Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011 - Submissions open now

18 January - 14 February

Monday-Saturday: 12noon-6pm
Sunday:12noon-4pm

New Contemporaries gives people still at, or just after, art school the opportunity to show their work in the context of a professional art gallery. It is important in that it takes the work out of the educational context and into the real. The relationship between education and art is known, respected, but strangely not recognised enough. As an organisation New Contemporaries is, however, totally independent of the art school as it allows applicants a democratic chance for the work itself to shine through. Reputations that might otherwise become set within the art school system are able to break out.

The annual exhibition is selected from slide, film, video, cd, proposal, and then at a second stage from a shortlist of the work itself. New Contemporaries is one of only two open exhibitions in the country. The importance of testing, looking, judging without knowledge of school, age, works both ways. The selection of selector is, therefore, key. As a principle it is important to convey a very basic sense of possibility to every art school student or recent graduate considering applying. The selection is done by artists and writers and often a selector will have also been in New Contemporaries, a number of years before. The intense and detailed selection process provides the selector the opportunity to consider art in a broad context, in a visual and aural sea far removed from their individual career.

Although there is no limit put on the number of artists to be shown each year, the number chosen from out of over 1,200 applicants has averaged almost uncannily, at around thirty-five, although in recent years the number of artists selected has risen to just under fifty. Independent of place, New Contemporaries is an annual exhibition without a building, and has had beneficial relationships with many important galleries. The exhibition travels and this movement, which is an integral part of the structure, means a different relationship to audience and place. The exhibition provides galleries, such as Cornerhouse or Camden Arts Centre, a ready-made exhibition of the very newest and best contemporary art.

Rochelle School is located on Arnold Circus in London's East End, occupying a key position at the heart of the Boundary Estate Conservation area.One of the buildings, formerly the infants school and known as Club Row, offers lofty, gleaming white exhibition and performance space. Club Row will accommodate three-to-four exhibitions each year, including the Bloomberg 'New Contemporaries'. Club Row Arnold Circus  London E2 7es United Kingdom 020 7033-1990

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