Small Wonders: Reimagining British Art

The exhibition brings together 50 acclaimed artists who have participated in the British Art Show.

In 1951, the Festival of Britain acted as a beacon of post-war hope, launching a landmark touring exhibition that brought world-class art to local museums and art centres across the UK. Seventy-five years later, Hayward Gallery Touring honours this legacy with Small Wonders: Reimagining British Art, a contemporary reimagining of that original vision.

The exhibition brings together 50 acclaimed artists who have participated in the British Art Show – the UK’s definitive five-year curated survey of contemporary art – since its inception in 1979. Taking inspiration from Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise – a “portable museum” contained within a suitcase – each artist has created a new, small-scale work that responds to their original British Art Show presentation. The result is a condensed yet expansive overview of a half-century of British art history.