Art from Elsewhere: International Contemporary Art from UK Galleries

The 70 works featured were drawn from museums and galleries in five regions that were awarded significant grants under the Art Fund International (AFI) scheme to purchase contemporary works by major international artists over a period of five years.

In his selection, Elliott discovered shared themes explored by artists all over the world. Their works reflect on the realities of global change and post-colonial experience, examining questions of trade and exchange, urban and international migration, frontiers and failed utopias.

The exhibition toured to all five of the cities that received the exceptional funding (plus the Harris Museum in Preston). It changed from city to city, taking care to highlight the five collections, but not repeating artworks that the museum might have exhibited recently. In this way, each showing took a unique form and provided an array of interpretations for the visitor and gallery alike.

Featured artists

The full list of exhibiting artists is (not all shown at all venues): Ai Weiwei, Shirin Aliabadi, Carl Andre, Stephen Antonakos, Yto Barrada, Yael Bartana, Lothar Baumgarten, Mohamed Bourouissa, Robert Breer, Paulo Bruscky, Nathan Carter, Thomas Demand, Eugenio Dittborn, Omer Fast, Meschac Gaba, Shilpa Gupta, Romuald Hazoumè, Michael Heizer, Jenny Holzer, Peter Hujar, Emily Jacir, Jitish Kallat , Amar Kanwar, Ola Kolehmainen , Barbara Kruger, Ana Mendieta , Aleksandra Mir, Zwelethu Mthethwa , Imran Qureshi , Jozef Robakowski, Shahzia Sikander, Robert Smithson, Nancy Spero, Beat Streuli , Kara Walker , Yang Zhenzhong, YeeSookyung, Akram Zaatari, and Horacio Zabala.