SaLon at WHITE BOX
.U.K.'s FUTURE GREATS in N.Y.

Curated by Samir Ceric

 Exhibition on View:
June 12 - July 5, 2008

Opening Reception:
Thursday, June 12, 2008, 6-9pm

ARTISTS: BEN YOUNG / ELEANOR LINDSAY-FYNN / JACKY TSAI / DOROTHY M. YOON / SAMUEL JACKSON / SARAH GWYER / SARAH MAPLE / SHONA DAVIES

Press Release

As part of our yearly summer program featuring recently graduated artists, White Box is proud to introduce SaLon at WHITE BOX: UK’s Future Greats in NY. This exhibition showcases emerging, innovative artwork from London’s SaLon Gallery’s annual hunt for the UK’s most talented graduates from the most prominent art schools such as The Royal Academy of Arts, Goldsmiths, Glasgow School of Art and The Rushkin School of Drawing and Fine Art.

Through the use of traditional methods and materials, the selected artists explore a new attitude; a bias that may evolve into a generational and much awaited new ‘British’ sensibility. This resilient insight reflects the cosmopolitan cross-population and global system of jet-setting foreign art school attendees, where several nationalities, side by side with a long established immigrant and local populae, matriculate to train at today’s most elite British Schools. This new cultural hybrid, which in itself may invigorate, muddle, mix or surprise, vests the real revelation that this exhibition contains. Will each MFA grad bring a dash of freshness, influencing the locals and vice-versa or will it all, under market and peer pressure, produce a bland, easily marketable multicultural product? The show will both attest to and test these educational premises. WBX’s intention to present UK’s ‘Future Greats’ is not without an element of vindication. WBX aims to measure, with the rigor of an exhibition, and present these manifestations of the zeitgeist which, is so clearly and inevitably influenced by the marketplace. This show will also serve as a barometer of the increasingly globalized institution and thus, our local academic art sphere– by now so systematized into serving the ‘establishment’– by analogy, be brought into question.

This exhibition consists of photography, painting, embroidery, and found object sculptures. The artists featured include Sarah Maple, Jacky Tsai and Samuel Jackson. Maple recently claimed the noted ‘4 New Sensations’ award, launched by U.K.’s Channel 4 and the Saatchi Gallery and, has been labeled as the heir to Tracey Emin’s throne by The London Independent. Tsai, who recently collaborated with the legendary Alexander McQueen, was honored by having several of her works featured in McQueen’s Italian fashion show. Dynamic, successful and multicultural, these young UK art school graduates are collectively redefining the future of contemporary art.

Additional Information

British-American artist Ben Young, featured in the exhibition, SaLon At White Box: UK's Future Greats in NY, opening Thursday June 12th from 6-9pm, recently made a grand entrance into New York’s street art scene. Art Insider discloses that Young was arrested for vandalism last Wednesday, June 4th, on the 23rd St. F Line Station in Manhattan. New York City Transit Police arrested Young for tagging the subway station with the phrase "Groundless Act Of Freedom," the title of one of his latest paintings. Young excused himself by stating he was a "mentalist and couldn't help it". Not knowing what he meant Youngs arresting officers assumed he was just some whacked-out British tourist, and let him go with a warning.

Young recently received his MFA from Central St. Martin's School of Art and Design. The artist's statement describes Young's interest in graffiti within cities: "Young is fascinated by the aesthetic qualities of spray painted walls that have established themselves as a part of big cities long ago. These walls can look both beautiful and ugly, disturbing and inspiring. The tension between the extremes is made clear in Young’s work through the juxtaposition of the repeatable quality of the stencils and the randomness of the scribbles. The beholder is able to see how the work has been built up over time; the different stages of its creation. The interaction of different and anonymous artists creates a very unusual masterpiece." Young will also be exhibiting at the Decima Gallery in Hackney Wick in July alongside such well-known names as Gilbert & George and Gavin Turk

Exhibition Checklist



Ben Young

Eleanor Lindsay-Fynn

 Jacky Tsai

Dorothy M. Yoon  

Samuel Jackson

Sarah Gwyer  

Sarah Maple

Shona Davies

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