About

Firstsite in Colchester is delighted to announce it will be the launch venue for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021, as part of the celebrations for its 10th anniversary year.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries is an annual exhibition that showcases the work of artists at the beginning of their careers.

75 emerging artists have been selected for the 2021 exhibition. They will all participate in the annual exhibition and the newly launched digital platform as well as having access to digital residences and projects, studio bursaries, mentoring, talks and workshops.

One of those included is Essex artist Elsa James, whose Black Girl Essex exhibition was staged at Firstsite in 2019. She was also co-curator of Firstsite’s Super Black exhibition in the same year.

Visitors will have the chance to see a huge variety of artworks, from Lydia Pettit's Trouble in the House (2020), a two metre embroidered fabric glove which explores the experiences of living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Noemi Conan's drawing Boruta (2021) in which a mundane scene from a Polish roadside collides with Polish mythology. Installations, sculptures, films, moving image and video games are also presented in this exhibition, bringing together a diverse selection of creative reflections and responses to living in current times, and in particular the global pandemic.