Polemically Small on Paper

Touring from Torrance Art Museum in California, this exhibition is based on the idea that small, today, is often much better than big. Featuring over 80 British or British based artists who all work on paper and none bigger than A3 in size, it invites viewers to engage with art intimately.

The exhibition in Torrance was almost certainly the largest display, in terms both of the number of artists, and also in terms of stylistic variety, of new British and British-based art ever seen in California. This exhibition reflects the do it yourself attitude of the curators, standing against bureaucracy and top down institutionalism, and demonstrates how young artists and committed curators can mount major events in difficult times.

Knowing how strong this show was the curator's considered it amiss not to present it in London. Despite the significantly reduced physical space from Torrance Art Museum to CHARLIE SMITH london, the curators look forward to mounting a huge show of small work in an intimate location, re-emphasising the fact that big is not always better than small.ze week in industrial or historical locations of note. To date the project has focused on London based or educated artists working in all mediums including Gordon Cheung, Oliver Clegg, Adam Dix, Alexander Hoda, Sam Jackson, Monica Ursina Jäger, Jasper Joffe, Francesca Lowe, Alastair Mackie, Gavin Nolan, John Stark and Stella Vine and has led to gallery shows in Berlin, Los Angeles, Naples and Rome. The Future Can Wait is privately funded and as a museum scale curated exhibition provides an important and independent alternative to the art fair routine. In 2011 The Future Can Wait was presented in collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery to form The Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4‚s NEW SENSATIONS and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT. www.thefuturecanwait.com

Zavier Ellis is the Director of CHARLIE SMITH london. He is also co-founder of the museum scale show for emerging artists The Future Can Wait and has curated exhibitions internationally including in Berlin, Helsinki, Klaipeda, Los Angeles, Naples, Rome and London. Known as an acute talent spotter he has identified and exhibited a number of important young artists straight from art college including David Blandy, Tessa Farmer, Sam Jackson, Monica Ursina Jäger, Annie Kevans, Nika Neelova and Douglas White. Zavier is also a practicing artist and has most recently exhibited at Paul Stolper Gallery in London and Museum der Moderne in Salzburg. www.zavierellis.com

Edward Lucie-Smith is an internationally known art critic and historian who is also a curator, a published poet, an anthologist and a practicing photographer. He has published more than one hundred books in all, chiefly but not exclusively about contemporary art. Edward is generally regarded as the most prolific and the most widely published writer on art in the UK. A number of his art books, among them Movements in Art since 1945; Visual Arts of the 20th Century; A Dictionary of Art Terms and Art Today are used as standard texts throughout the world.

Max Presneill is a Los Angeles based artist and curator, originally from London, UK. He was the Founder and former Director of the artists initiative space Raid Projects and Director of the Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica from 2005-2008. Currently he is Head Curator for Torrance Art Museum as well as Director of ARTRA Curatorial, an independent curatorial projects management team. He has extensive experience internationally as a curator having organized exhibitions for museums, institutions and galleries in the US and UK, Australia, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey and more. Max is known as an international talent spotter and an authority on emerging art in Los Angeles. He is also part of the international movement of curators concerned with overseeing museums becoming more artist-centric. As an artist Max has shown throughout the world including Amsterdam, Istanbul, London, New York, Sydney and Tokyo and is represented by Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, and the Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills. www.torranceartmuseum.com | www.artrala.org | www.raidprojects.wordpress.com

Simon Rumley founded the auspicious New London Kicks in 2005. An annual exhibition sponsored by The Armory Show, New London Kicks promoted British contemporary and emerging artists in New York in collaboration with Soho House NY and Wooster Projects. As well as showing breaking talent such as Tessa Farmer, Gordon Cheung and Stella Vine, Rumley was first to exhibit Katy Moran's work in New York before she was signed by Stuart Shave/Modern Art and Andrea Rosen. More recently Simon has co-founded The Future Can Wait and co-curated shows globally. Simon has also produced, written and directed six feature films including Strong Language, The Truth Game and Club Le Monde & The Living and The Dead. His most recent film, Red White & Blue, was released in the USA by IFC films and in the UK via Trinity X in September 2011.

Polemically Small on Paper

Künstler: Henny Acloque, Alexander Adams, Dale Adcock, Dominic Allan, Jonathan Baldock, Angela Bartram, Emma Bennett, Kiera Bennett, Gabriella Boyd, Jemima Brown, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Gordon Cheung, Billy Childish, Oliver Clegg, Hugo Dalton, Tom Doran, Heather Eastes, Nadine Feinson, Hester Finch, Grant Foster, Nick Fox, Rose Gibbs, Stuart Gough, Andrea Gregson, David Hancock, Christopher Hanlon, Sarah Hardacre, Andy Harper, Justin Hibbs, Sigrid Holmwood, Paul Hosking, James Howard, Luke Jackson, Sam Jackson, Monica Ursina Jäger, James Jessop, Jasper Joffe, Chris Jones & Vicky Wright, Reece Jones, Claire de Jong, Annie Kevans, Rebecca Kressley, Peter Lamb, Cathy Lomax, Francesca Lowe, Robert Luzar, Joe Machine, Alastair Mackie, Jasmine Maddock, Robin Mason, Rui Matsunaga, Alan McQuillan, Hugh Mendes, Alexis Milne, Jock Mooney, Kieran Moore, Alex Gene Morrison, Jost Münster, Nika Neelova, Gavin Nolan, Margaret O´Brien, Tom Ormond, Tim Parr, Claire Pestaille, Harry Pye, Danny Rolph, Miho Sato, Benjamin Senior, Dominic Shepherd, Jamie Shovlin, John Stark, Nessie Stonebridge, Kate Street, Charles Thomson, Erik Tidemann, James Unsworth, Covadonga Valdes, Alex Virji, Walker & Bromwich, Stephen Walter, Miranda Whall, Hannah Wooll