Ekow Eshun Named Curator of British Art Show 10
137Aug. 8, 2025
Hayward Gallery Touring, the organizer of theBritish Art Show, has appointed Ekow Eshun curator of the event’s tenth edition, to open in September 2026. The London-born Eshun, who is of Ghanaian descent, is known for exhibitions centered around themes of identity, myth, and collective memory. Currently the chairman of the London-based public arts program The Fourth Plinth, he was the first Black director of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, serving in that role from 2005 to 2010; in the 1990s, he became the first Black editor ofArenamagazine. Described as a “cultural polymath” byThe Guardian, he was awarded the Association for Art History’s Curatorial Prize in 2023 for the exhibition “In the Black Fantastic” at London’s Hayward Gallery. Eshun is also a prolific writer. Among his recent books areBlack Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art(2025) andThe Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them(2024).
Launched in 1979 and held every five years, the traveling contemporary art exhibition is the largest recurring show of its kind in the UK, featuring recent works by the country’s artists. The exhibition has helped to launch the careers of previously unknown artists—among them Jeremy Deller, David Hockney, and Rachel Whiteread—and is unique in that it attracts visitors who might not typically darken the door of an art institution:Artlystreports that 40 percent of attendees are first-time gallerygoers. The 2026 iteration will travel more widely than any of its predecessors, beginning in Coventry and touring to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle Gateshead.
“It is a great honor to be appointed curator of the British Art Show, an exhibition that has long played a pivotal role in shaping and reflecting the discourse of contemporary art in the UK,” said Eshun in a statement. “I am thrilled by the opportunity to engage with artists whose practices speak powerfully to our time, and to craft a show that invites reflection, provokes dialogue, and expands the ways we engage with art in Britain today.”