Forward Programme 2022-23 at Ikon

Ikon is delighted to announce plans for 2022-23 including exhibitions, off-site projects and events. 

The year commences with solo exhibitions by Midlands-based painter Betsy Bradley and Taiwanese-American filmmaker James T.Hong. The Spring is heralded by a small survey of works by the 15th century master CarloCrivelli – the result of Ikon’s success in winning the inaugural Ampersand Foundation Award (2019) – twinned with the first UK exhibition by renowned Swedish Sámi artist Britta Marakatt-Labba.

To coincide with the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in the Summer of 2022 Ikon’s Arrivals programme features new commissions by four artists hailing from Commonwealth countries: AbdulrazaqAwofesoYhonnie ScarceSalote Tawale and Osman Yousefzada. During this time the annual Migrant Festival will once again celebrate the contribution made by refugees and migrants to Birmingham and the UK.

In the Autumn Ikon presents an exhibition of landscape sketches by nineteenth century artist and poet Edward Lear, many not shown before. At the same time our visitors will have a chance to see a new video installation by Japanese Ainu artist Mayunkiki, conveying aspects of everyday life of her people, the Indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido.

The Winter programme is dedicated to Horror in the Modernist Block, an exhibition of new and recent work by contemporary artists from the UK and abroad, exploring the relationship between the aesthetics of architectural modernism and horror.

Throughout the year Ikon continues to work off-site: with Dean Kelland, artist-in-residence at HMP Grendon; with Ikon Youth Programme and Slow Boat; and with RagnarKjartansson at St Mary Magdalene, Tanworth-in-Arden.