Curated by Emily Gray 

PREVIEW: Thursday 31 October, 6-8pm
EXHIBITION: 1 November - 23 November
OPENING TIMES: Thursday - Saturday, 11am-6pm

Not an Archive presents new work by Kobby Adi, Celia-Yunior, and Suzanne van der Lingen, responding to the dispersed and ephemeral history of New Contemporaries - a platform for graduating artists that stretches over seven decades.

Piecing together this extensive but scattered history, Celia-Yunior reflect on the pressures of competing in an ever more complex and populated field through assessing the seven decades of New Contemporaries selectors. Suzanne van der Lingen examines the fragmented archival documentation, echoing the dispersal of these new contemporaries within the larger matrix of the arts in Britain. Kobby Adi, who was selected by Keith Piper for the 2019 exhibition, follows Piper through his archives from his participation as a ‘New Contemporary’ in 1986. Their work probes the lure of the archive, as compelling, and at times opaque, as New Contemporaries itself.

EVENTS

Intersections: Alienation & Collaboration
Wednesday 6 November, 6-8pm

Led by Tom Godfrey, this workshop for emerging artists discusses ideas around interaction, alienation and collaboration within the changing landscape of visual arts in Nottingham.

The Future Perfect
Saturday 23 November, 2-6pm

Reflecting on the shifting perspectives of archives - from a realm of 'deep storage' to a fluid and generative resource - how does an archive contribute a new layer of understanding not only to the past, but also to ‘the future perfect’? Speakers include Sue Breakell, Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, and Alice O’Hanlon.