Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006 / London

The annual exhibition, New Contemporaries, arrives out of an open submission by artists on the final undergraduate year at any British art school, current postgraduates, and those already a year out. The selectors this year, Angus Fairhurst, Paul Noble and Alison Wilding, all artists, have selected work by just 36 out of a submission by over 1,200 potential artists.

The integrity, quality, and continuing success of New Contemporaries lies, in part, in the fact that selectors, really do consider every image, proposal and mixture of the two, in a thoroughly drawn out marathon . This takes place in two stages, the first over 5 consecutive days in a blacked-out space, and the second for a number of days where the short-listed work brought to one central space from across the country is further narrowed down and discussed. Works that persist, refuse to go, provoke arguments, disturb or reinforce, are by now quite familiar to the selectors and the resulting exhibition, brings a great range of subtle but exciting media and uses of imagery and intention.

This year’s show is characterised, in part by a use of print. A use of a familiar landscape stance in engraving reconvened into another series of images (Salvatore Arancio). The slightest visual recognition at a different end of the range of approach brings an unlikely relationship between engraving and advanced technology (Holly Antrum). A giant woodcut shows a number of donkeys who seem to roam forward, the detail of wood grain also shows through (Andrea Buttner). What seems to be the mixture of an independent sculptural flow, or creep, across the floor, and an architectural model which is part Bedouin tent, science fiction space station and contemporary military airport, has a low solemn effect (Dafni Barbageorgopoulou).

A totally touching and somewhat pure film in the mould of 1960s British documentary tradition sympathetically considers the life, thoughts and existence of one man (Film for Tom by Stephen Connolly) while another work is simple and blunt in direction as a narrator talks of the questioning he suffers in a different ‘neighbourhood’ (Joshua Balgos).

Painting is strong, abstract and confidently handled (Katherine Kicinski) and (Katy Moran) Much drawing, features in an exhibition that is never bombastic in atmosphere; the work is particular, touching, and even, at times, sensitive in scale. The smallest of items, the most delicate of objects, the hand-carved birthday candle which aspires to be a spiral staircase (Akiko and Masako Takizawa); the immaculately painted nail and stripped back record sleeve of Matthew Smith; the intricately detailed matchbox sculptures and reliefs of Sarah Bridgland.

First established in 1949, New Contemporaries plays a vital role in unearthing fresh talent. It offers an exhibition of exceptional vitality and promise, a unique insight into the variety of energies, ideas, potential and promise of the next generation of artists.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006 is showing at Club Row part of Rochelle School, the new arts resource in the East End run by the A Foundation.

Selected artists Holly Antrum, Salvatore Arancio, Athanasios Argianas, Joshua Balgos, Dafni Barbageorgopoulou, Becky Beasley, Terence Besmirch, Kiran Kaur Brar, Sarah Bridgland, Andrea Büttner, Stephen Connolly, Youngmi Chun, Susan Ellery, Jenifer Evans, Jessie Flood-Paddock, John Hughes, Andy Jackson, Chiho Kato, Morag Keil, Katherine Kicinski, Edwin Li, Neil McNally, Nicholas Mobbs, Katy Moran, Laura Morrison, Yuko Nasu, Tom Price, Florian Roithmayr, Lois Rowe, Robert Rush, Henrietta Simson, Matthew Smith, Akiko and Masako Takada, Akiko Takizawa, Douglas White, Jeremy Willett.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006

mit Holly Antrum, Salvatore Arancio, Athanasios Argianas, Joshua Balgos, Dafni Barbageorgopoulou, Becky Beasley, Terence Besmirch, Kiran Kaur Brar, Sarah Bridgland, Andrea Büttner, Stephen Connolly, Youngmi Chun, Susan Ellery, Jenifer Evans, Jessie Flood-Paddock, John Hughes, Andy Jackson, Chiho Kato, Morag Keil, Katherine Kicinski, Edwin Li, Neil McNally, Nicholas Mobbs, Katy Moran, Laura Morrison, Yuko Nasu, Tom Price, Florian Roithmayr, Lois Rowe, Robert Rush, Henrietta Simson, Matthew Smith, Akiko & Masako Takada, Akiko Takizawa, Douglas White, Jeremy Willett