The British Art Show 7 - In the Days of the Comet

Multiple artists

Brian Griffiths - install 1 — The British Art Show 7 - In the Days of the Comet, Brian Griffiths (2011)

The British Art Show is held every five years across four cities nationwide, presenting new and recent works by contemporary artists based in Britain. This major exhibition is a unique opportunity for an overview of the concerns of art today.

British Art Show 7 paid particular attention to the ways that artists use history to illuminate the present. Thirty-nine artists were invited for their significant contribution to British (and often international) art since 2005. More than half of the selected artists presented new works, including painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, video, film and performance.

British Art Show 7 explored the ways in which recent British art employs histories - both real and imagined - to illuminate our present moment. It proposed alternative ways of thinking about the ‘here and now’ and suggested pathways into different worlds. Borrowing its subtitle from a 1906 novel by HG Wells, the exhibition used the motif of the comet - with its allusions to the measuring of time, the recurrence and renewal of forms and ideas, portents and omens, and parallel universities - to trace a path through current preoccupations in art.

MIRROR (previously The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art) presented the work of artists Brian Griffiths, Juliette Blightman and Edgar Schmitz.