LONDON, Selfridges presents ANTICIPATION, an exhibition of the best of London's art school graduates, June 26 - August 3, 2008

ANTICIPATION grips Selfridges

26 June – 3 August 2008

Ultralounge, Lower Ground Floor, Selfridges Oxford Street - London
Opening times (during store hours): Monday to Saturday 9:30am to 9pm - Sunday noon to 6pm
Admission free
100% of the proceeds go to the artists


Selfridges continues its arts season at the Ultralounge with ANTICIPATION, an exhibition of the best of London’s art schools graduates, in collaboration with contemporary art curators Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren.

Both curators have been allowed unique access over several years to visit the studios of artists before their degree shows in all the London art schools and have developed a comprehensive expertise in spotting the next generation of talent.

ANTICIPATION at Selfridges is the second instalment of the celebrated exhibition staged in May 2007, now moving on to the Ultralounge, London’s most innovative new exhibition venue. This year the artists will benefit from the larger space and be able to show their work in greater depth. They will have a wider exposure to an audience beyond the art world.

The Ultralounge will function like an ‘art gallery’ with visitors having the opportunity to meet the artists, the curators and learn more about contemporary art. The art in the exhibition will be for sale, with Selfridges supporting the artists by giving them 100% of the proceeds. Last year ANTICIPATION generated over £100,000 in sales.

“This philanthropic show was created to provide a platform from which new talent can be launched to a larger audience, so Catriona and I are delighted that we are able to work in partnership with Selfridges in an expanded exhibition” says Kay Saatchi.

As two of London’s most respected talent-finders and curators, Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren have worked closely with London’s art schools including Camberwell College of Arts, Chelsea School of Art, Central St. Martin’s, City and Guilds, Goldsmiths, London College of Communication, Royal Academy Schools, Royal College of Art, Slade and Wimbledon searching for those young artists they feel have the creative and intellectual stature to continue making thought-provoking work for years to come. They are some 20 artists due to feature in the show.

Highlights will include Jeni Snell’s inflatable bouncy castle bunker, a statement about how children growing up in war zones play amongst the ruins of war. Nick Hornby’s sculpture of a life size slice of a 727 will intrigue. Jodie Carey’s majestic 10 foot ‘Monument’ is made of 2,000 cast plaster bones. In last year’s exhibition, she stood out with her now famous Chandeliers made from vacuum cleaner dust. Philip Caramazza makes grand statements in small scale works. He will have a bijou museum filled with 60 post-card size paintings of the great works of art history from Velasquez to Richter. Svein Moxvold’s 18 foot all-black Union Jack was made as a sign of mourning in response to Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War. Alex Hoda’s dark sculptural wall pieces are made from rubber, latex and foam. Rita Soromenho’s photographs are records of her walks through the wasteland of London whilst Jo Longhurst’s compelling photographs explore the intimate relationships between man and dog.
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Editor’s notes:

Selfridges not only provides customers with an extraordinary shopping experience – it also offers entertainment and retail drama. This is part of its heritage - when the store first launch in 1909, it was the first to exhibit Louis Beirut’s plane - which had just completed the first-ever flight across the Channel – was put on display. Many exhibitions, concerts and theatrical experiences followed over the years.

Selfridges collaborates with artists of all kinds, from the up and coming to the eminent. For example Sam Taylor-Wood wrapped the Oxford Street store with the world’s largest artwork in May 2000 and, in January 2006 two contemporary Chinese artists – Wang Singsong and Song Dong – created specially-created work for the store. In 2007 Lattice, an installation by sculptor Conrad Shaw cross was commissioned by the store and in early Spring 2008, the show Exactitudes by Dutch artists Air Versus and Ellie Uyttenbroek generated huge critical and public interest.

The Ultralounge is in the lower ground floor of Selfridges’ Oxford Street store. It was launched as a dedicated events space in February 2006. Since then it has featured events celebrating Punk, a Brian Eno video arts installation, Luminous, a celebration of Surrealism and a retrospective of Swarovski’s Crystal Palace chandelier collections.

Kay Saatchi has been immersed in the London contemporary art scene for over 20 years. She directed the contemporary department of Waddington Galleries before working as co-curator of the Saatchi Collection with her ex-husband, art collector, Charles Saatchi. She and Charles hung some of the most influential contemporary shows in the 80’s and 90’s in the Saatchi Gallery on Boundary Road. Most famous of the shows were those of the emerging YBA’s that culminated in the infamous Sensation show at the Royal Academy in London, which toured to Berlin and New-York.

Catriona Warren worked as an Editor at ArtReview, Britain’s longest-established contemporary art magazine for 20 years. In 1993 she bought out the magazine and re-launched it, becoming Editorial Director. In 2001 she introduced ArtReview’s acclaimed supplements on the best student art, which has remained her main area of interest – each year, drawing collectors’ and dealers’ attention to the hottest emerging talent. Warren curated Ten of the Best, a show of young students which generated intense interest from major galleries and private collectors.

Bettina von Hase is Selfridges’ art advisor and the founder/director of art consultancy Nine AM. She has curated many art projects for the store, including Vegas Supernova (David LaChapelle), Africa Remix (Samuel Fosso, ‘The Chief’), Song Dong ‘Eating the City’ and Wang Qingsong ‘Follow Me’. Her latest projects for Selfridges’ Ultralounge included Brian Eno’s ‘Luminous’ which ran in January and February 2007, The Surrealism and The Shop season in summer 2007 and the Conrad Shawcross installation in Autumn 2007.

About Selfridges
·The business was founded by American entrepreneur Gordon Selfridge in 1909 and run by him until he retired in 1940 and took on the role of President. Gordon Selfridge died in 1947 and four years later Lewis’s Investment Trust bought a controlling interest in Selfridges.
·In 1965 Charles Clore’s British Shoe Corporation (subsequently the Sears Group) bought a controlling interest in Lewis’s Investment Trust and in doing so acquired Selfridges.
·In 1998 the company was de-merged from the Sears Group and floated on the London Stock Exchange.
·In 2003 Galen Weston purchased Selfridges. He and his wife Hilary are closely involved with the development and growth of the company.
· Galen Weston is Chairman of the premier luxury goods company which, as well as Selfridges, includes Holt Renfrew in Canada and Brown Thomas in Ireland.


Contact
For further information and images, please contact Selfridges PR manager Bruno Barba on +44 (0) 20 7318 3204 or email bruno.barba@selfridges.co.uk.
www.selfridges.com