Viewing Don’t Look Back at Unit London

Curated by Beth Greenacre and Sigrid Kirk, this group exhibition at Unit, open from today, explores the visual culture of the 1990s & Noughties, with wit, wistfulness and just a drop of nostalgia. Moving dynamically between various mediums, Greenacre and Kirk have chosen artists who capture the essence of the Nineties & Noughties spirit.

The fashion world is already in the throes of its own Nineties and Noughties revival, and this show might have the same effect on the art world. Tracing parallels between the politicised urgency, audacity and youthful irreverence of the art of the Cool Britannia and YBA era and today, Don’t Look Back re-tells history, including voices less celebrated and often excluded at the time. Among the stellar line-up, the likes of Gavin Turk, Tracey Emin, Richard Billingham and Sarah Lucas rub shoulders with Lakwena Maciver, Thomas J Price and Bex Wade.

The curators say: “With Don’t Look Back, we set out to create a defining cultural moment that reflects on the evolving legacies of the 1990s and 2000s while looking decisively forward. Staged like a multi‐gig event, it rips up the rulebook on what an exhibition can be, reimagining that era’s defiance through today’s expansive artistic expressions. It avoids nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, instead foregrounding experimentation, humour, and the idea of a living legacy.”