The ICA is delighted to welcome back Bloomberg New Contemporaries to its galleries the sixth year running. Selectors Hurvin Anderson, Jessie Flood-Paddock and Simon Starling have chosen works by 37 of the most outstanding artists emerging from UK art schools from a record number of applicants. Previous New Contemporaries include Tacita Dean, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, David Hockney and Mike Nelson as well as more recent emerging artists including Ed Atkins, Peles Empire, Nathaniel Mellors, Haroon Mirza and Laure Prouvost.

The Bloomberg New Contemporaries for 2015 are Sïan Astley, Kevin Boyd, Lydia Brockless, U. Kanad Chakrabarti, James William Collins, Andrei Costache, Julia Curtin, Abri de Swardt, Melanie Eckersley, Jamie Fitzpatrick, Justin Fitzpatrick, Hannah Ford, Sophie Giller, Richard Hards, Juntae T.J. Hwang, Jasmine Johnson, Tomomi Koseki, Hilde Krohn Huse, Pandora Lavender, Jin Han Lee, Hugo López Ayuso, Beatrice-Lily Lorigan, Scott Lyman, Hanqing Ma & Mona Yoo, Scott Mason, Oliver McConnie, Mandy Niewöhner, Hamish Pearch, Neal Rock, Conor Rogers, Katie Schwab, Tim Simmons, David Cyrus Smith, Francisco Sousa Lobo, Aaron Wells, Morgan Wills and Andrea Zucchini.

This year the themes of gender, labour, value and consumption are present in the final selection, as well as an interest in process, the act of making, materiality and modes of production.

Complementing this year’s annual national touring exhibition is a public programme of talks and live events that bring together differing viewpoints. The exhibition is also accompanied by a fully illustrated 105-page colour catalogue, available online, in venue and through Cornerhouse Distribution priced at £10.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries is the leading UK organisation supporting emergent art practice from British art schools. Since 1949 New Contemporaries has consistently provided a critical platform for final year undergraduates, postgraduates and artists one year out of postgraduate study, primarily by means of an annual, nationally-touring exhibition. Independent of place and democratic to the core, Bloomberg New Contemporaries is open to all. Participants are selected by a panel comprising influential artists and art figures, often including artists who themselves have previously been a part of New Contemporaries. This rigorous selection process considers the work within a broad cultural context.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries has been supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies since 2000. This year’s participants also benefit from access to a number of professional development opportunities intended to make their practice more sustainable in the long term. These include one-to-one and peer mentoring delivered in partnership with Artquest, a national network of studio bursaries, the shaping of elements of the public programme at the ICA and access to other partner projects such as STOP PLAY RECORD and The Syllabus.