24 September 2021 – 29 January 2022

New Acquisitions 2011-21: Narrative, Figure and Place explores three prominent themes in the work collected by Southampton City Art Gallery over the last ten years. Each section of the exhibition draws on writings of the decade to consider how the works on display have acquired new meaning in the recent past.

The exhibition brings together a selection of 60 works acquired by Southampton City Art Gallery since 2011. It features painting, photography, drawing, print, sculpture, video, new media and textiles. It covers purchases, gifts and new work created for special projects. Alongside acquisitions of work by artists long established in the collection many newcomers are represented, several of whom have also recently exhibited in the gallery.

2021 marks 110 years since Southampton City Art Gallery’s visionary founding bequest from Councillor Robert Chipperfield. New Acquisitions 2011-21: Narrative, Figure and Place follows on from our recent Creating a National Collection which focussed on the gallery’s establishment in the twentieth century as a holder of one of the finest regional art collections in the UK. This show presents radical new directions alongside work that builds on the collection’s long-standing strengths.