The Future Can Wait and New Sensations have joined forces this year for a new super-exhibition in Victoria Square, Bloomsbury. Twenty graduates from BA and MA courses across the UK and the Republic of Ireland will partisipate in this year’s show. Established in 2007, THE FUTURE CAN WAIT is a direct response to Zavier Ellis’ and Simon Rumley’s fifteen years’ experience of the London art scene. Having discovered, curated and collected many of the most exciting young and progressive artists during this period, both Ellis and Rumley have become known for identifying rising talent early.
Three candidates will be awarded the Absolut Prize at the exhibition this evening. This year’s judges are artists Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin; Nick Hackworth, founder of Paradise Row, London; Ossian Ward, formerly visual arts editor of Time Out and now at the Lisson Gallery, London; Tabitha Jackson, Commissioning Editor, Arts, Channel 4; and Rebecca Wilson, Chief Curator, Saatchi Online and Director, Saatchi Gallery.
THE FUTURE CAN WAIT is a multi-disciplinary museum-scale survey show consisting of UK based or educated artists, who work in painting, drawing, video, sculpture, performance and installation. Conceived to compliment and complete London’s Frieze week, THE FUTURE CAN WAIT represents an ambitious, privately funded and curated show that offers a much needed alternative experience to the art fair routine.
Located since 2007 in the East End, THE FUTURE CAN WAIT moved to Bloomsbury Square in Central London in 2011, in a new partnership with Saatchi’s New Sensations. The Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT continues to be one of London’s biggest curated events during Frieze Week, featuring over 60 artists in a 22,000 sq ft museum quality space.
Twenty artists, three were shortlisted for the Absolut Studio Fund. They are:
Freya Douglas-Morris (Royal College of Art)
Exposing themselves to the moonlight like bathers under a midnight sun, Watercolour, 2013
“The inky dark, yet bright quality of the Absolut cobalt blue reminded me of passages in a book I read recently, The Crystal World by JG Ballard. Within this book there is a rendering of a landscape afflicted by both night and day, where the days are dullened and the nights sparkle. My painting draws upon the atmosphere of these passages, using Absolut’s cobalt blue to lend inkiness to the image.”
Katja Larsson (Glasgow School of Art)
Cloudy is the stuff of stones, paper sculpture, 2013
“I wanted to make a rock out of thin matte ultramarine paper, referencing works of both Yves Klein and Anish Kapoor. Paper sheets are pressed against the surface of a rock to replicate its texture, then removed and joined at the sides to create a complete but hollow shape of a rock. When lit from the side the sculpture appears slightly translucent, creating a resemblance of ice, its hollowness revealed.”
Philippa Kuligowski (Glasgow School of Art)
Darn that Blue, film, 2013
“The colour blue runs just as a deep in any British Citizen – Princess Diana’s iconic blue dress and engagement ring, the sea and sky surrounding us, flying on our Union Jack flag and something blue will be worn by every bride across the country. My piece includes footage of such examples of blue within our culture as part of the British way of life.”
The winner of the 2013 New Sensations Prize, will be awarded prize money to fund a studio and support their future artistic endeavours.
Photo: Antonio Marguet Remote Crocodile Tears 2013
New Sensations: Dates: 14th – 17th October 2013 Times: 11-6pm
Address: B1, Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, London WC1
Entry: Free