Ekow Eshun will curate the tenth edition of the British Art Show, Hayward Gallery Touring has announced. The exhibition will open in Coventry in September 2026 before touring to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle Gateshead.
Eshun is a writer and curator, currently chairman of the London-based public arts programme The Fourth Plinth and previously director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. In 2023, he was awarded the Association for Art History’s Curatorial Prize for the exhibition In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery. His recent books include The Strangers (2024) and Black Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art (2025).
Speaking on his appointment, Eshun said in a statement that ‘it is a great honour 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. 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.’
Launched in 1979, the quinquennial British Art Show is the largest recurring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK. For its tenth edition the show will travel to five cities, its most extensive presentation to date.
