Hayward Gallery Touring has announced the artist list, concept and title of British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers. 

Launching in Coventry in October 2026, the prestigious multi-site exhibition will go on display in venues across Sheffield in October 2027 as part of a five-city tour also including Swansea, Bristol and Newcastle Gateshead. 

This landmark tenth edition comes to Sheffield next year through a partnership between Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Museums, Site Gallery, Yorkshire Artspace and Arts Catalyst.

Ekow Eshun’s curatorial vision will bring together over 30 artists to provide a vital overview of the most exciting art produced in the UK during the past five years, including:

Okiki Akinfe; Alex Margo Arden; Liz Johnson Artur; Alvaro Barrington; Shiraz Bayjoo; Lubna Chowdhary; Shawanda Corbett; Jesse Darling; Ufoma Essi; Joy Gerrard; Louise Giovanelli; Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings; Kudzanai-Violet Hwami; Nnena Kalu; Jasleen Kaur; Christina Kimeze; Julian knxx; Matthew Krishanu; Alastair Mackinven; Melanie Manchot; Lindsey Mendick; Emma McNally; Dala Nasser; Jack O’Brien; Nengi Omuku; Precious Okoyomon; Hannah Perry; Mohammed Sami; Rae-Yen Song; Emma Talbot; Nicole Wermers; Osman Yousefzada.

British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers takes place against a backdrop of heightened anxiety intensified by a divisive political culture, an accelerating climate crisis, and growing public distrust in institutions. In polarising times, the exhibition asks: what forms might empathy or shared imagination take?

At its core, A Chorus of Strangers considers how art can challenge fears of otherness and difference often sparked in periods of uncertainty or change. Rather than framing the outsider or stranger figure as a threat, British Art Show 10 invites a shift towards empathy – moving away from rigid distinctions of “us” and “them” to explore the variety of perspectives that comes from looking through the eyes of others.

Ekow Eshun, Curator of British Art Show 10, says “Across centuries, artists have used their ability to work with uncertainty, contradiction and possibility to create works that privilege affinity over isolation. British Art Show 10 celebrates their unique position while looking ahead to the future. Some works address the social fractures and the environmental fragility of the present, others offer more intimate gestures of kinship. Together, they illuminate art’s ability to cross boundaries: between ourselves and others, the human and the natural world, the past and the futures yet to unfold.”

As the UK’s largest recurring contemporary art exhibition, British Art Show 10 is produced by Hayward Gallery Touring and forms a key part of the Southbank Centre’s 75^th anniversary national programme.

Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, says: “For 75 years, the Southbank Centre has traced the creative pulse of a changing country through a programme that reflects the times we live in. The landmark tenth British Art Show, travelling to more cities than ever before, continues this legacy, inviting the nation to reconsider today’s major issues through the eyes of the most interesting artists working in Britain. Drawing on the spirit of the 1951 Festival of Britain, where our story began, Ekow Eshun’s concept dares us to imagine a more connected future in divided times. I look forward to seeing these vital conversations unfolding across the UK.”

British Art Show was launched in Sheffield in 1979. Over the past four decades, the exhibition has reached over 2.3 million people, highlighted new trends in contemporary art and reflected a changing Britain.

Returning to Sheffield for the first time since 1985, British Art Show 10 will be presented across multiple venues in the city, including Graves Gallery, Millennium Gallery, Site Gallery and Yorkshire Artspace Persistence Works. Working with Arts Catalyst, venues will develop a vibrant programme of accompanying events and activities.

Kirstie Hamilton, Director of Programmes at Sheffield Museums says: “We’re thrilled that British Art Show returns to Sheffield with a selection of artists whose work speaks so powerfully to our lives today. The city partners very much look forward to welcoming visitors to explore Ekow’s thoughtful, insightful and timely curation and the work it brings together.”   

The exhibition will be organised around three overlapping curatorial themes that span the psychological, sociological and ecological. Each theme is inspired by the work of an influential British writer or theorist who has grappled with the tensions between the Individual and the Other.

• Moments of Being takes its title from Virginia Woolf’s description of the fleeting instances when the surface of ordinary life seems to lift, offering a brief glimpse into the interconnectedness of existence. The artists featured here similarly turn inward as they observe the world around them. Drawing on dreams, memory, and the subconscious, they explore the blurred boundaries between mind and body, reality and imagination. Their works suggest a way of understanding ourselves and the conditions that shape our shared experience.

• Ways of Living is inspired by cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s idea that culture and identity are always changing and being reshaped by the shifting interplay of politics, power and history. Working with personal or collective memories, the artists featured here illuminate how fragments of the past continue to shape contemporary life, and how individual stories intersect with larger historical currents. Collectively, these works explore how a common ground might be built by actively reimagining life with one another.

• States of Nature is inspired by ecological philosopher Timothy Morton’s call for a greater awareness of our relationship with the environment: an understanding that all life forms are fundamentally interconnected within a vast, complex network of being. This theme brings together artists whose work embraces the natural world in its abundance, beauty, and complexity. Animals, plants, air and water are highlighted as part of our shared living history, foregrounding ways of coexisting that challenge the human-centric and invite us to imagine a new relationship with the planet.

British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers will open in Sheffield on 23 October 2027 – more information on the exhibition and the accompanying programme will be announced from autumn 2026.