LONDON.- The ICA welcomed back Bloomberg New Contemporaries to its galleries for the 5th year running. Marking its 65th anniversary, selectors Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Enrico David and Goshka Macuga have chosen works by 55 of the most promising artists emerging from UK art schools from 1,400 submissions. 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 2014 are: Lucy Beech, Dinah Berger, Louise Bradley, Jesc Bunyard, Matt Copson, Racheal Crowther, Yi Dai, Tajinder Dhami, Bee Flowers, Alice Gauthier, Marco Godoy, Victoria Grenier, Stacey Guthrie, Alice Hartley, Katie Hayward, Ed Hill, Yussef Hu, Matthew Humphreys, Henry Hussey, Marie Jacotey-Voyatzis, Lucy Joyce, Melissa Kime, Xiao-Yang Li, Inga Lineviciute, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Jonathan Meira, MKLK, Ebrel Moore, Emily Motto, Emely Neu, Laura O'Neill, Lydia Ourahmane, Athena Papadopoulos, Catherine Parsonage, Imran Perretta, Miroslav Pomichal, Charles Richardson, Simon Senn, Xin Shen, Will Sheridan Jr., Mustafa Sidki, David Cyrus Smith, Marilia Stagkouraki, Jane Stobart, Camille Summers-Valli, John Thole, Ian Tricker, Milou van der Maaden, Tess Vaughan, Adam Wallace, Deborah Westmancoat, Joseph Whitmore, Frances Williams, Ben Zawalich and Adam Zoltowski.

This year printmaking, moving image and performance occupy much of the final selection as well as an interest in modes of production and materiality. Certain artists explore themes linked to current affairs (Marco Godoy, Melissa Kime, Milou van der Maaden), human behaviour (Simon Senn, Lucy Beech, Stacey Guthrie), language (Matt Copson, Alice Hartley, Imran Perretta), desire (Yi Dai, Katie Hayward, Racheal Crowther, Tajinder Dhami) and the body (Bee Flowers, Yussef Hu, MKLK, Adam Wallace, Xiao-Yang Li).

Marco Godoy’s work ‘Claiming the Echo’ explores the aftermath of the financial crisis in Spain and depicts a choir singing choral arrangements of political protest slogans in Spanish.

Working with mixed media, Melissa Kime playfully alludes to the economic crisis with ‘Technicolour Joseph and The Amazing City Bankers' whilst Milou van der Maaden investigates the legacy of Dutch post-colonial activity in Africa in her film ‘From A Head To A Head’.

Simon Senn’s films deal with human behaviour and patterns of interaction. His explorations of group dynamics and individual responses take place in contexts defined by the artist, including an artist’s talk, a friend’s bedroom and a South African housing project. Through his deliberately candid filming technique and other interventions Senn reveals and heightens existing tensions within a given social setting. His film ‘Just Let Go’ sets up the intriguing proposition of dealing with the current global financial crisis through the creation of filmed cathartic experiences that aim to release anxiety.

Lucy Beech’s unsettling film ‘Cannibals’ is centred around the act of eating and it isn’t clear to the viewer whether the footage is real or staged, heightening its ambiguity.

Stacey Guthrie’s film ‘The Splendid Life of Hildegard Ramsbottom’ weaves wit and poetry with potent and comic results.

Matt Copson’s practice deals with language and the construction of narrative. Taking the form of installations, performances and discrete objects his works simultaneously draw heavily from contemporary British culture and more ancient forms of storytelling. Through the persona of the ‘fox’ and his relationship to others, a complex, often troubled worldview is created.

‘We’re All Very Disappointed’ by Alice Hartley is a large scale screen print which is inspired by the artist’s own internal voice and serves as a platform for thoughts and ideas that are never articulated.

Imran Perretta’s mixed media installation is composed of three printouts and an MP3 recording of the artist trying to recite an original Bangladeshi poem. The printouts show the original poem alongside phonetic and English translations.

Yi Dai’s works appear to be abstract in nature, but on closer inspection reveal that highly charged materials such as the artist’s own hair, broken mirror and stockings are also used in the process of making. This provocative and seductive materiality adds another layer of meaning and interpretation to the forms that the artist employs in this series of works.

Katie Hayward's body of work stems from her curiosity into individual desires. Her exquisite drawings deal with the notion of desired stature and her relationship to architecture, forming the basis for works that attempt to reach exaggerated and unrealistic heights.

Charlie Richardson’s film ‘Rehearsal’ deals with themes such as the self and commerce whilst Alice Gauthier’s film ‘Tourne’ is very painterly and nostalgic in tone. Inga Lineviciute’s hand drawn animation technique lends her work a delicacy and appears powerful in its simplicity. Tajinder Dhami explores and speculates on what constitutes an erotic dream for a computer in his five minute video ‘Electric Dream: Will Synthetic Intelligences Dream of Electric Sheep’.

Bee Flowers weaves art nouveau iconography into her delicate sculpture ‘Flow: Body II’ whilst Adam Wallace’s painting takes apart the anatomy in a collage of form and colour. MKLK’s work ‘Man Eater’ is a hypnotic live performance of the artist wearing a costume made from VHS tape extracted from hard-core porn films.

Xiao-Yang Li is fascinated by representations of human and bestial qualities in antique art, particularly sculptural objects which embody a mix of human and animal forms from the Mesopotamian and Ancient Greek periods. Her paintings are an attempt to understand the power of myth and its relationship to the medium of paint. Using colour and form Li aims to convey a sense of the magical, and the power of painting to imbue both human and animal forms with mythical qualities.

Complementing this year’s annual national touring exhibition is a public programme of talks and live events that bring together differing viewpoints to discuss contemporary modes of production. The exhibition is also accompanied by a fully illustrated 120-page colour catalogue with an interview between selector Enrico David and New Contemporaries’ Director Kirsty Ogg.

At a time when creativity and innovation has never been so vital, this year’s selected artists demonstrate the relevance of contemporary art as analytical commentary in everyday life. Offering a unique nationwide insight into British art schools today, this year’s national touring exhibition offers a significant opportunity for selected works to be seen on an international platform at Liverpool Biennial and ICA, London. We are grateful that through Bloomberg's long-term commitment we have been able to introduce the art world to hundreds of emerging artists, giving them an invaluable opportunity to showcase their work and gain vital professional experience. - Kirsty Ogg, Director, Bloomberg New Contemporaries.

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 new and recent fine art graduates primarily by means of an annual, nationally touring exhibition.

Events programme:
New Terms: Radical Education Workshops Sat 29 Nov, 12pm. Free, booking required. A series of participatory and theoretical sessions in the ICA studio on experimental and radical learning and pedagogy, led by members of the New Terms: Radical Education Workshops group.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries Performances: ICA Theatre Sat 29 Nov, 5pm. £5 / £3 ICA Members. A series of performances by Bloomberg New Contemporaries artists Jesc Bunyard, Katie Hayward, Lucy Joyce, MKLK and Milou van der Maaden.

Artist Film Club: Unorthodox hosts selected by Xin Shen Sun 30 Nov, 2-4pm. £5 / £3 ICA Members. This group screening is selected by Bloomberg New Contemporaries participating artist Xin Shen. These artists’ works explore the practice of problematizing socio-political situations and subject matter and will include a work by the artist.

ICA Quickfire: Tristan Garcia Thu 4 Dec, 6.30pm. £10 / £8 ICA Members. French philosopher and novelist Tristan Garcia in conversation with London-based writer, musician and curator Morgan Quaintance.

Friday Salon: Drama for the Gallery Fri 5 Dec, 3pm. £5 / £3 ICA Members. The discussion led by curator and critic Helena Rickett considers artists’ use of writing and the dramatic form as part of their practice.

Gallery Tour: Bloomberg New Contemporaries Thu 11 Dec, 6.30pm. Free, booking required. Led by Goldsmiths MFA Curating Students.

Culture Now: Goshka Macuga and Enrico David Fri 16 Jan, 1pm. £5 / £3 ICA Members. Bloomberg New Contemporaries selectors Goshka Macuga and Enrico David discuss the exhibition and their own artistic practices with curator Grant Watson.

Gallery Tour: Bloomberg New Contemporaries Thu 22 Jan, 6.30pm. Free, booking required. Led by magician James Brown.

Da Thirst Magazine Fete Sat 24 Jan, 7pm. £5 / £3 ICA Members. Artists Matt Copson and Laura O’Neill present a Da Thirst magazine fete and an Art World Top 100 Table Tennis competition.