New Contemporaries

New Contemporaries is the UK’s leading organisation supporting emerging and early career artists from established and alternative art programmes. Since 1949, we have provided development opportunities to artists, helping them to successfully transition from education into more established pathways. In addition to our well-respected open exhibition, we offer our artists mentoring, residencies, bursaries, fellowships, commissioning and programming opportunities with our extensive network of partners. 

Receptive to diverse practices from a diverse demographic, for over 70 years we have held a vital role in the UK’s contemporary art scene, defining emerging tendencies and generations of practitioners. Our impressive roster of alumni includes post-war figures Frank Auerbach, Bruce Lacey and Paula Rego; pop artists Frank Bowling, Patrick Caulfield and David Hockney; new media pioneers Stuart Brisley, Helen Chadwick and Derek Jarman; YBAs Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili and Gillian Wearing; and other key contemporary figures such as Tacita Dean, Sunil Gupta, Mark Leckey and Mona Hatoum. Since 2000, we have worked with new millennium-defining artists such as Ed Atkins, Monster Chetwynd, Rachel Maclean, Haroon Mirza, Laure Prouvost and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye; and more recently a Hardeep Pandhal, Joanna Piotrowska, Shen Xin and Imran Perretta.