Outset Contemporary Art Fund

Outset is pleased to share that the 2024 Scott Collins Biennial Commission, supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund, has been awarded to Amie Siegel in support of ‘Vues/Views’ in the 7th Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. ‘Vues/Views’ is a double-sided installation—comprised of a wide-screen film (recto) and panoramic work on paper (verso)—that considers the role of French panoramic wallpapers animating interiors in the United States. In Siegel’s new work, these “scenic wallpapers” and their locations become a prism through which scenes of power, privilege, race, and class refract and converge. The Scott Collins Biennial Commission, in partnership with Outset Contemporary Art Fund, is a unique annual commission that elevates the work of outstanding curators and artists on an international stage. The commission awards up to £50,000 in support of extraordinary work at international biennials. ‘Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial’ features 25 new commissions that explore design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. Amie Siegel, ‘Vues/Views’ (2024) ‘Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial’ 2 November 2024–10 August 2025 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2 East 91st Street New York NY 10128 Image credit: Amie Siegel Vues/Views, 2024 4K video, colour/sound (recto); found hand-blocked wallpaper, paint (verso) Exhibition view, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York. © Amie Siegel. Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution. #outsetart #bethereattheoutset #amiesiegel

Last night we hosted a very special event at the National Portrait Gallery in celebration of the third Outset Portrait Commission, supported by Scott Collins. The portrait, by Sir Steve McQueen, is of Sir Nicholas Serota, and was officially unveiled last night by the director of the NPG, Nicholas Cullinan. This was followed by a conversation beyween artist and sitter, filled with familiarity and warmth - a most fitting send off for our 20th year. Our partnership with the NPG began in 2017 with the first portrait in the commission series, Malala Yousafzai by Shirin Neshat, which was followed in 2019 by the portrait of Sir Jonathan Ive by Andreas Gursky. Our history with Sir Nicholas Serota, on the other hand, began in 2003 with the foundation of the Outset Frieze fund to benefit the Tate Collection, at which time Sir Nicholas was Director of the Tate. Between 2003 and 2015, during Sir Nicholas’ tenure, Outset acquired 100 works by significant international artists for the Tate’s permanent collection; over these 12 years we came to develop a close working relationship with the Tate, and many of the artists supported went on to have incredible careers - buoyed, no doubt, by having their work in a major public institution. Finally, our history with Sir Steve McQueen began in 2009 when we supported his work for the British pavilion at Venice, entitled ‘Giardini’. As we prepare to mark the close of two decades of impactful support, we thank those that have shaped the adventure, from the thinkers like Sir Nicholas, the enablers like Scott, and the incredible artists like Sir Steve, who together embody what it means to truly be there at the outset of meaningful journeys. Image credit: Steve McQueen, ‘Sir Nicholas Serota’, Fine art giclée print, 15.5 x 15.5 cm/6x6in. ©️ Steve McQueen. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset #stevemcqueen #nicholasserota #nationalportraitgallery

It’s National Children’s Day! ♥️ We are looking back at the incredible ‘Art For Baby’, a picture book for newborns featuring work by fifteen contemporary Indian artists using only white, black, and shades of gray – the only colours newborns can see in the first three months of their life. The book was curated by Rudritara Shroff and supported by Outset UK and UNICEF India. All proceeds from the sale of the book are donated to children’s welfare projects in India. Rudritara Shroff said: ‘My aim is to offer a new generation of children the same visual awakening that so enriched my own childhood, using the striking contrasts and intricate designs of contemporary Indian art to stimulate early cognitive development.’ Inspiration for the book came from a similar project by Outset UK, who published and auctioned the first edition of Art For Baby in 2008, with donations from Tracey Emin, Anthony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, and Keith Tyson. For the 2024 edition, Shroff partnered with Outset UK and reached out to fifteen contemporary Indian artists who contributed their artworks. The featured artists are Dhruvi Acharya, Jyoti Bhatt, Jyotsna Bhatt, Jogen Chowdhury, Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, Shilpa Gupta, N.S. Harsha, Bijoy Jain, Reena Saini Kallat, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Manish Nai, Amol K. Patil, Gigi Scaria, and Sudarshan Shetty. You can purchase the book via accartbooks.com #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset

Save the date! ✨ ‘A conversation with artist Amie Siegel and professor Jasmine Nichole Cobb’ is taking place on Saturday November 23 at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Amie Siegel was recently awarded the 2024 Scott Collins Biennial Commission, supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund, in support of ‘Vues/Views’ in the 7th Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. Working across film, photography, and sculpture, Amie Siegel investigates value, cultural ownership, and image-making. In ‘Vues/Views’ her new double-sided work on view in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, 19th-century French panoramic wallpapers become a prism through which threads of power, privilege, race, and class are performed, both within the papers themselves and in the places they appear today. For this conversation, Siegel speaks with Professor Jasmine Nichole Cobb, a leading scholar of African American cultural production and visual representation whose published writings trace the emergence of Black freedom as both an idea and as an image in popular culture. Together, Siegel and Cobb will consider the visual and social signification of panoramic wallpapers. The program will explore each of their approaches to questioning depictions of people, landscapes and cultures in material culture across time. #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics. ✨ Illuminating aesthetic connections among 60 artists working in Africa, Europe, and the Americas, the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are among the first to examine nearly a quarter century of production by Black artists. Imagining Black Diasporas expands the Pan-African exhibition canon, which has historically focused on the Black Atlantic by showcasing artists working adjacent to the Pacific. The exhibition presents artists across generations including established makers Igshaan Adams, Mark Bradford, Sanford Biggers, Nick Cave, Deana Lawson, Ibrahim Mahama, Abdoulaye Ndoye, Wangechi Mutu, Lorna Simpson, and Yinka Shonibare. The works of emerging and mid-career artists Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Josué Azor, Samuel de Saboia, Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Chioma Ebinama, Chelsea Odufu, Zohra Opoku, and Alberta Whittle are presented with L.A.–based artists including Edgar Arceneaux, Widline Cadet, Patrisse Cullors, Awol Erizku, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. The exhibition is curated by Dhyandra Lawson, Andy Song Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at LACMA. Outset supported Imagining Black Diasporas with an Outset Partners Impact Award in Cycle IV. Image credits: Widline Cadet, Seremoni Disparisyon #1 (Ritual [Dis]Appearance #1), 2019, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Avo Samuelian and Hector Manuel Gonzalez, © Widline Cadet, photo © Museum Associates_LACMA / Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Headless Man Trying to Drink, 2005, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Promised gift of Emily and Teddy Greenspan, photo © Museum Associates_LACMA Chioma Ebinama, Butterfly, 2021, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Avo Samuelian and Hector Manuel Gonzalez, photo © Museum Associates_LACMA Arielle Bobb-Willis, New Jersey, 2019, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by the Ralph M. Parsons Fund Zohra Opoku, Cyperus Papyrus, 2015–2016, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by the Ralph M. Parsons Fund, © Zohra Opoku, photo © Museum Associates_LACMA #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset #lacma

The next iteration of Oliver Frank Chanarin’s first UK solo exhibition ‘A Perfect Sentence’ opened this past weekend at Wolverhampton Art Gallery! The installation utilises analogue hand-printed medium format photography, bespoke robotic machines and sophisticated computer coding, to question the nature and role of photography in the age of the algorithm. The machines, installed in the space, continuously identify, hang, rehang and stack the photographs according to an impenetrable logic for the duration of the exhibition, exploring the shifting terrain of documentary photography and commodification of attention. The unique C-Type prints were created from over 3,000 colour negatives from Chanarin’s journey around the UK in 2021-22. This project was commisioned and produced by @formaartsmedia in collaboration with eight UK organisations. Forma Arts and Media received an Outset Partners Impact Award in support of ‘A Perfect Sentence’ in Cycle IV of the Outset Partners Awards Programme. ‘A Perfect Sentence’ Oliver Frank Chanarin 02.11.24 - 23.02.25 📍 Contemporary Gallery, Ground floor Wolverhampton Art Gallery Lichfield St, WV1 1DU #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset #oliverchanarin

We are pleased to announce the @gasfoundation initiative G.A.S. Lagos for École du Festival, a collaborative Study Day reactivating the cultural and artistic legacies of pan-African festivals. ⁠ Session One: A presentation by Maryam Kazeem (@damikazeem ) and Naima Hassan (@naimasfieldnotes ) on the Annotations programme followed by a Scriptorium Workshop with Tosin Adeosun (@motown_gal ), Rufus Nwoko (@r.u.n15 ), Seyi Olusanya (@ogbeniseyi ), and Timilehin Oludare (@timilehinoludare_ ).⁠ ⁠ Session Two: An artist talk by current residents Liz Kobusinge (kobusinge) and Theophilus Imani (@theoimani ), who will reveal their ‘Annotations Shadow Boxes‘, a mobile archive exploring pan-African histories.⁠ ⁠⁠ The Annotations residency and École du Festival Study Day are supported by Outset. @gasfoundation received an Outset Partners Impact Award in cycle V. #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset

Denzil Forrester has received the Robson Orr TenTen Award! The Robson Orr TenTen Award is presented by the Government Art Collection and is sponsored by leading philanthropists Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr. Every year a British artist is commissioned to create a unique, limited edition print. Out of the 15 editions created, 11 will be sold to raise money for the Government Art Collection to support UK-based artists through purchasing their art. The TenTen project was conceived and facilitated in 2018 by Outset in collaboration with the Government Art Collection to bring to life Sybil and Matthew Robson Orr’s vision for a project celebrating the great art collected by the GAC and with it the power of soft diplomacy. This year’s winning artist is Denzil Forrester, whose print Altar was created for the Government Art Collection and depicts a scene from a reggae festival in Cornwall, where the artist now lives and works. Forrester is best known for his vibrant works immortalising the London reggae and dub nightclub scene during the early 1980s. #outsetart #bethereattheoutset #denzilforrester

Azu Nwagbogu, director of African Artists’ Foundation @aaf_lagos , interviews Esther Mahlangu, iconic South African painter, for the artist’s book ‘To Paint is in My Heart’. The artist is also interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Thomas Girst. This series of interviews for the book give readers insight into her creative process, inspiration, and the cultural significance of her work. Esther Mahlangu is globally acclaimed for her bright and bold abstract paintings with vivid, geometric patterns that are rooted in South Africa’s Ndebele artistic tradition. She was a disruptor from an early age, becoming the first person to reimagine Ndebele visual artistic style—historically used for decorating houses—on painting media such as canvas. The incredible visuals and engaging narratives of the book offer a unique experience to the reader. ✨ @aaf_lagos received the Outset Partners Transformative Award in 2022. Image credits: courtesy of the artist and Thames & Hudson

We are pleased to share with you these images of Oliver Frank Chanarin’s ‘A Perfect Sentence’ at this year’s Biennale Images Vevey. The installation uses state of the art robotics and an inscrutable algorithm to hang hand printed C-Type photographs. This project was commisioned and produced by @formaartsmedia in collaboration with eight UK organisations. Forma Arts and Media received an Outset Partners Impact Award in support of ‘A Perfect Sentence’ in Cycle IV of the Outset Partners Awards Programme. The next iteration of the exhibition will open later this year at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Find out more about the Outset Partners Awards via the link in our bio. 🔗 Images credits: courtesy of the artist and Margaux Corda. #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset #oliverchanarin

Announcing the curator of the fourth iteration of Dig Where You Stand - From Coast to Coast in Benin Republic 💫🇧🇯 “Dig Where You Stand- From Coast to Coast (DWYS) is a series of exhibitions that rethinks decolonization and restitution through art by focusing on location-specific, regenerative approaches across Africa and its diasporas. The forth iteration is curated by Togolese-German Photographer, Delali Ayivi, with curatorial advisory by Azu Nwagbogu. The choice of the newest location of DWYS holds great meaning for the project in how it parallels the immense touchstones Benin has made in a strive for cultural restitution and repatriation which are major staples to the DWYS curatorial concept. With an emphasis on sonic-based works, this edition under the overarching theme of “culture as mechanism for emancipation” seeks to engage Artists, Intellectuals, and Thinkers who see culture as a tool for understanding a collective self, environmentally, physically, and spiritually. The DWYS project was conceived by the African Artists’ Foundation and received the Outset Partners Transformative Award in 2022. Find out more via the link in our bio! #outset #outsetart #contemporaryartfund #artfund #outsetpartnersawards #contemporaryart #digwhereyoustand

On September 26th, Mari Spirito, the founding Director and Curator of Protocinema—an itinerant cross-cultural arts organization based in New York City with international operations, will give the third public talk for “At the Transit Bar: An International Visitng Curator Series”, which received an Outset Partners Impact Award in 2023. For her public presentation, Spirito will speak about her curatorial methodology and focus, which establishes the ground for mutual exchange, relationship building, and the expression and capture of shifting social and ideological perception. Essential to Spirito’s practice is the context within which artwork, discourse, and interaction are presented and encountered. For Protocinema, as an itinerant arts organization, the selection and creation of site-specific spaces is a meaningful element that promotes dialogue and fosters more equal exchange between cultures in the global context, highlighting deeper understandings of difference across regions. Spirito will also delve into new financial models for the art world, prompted by the rapidly changing global economy and the next generation of artists and curators. During her research trip to Toronto, Spirito will continue her inquiry into themes of consciousness and grief, love and compassion, as well as the impacts of cultural bridging and class jumping. Thursday, September 26, 2024, at 6:30 pm at The Power Plant (231 Queens Quay West), Toronto #outset #outsetart #bethereattheoutset