlands is organised by Turning Point West Midlands, a network that
works to promote and develop contemporary art in the region, hosted by Birmingham City
University. With five universities and four venues, with 43 exhibiting artists, the initiative is
the largest partnership of its kind in England.
Wendy Law, Director of Turning Point West Midlands, commented: “It is exciting to
see just how much New Art West Midlands has grown over the last four years and to be
working again with our partners. There is a diverse range of talent and work coming out
of our art schools and universities in the West Midlands. New Art West Midlands provides
an important opportunity at a crucial point in the careers of these artists, enabling them to
have their work displayed in highly respected galleries and to be seen and enjoyed by a
wide public.”
This is the fourth edition of New Art West Midlands. The exhibition is seen as a launch
vehicle for emerging artists, and those who have featured in previous editions have gone
on to enjoy professional success.
Several were included in the autumn 2015 exhibition SALON at Birmingham Museum &
Art Gallery, whilst others have worked with established galleries, including Eastside
Projects and Grand Union. An artwork by Lucy Hutchinson was bought for the nation by
Arts Council England after her presentation at New Art West Midlands 2014.
New Art West Midlands is supported with funding from the National Lottery by Arts
Council England.
New Art West Midlands 2016
Private View: Thursday 11 February, 6-8pm, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Friday 12 February to Sunday 15 May 2016
mac birmingham
Saturday 13 February to Sunday 10 April 2016
Herbert Gallery & Museum, Coventry
Friday 26 February to Sunday 24 April 2016
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Saturday 12 March to Saturday 15 May 2016
www.newartwm.org
Twitter: @nawmgradshow
Facebook: newartwestmidlands
The full list of artists selected to be part of New Art West Midlands 2016 can be found at
http://newartwm.org/student-archive/2016/
Arts Council England’s video explaining New Art West Midlands and its impact can be
found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p-C1QjWig8
ENDS.
For more information contact Helen Stallard on 0774 033 9604 or email
helen@helenstallard.co.uk
Notes for Editors:
1. Birmingham Museums Trust is an independent charity that manages the city’s museum
collection and venues on behalf of Birmingham City Council. It uses the collection of around
800,000 objects to provide a wide range of arts, cultural and historical experiences, events
and activities that deliver accessible learning, creativity and enjoyment for citizens and visitors
to the city. Most areas of the collection are designated as being of national importance,
including the finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world. Attracting over 1 million visits
a year, the Trust’s venues include Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Thinktank, Birmingham
Science Museum, Aston Hall, Blakesley Hall, Museum Collections Centre, Museum of the
Jewellery Quarter, Sarehole Mill, Soho House and Weoley
Castle. www.birminghammuseums.org.uk
2. With one million visits every year mac birmingham has served as one of the country's
foremost arts centres for over 50 years. With artists and audiences at its heart we provide
opportunities for people from all backgrounds to see, hear and, most importantly, make art.
mac is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, also funded by Birmingham
City Council and partners. www.macbirmingham.co.uk
3. The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is Coventry’s award-winning museum and art gallery,
which celebrates the city’s culture, history and arts. A registered educational charity, situated
at the heart of the city centre, the Herbert is also Coventry’s creative media centre and history
centre. It brings under one roof the unique heritage and creative aspiration of one of Britain’s
most historic cities. The Herbert offers an innovating, imaginative and sustainable service to
the people of Coventry, Warwickshire and the West Midlands. Working in partnership across
the museum and art sector regionally, nationally and internationally, it uses its collections and
exhibitions to engage with families and intergenerational audiences. The Herbert is run by
Culture Coventry, which also manages Coventry Transport Museum, the Lunt Roman Fort
and Priory Visitor Centre. www.theherbert.org
4. Wolverhampton Art Gallery has won national recognition for its adventurous and
entertaining temporary exhibitions and is renowned for its collection of Georgian and Victorian
art as well as for contemporary collections of national importance including one of the largest
and most significant collections of Pop Art outside London and a collection exploring artistic
responses to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Art Gallery is part of WAVE – the
museums, galleries and archives of Wolverhampton. It is run by Wolverhampton City Council
and is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England.
www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
5. Turning Point West Midlands (TPWM) is a strategic network working with artists, artist
collectives, curators, galleries museums, universities, agencies and businesses, to strengthen
the visual arts in the region and nationally. TPWM is one of 9 regions that form the
Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN) set up in response to a major review of the visual
arts by Arts Council England. TPWM is supported by Arts Council England in partnership with
Birmingham City University. www.tpwestmidlands.org.uk