Viewing New Contemporaries

New Contemporaries 2026 at South London Gallery is a major group exhibition spotlighting the freshest voices in the UK contemporary art scene in the Main Gallery and Fire Station Galleries. It forms part of the annual New Contemporaries programme, a long-standing initiative (founded in 1949) that supports early-career and emerging artists through exhibitions, mentoring, residencies and professional development, and has historically showcased artists who go on to shape contemporary art practice.

This year’s exhibition brings together 26 artists selected from an open national call by a panel of established practitioners: Pio Abad, Louise Giovanelli and Grace Ndiritu. The varied roster includes practitioners working across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image and more, reflecting the breadth of contemporary artistic approaches happening across the UK today. The works on display engage with a range of pressing themes and concerns. Many respond critically to dystopian futures, the climate crisis, gentrification, displacement and systems of power, while others explore our relationship with digital technologies, memory, belonging and identity.

Collectively, the works reveal how emergent artists are negotiating the complexities of our social, environmental and technological worlds through inventive and experimental artistic forms. Free to visit and open to the public without booking, New Contemporaries 2026 offers an exciting opportunity to encounter work by the next generation of UK artists at a pivotal moment in their careers. Following its London run, the exhibition will travel to MIMA in Middlesbrough in May–August 2026.