Art from Elsewhere: International Contemporary Art from UK Galleries

Past exhibition
Hayward Gallery Touring

Installation View at Art From Elsewhere Exhibition
Art from Elsewhere, Installation image, Birmingham Museums and Galleries Credit McAteer Photograph

Curator David Elliott brought together a personal selection of recently acquired international works

The 70 works featured were drawn from museums and galleries in five regions that were awarded significant grants under the Art Fund International (AFI) scheme to purchase contemporary works by major international artists over a period of five years.

In his selection, Elliott discovered shared themes explored by artists all over the world. Their works reflect on the realities of global change and post-colonial experience, examining questions of trade and exchange, urban and international migration, frontiers and failed utopias.

The exhibition toured to all five of the cities that received the exceptional funding (plus the Harris Museum in Preston). It changed from city to city, taking care to highlight the five collections, but not repeating artworks that the museum might have exhibited recently. In this way, each showing took a unique form and provided an array of interpretations for the visitor and gallery alike.

Featured artists:

The full list of exhibiting artists is (not all shown at all venues): Ai Weiwei, Shirin Aliabadi, Carl Andre, Stephen Antonakos, Yto Barrada, Yael Bartana, Lothar Baumgarten, Mohamed Bourouissa, Robert Breer, Paulo Bruscky, Nathan Carter, Thomas Demand, Eugenio Dittborn, Omer Fast, Meschac Gaba, Shilpa Gupta, Romuald Hazoumè, Michael Heizer, Jenny Holzer, Peter Hujar, Emily Jacir, Jitish Kallat , Amar Kanwar, Ola Kolehmainen , Barbara Kruger, Ana Mendieta , Aleksandra Mir, Zwelethu Mthethwa , Imran Qureshi , Jozef Robakowski, Shahzia Sikander, Robert Smithson, Nancy Spero, Beat Streuli , Kara Walker , Yang Zhenzhong, YeeSookyung, Akram Zaatari, and Horacio Zabala.

Exhibition venues

This exhibition toured to the following venues:

  • Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow
  • Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
  • Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima)
  • Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston
  • Towner, Eastbourne
  • Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and Arnolfini
Touring exhibitions

Find out more about our touring exhibitions programme, including exhibitions on tour and available to visit or hire.