The British Art Show is a touring art exhibition that runs for a whole year every five years. BAS describes itself as being, “widely recognized as the most ambitious and influential exhibition of contemporary British art“. The British Art Show 7 – In the days of the comet, is currently in Glasgow where it will stay until 21st August. It will then move to Plymouth, it’s final destination, until 4th December. Previous venues for BAS7 have been Nottingham and London.

NUD (3)2009 by Sarah Lucas

39 artists have been chosen by curators Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton on the basis of these artists’ contribution to contemporary art over the past five years. The theme of the exhibition is the comet and the ways in which the comet has been interpreted and given meaning by human cultures.

'Our House' (The Object) by Nathaniel Mellors

Of the exhibition theme, the curators write:

“While current scientific theory posits that comets are nothing more than elliptically orbiting clumps of dust, ice and gas, utterly indifferent to our affairs, they remain powerful reminders of the way in which our species has attempted to understand experience through the measuring of time, the writing of history, the belief in cosmological influence, and the notion of a deterministic universe.”

Untitled (2005-2010) by Roger Hiorns

Here is a short video from the British Art Show website, presented by the curators, which gives a feel for the exhibition:

If you would like to find out more about the exhibition, please visit: www.britishartshow.co.uk

To see more work by the artists from the exhibition featured here, please visit:

Sarah Lucas:
www.gladstonegallery.com/lucas.asp
Sarah Lucas on www.tate.org.uk
www.sadiecoles.com/sarah_lucas/index.html

Nathaniel Mellors:
Mellors on www.ica.org.uk
www.mattsgallery.org/artists/mellors/exhibition-1.php

Roger Hiorns:
Hiorns on www.tate.org.uk – exhibitions
Hiorns on www.tate.org.uk – artists
Hiorns on www.artangel.org.uk