Art Around The World Without Leaving London

With international galleries from the East End to the west, the now well-established Frieze art fair each October, and a busy calendar of major auctions, London is a vibrant, global center of contemporary art. For today’s blog, the MA Contemporary Art faculty at Sotheby’s Institute of Art tells us about what makes London the dynamic, outward-looking art hub it is today, and which local institutions they believe have played a part in its transformation. Here are three things you can’t miss.

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)

This is a gallery and research center that has foregrounded the work of artists from outside the West and of UK artists of diasporic descent since its inception in 1994. For a time in the 90s it published a journal, Annotations, which traced connections between postcolonial thought and artistic practice. Despite swingeing funding cuts, it remains, with its library, exhibition program and public talks, a vital resource for artists, students and scholars, including of course students on our MA program in Contemporary Art.

Autograph ABP

Autograph ABP is located in the same David Adjaye-designed center as Iniva, on Rivington Street in Shoreditch. Under the dynamic stewardship of Mark Sealy, it has used its exhibition and education programs to raise the visibility of historically marginalized photographic practices, such as those of British photographers of diasporic descent, and to promote research into photographic developments in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It houses a major archive that has long served as a research tool for our students.

Tate Modern

Tate Modern, which opened in 2000, has shown a strong commitment to collecting art from around the world for over a decade now. It has appointed specialist curators to implement this acquisitions policy and the opening in June 2016 of the new wing, dubbed the Switch House, has enabled them to put more of these newly acquired works on display. In another sign of their determination to broaden the geographical reach of their program, Nicholas Serota and his team have in recent years devoted shows to a number of artists from Africa, Asia and South America, including Meshac Gaba, Bhupen Khakhar, Gabriel Orozco and Saloua Raouda Choucair.

Discover more in London with the Sotheby’s Institute of Art

About Sotheby’s Institute of Art

Sotheby’s Institute of Art is The Graduate School of Art and its Markets. Evolving from a small connoisseurship program started by Sotheby’s Auction House in 1969, Sotheby’s Institute is now the foremost leader in art business education and object-based learning. Its global faculty represent the best of almost every facet of the art world, helping students decipher and master the unique forces at play at the intersection of art and commerce.

With campuses in the cultural capitals of London, New York and Los Angeles, Sotheby’s Institute offers graduate level programs that have become more relevant than ever in an art world that is constantly seeking individuals with art historical scholarship and business acumen. Besides Master’s degrees, Sotheby’s Institute offers programs of study such as summer classes, 15-week semester courses, online learning and executive education. Sotheby’s Institute of Art’s programs provide the knowledge and credentials needed to achieve success in today’s worldwide art markets and cultural institutions.