Bold Tendencies

The longing to transcend oneself – if only for a brief moment – is and has always been a constitutional ache of the human heart. To rush headlong into sensations, feelings and fancies that eclipse the carceral routine of selfhood and self-interest, to glimpse into the embers of a warm and enveloping sublime. Euphoria, an oozy yearn, a bliss-ache, a trembly effervescence that feels like champagne for blood. From open-hearted tête-à-têtes to arenas of collective catharsis, nostalgic memories of subtle bliss to full-blown mystical rapture – it isn’t the presence of meaning that defines euphoria but its excess. 

We live in a world that pathologises intensity. Collective joy is policed, revolutionary desire flattened, individual passions mined for data and sold back to us in a consumer culture of throwaway experiences. A world filled with frictionless, decelerating demi-pleasures: readable books, lo-fi house mixes, microdosing, ASMR, pre-made meal kits and VR sex lives. Each of life’s pleasures in a hassle-free, diminishing dose – the hollow, vacant feeling of culture made by algorithm. The ecstasy of cultural adrenaline that once defined pre-millennial optimism – hyper-speed technology, rave, cyberspace and cultural pluralism – simmered to an endless fog of inertia, repetition and melancholy. 

We are eager for escape. Too often are the high-crests of human emotion stirred not by the exhilarating qualities of art, dancing and carnival but by the exploitative fervour of political rallies, state-sponsored spectacles, viral TikTok videos and hysterical product launches. Cruel pleasures that conspire to use the intoxicating frenzies of fever-pitch against us, obscuring an ever-diminishing landscape of anti-protest legislation, endemic venue closures and fatalist doom-scrolling. An era in which the pursuit of happiness, bliss and excitement are forever stalked by shadows of individual comfort and conformity. 

Euphoria offers a state of exception: a communism of the emotions that has the power to uplift our souls, ignite revolutions and redefine social bonds. It takes only a breeze, a colour or chord progression to move us from boredom and compliance to a spine-tingling, technicolour world of love, ecstasy and radical communion. A world of gender euphoria, dance, protest, autonomous zones and future utopias, of personal enlightenment and collective transcendence; in which time dilates, emotions surge without direction or aim, bodies dissolve into ecstatic mass and the contours of sense are infinitely redrawn. We come together and stand outside ourselves, released from the constraints of everything that has gone before. 

To celebrate its 20th Anniversary Season, Bold Tendencies gathers its 2026 Artistic Programme under the utopian impulse of Euphoria. From the bittersweet highs of teenage love to the sensory bliss of spiritual hideaways, the rush and escape of rhythm and movement to the passionate solidarity of political struggle. Euphoria asserts the possibility of something other, not as a retreat from the world but as a mode of being and being-together that is free, uncompromising and insistently alive. It is at the limits of experience that we are exposed to the poverty of the possible, and where we face the eruptive potential of what lies beyond.

Andreas Gursky (b. 1955, Leipzig, DE. Lives and Works in Düsseldorf, DE) is considered one of the most important photographers in the world, an artist who has expanded the boundaries of the photographic medium like few before him. His complex, large-format images — some of which have attained iconic status — show spectacular landscapes and elaborate interiors, combining technical virtuosity with a painterly eye. Depicting typical manifestations of late capitalist society, Gursky’s ‘encyclopaedia of life’ casts a relentless gaze on the age of globalisation, rigorously dissecting the effects of modernity and documenting how new forms of economic organisation are reflected in everyday life. 

Capturing the zeitgeist of a world defined by high-tech, boundless communication and fantasies of tourism, commerce and leisure culture, Gursky’s subjects feature a broad spectrum of global mass phenomena and their architectures, from the vast anonymity of modern-day hotel lobbies, apartment buildings and warehouses, to pop concerts, stock exchanges, raves, political rallies. His work combines methodical observation and composition, often manipulated by digital technologies to achieve a singular image of the sublime. 

Gursky studied at Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1980-87, where he was a student of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Gursky was later a  Professor of Liberal Arts at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 2010 to 2018. Gursky has been awarded numerous prestigious awards including  in 2025 the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia, in 2018 the Goslarer Kaiserring Award, and in 2003 The Wilhelm Loth Prize of the City of Darmstadt. 

Solo presentations include his 2025 exhibition Inherited Images at Sprüth Magers, New York, and recent retrospectives at MAST Bologna (2023), APMA Seoul (2022), MdbK Leipzig (2021), Hayward Gallery, London (2018), National Museum of Art, Osaka (2014), National Art Center, Tokyo(2013), Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2013) and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2012).

A solo exhibition organised by the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2001) toured to Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, MCA, Chicago and SFMOMA, San Francisco. His first retrospective, Retrospektive 1984–2007, was shown at Haus der Kunst, Munich and toured to Istanbul Modern and Sharjah Art Museum (2007), then to Ekaterina Foundation, Moscow and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2008). Andreas Gursky: Werke 1980–2008 opened at the Museum Haus Esters Haus Lange, Krefeld (2008) and toured to Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Vancouver Art Gallery (2009).

Gursky’s works are held in major public collections worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern in London; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Metropolitan Museum of Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Centre Pompidou, Paris and Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); Kunsthaus Zürich and Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and PinchukArtCentre, Kiev. Further international collections include the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; The National Art Center, Tokyo; and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Emma Hart (b. 1974, London, UK. Lives and works in London, UK) makes exuberant ceramic sculptures which test the limits of the medium. Brightly coloured, raw and hand-made, Hart’s unruly sculptures actively confront you, often positioned to physically encroach on your personal space and alter what you do next. Hart’s works play with the power dynamics that underpin human relations, translating hierarchies triggered by social class into physical sculptural gestures and vivid graphic patterns.

Speech bubbles, megaphones and hand gestures, such as a thumbs up or poking finger, are some of the symbols that Hart utilises to shape clay. Forcing symbols to take up three dimensions Hart creates a punchy visual language that, rather than make sense of the world, aims to generate the joy, confusion and anguish of her everyday experience.

Hart graduated with a PhD in Fine Art from Kingston University in London in 2013, having previously received her MA Fine Art in 2004 from Slade School of Fine Art, and her BA Photography from Croydon College of Art in 2000. Hart has staged significant solo exhibitions at Hospitalfield, Angus, UK (2023); Barakat Contemporary, Seoul, KR (2021); The Sunday Painter, London, UK (2020); Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2018); Whitechapel Gallery (2017); De La Warr Pavilion, UK (2017); The Grundy Arts Centre, Blackpool, UK (2017); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2013) and Matt’s Gallery, London, UK (2011).

She has participated in group exhibitions, notably presenting work at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2022-23); Somerset House, London, UK (2021); Kuenstlerhaus, Dortmund, DE (2019); Kunsthaus, Hamburg, DE (2018). Hart co-curated and took part in the major sculpture group show, Poor Things at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh UK (2023).

In 2024 Hart was commissioned to create a major permanent installation, Club Together, for Modern Art Oxford in the form of a 60 seat cafe; and in 2023 Hart created the permanent artwork, Hear Now!, for the public entrance of the new UCL East building in London. In 2017 she won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery and Collezione Maramotti, leading to a major solo exhibition, Mamma Mia!, at Whitechapel and Collezione Maramotti, as well as a residency at Via Farini and Museo Carlo Zauli, Italy. In 2022 she was awarded a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award and in 2015 she was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Foundation award for Visual Art.

Athen Kardashian & Nina Mhach Durban (b. 2000, London, UK. Live and work in London, UK) are a British-Asian artist duo. Their collaborative practice explores how abstract memories and emotional residues distill into physical form, creating an archive of the left behind that traces how personal and marginalised histories are shaped by the materials through which they are told.

Drawn from their shared experience of being raised in London by Indian mothers, the duo negotiate themes of diasporic identity, home and collective memory though community-driven narratives of love, labour and devotion – from teenage scrapbooking to religious faith, fanatic fan culture to familial relationships. Working across found imagery, sculpture and installation the duo interrogate questions of inheritance, ownership and cultural piracy, subverting aesthetic and material hierarchies in shrine-like constructions that privilege touch and sensory engagement as ways of connecting with the past, together proposing new forms of preservation through quiet, heartfelt intimacy.

Kardashian and Durban met whilst studying for their Foundation Diploma in Fine Art at Kingston University in London, graduating in 2019. Solo presentations of their work include Indigo+Madder, London, UK (2025); Soup Gallery at The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2024); Soup Gallery, London, UK (2024); and Glasshouse Projects, Gathering, London, UK (2023). In 2025 they were commissioned to produce Captive Heart, a solo presentation inaugurating Forma HQ’s new public gallery in Bermondsey, London. 

Recent group exhibitions include Quench Gallery, Margate, UK (2025); Leicester Gallery, Leicester, UK (2025); Late Works, London, UK (2025); Charleston Trust, Lewes, UK (2024); Guts Projects, London, UK (2024); 145 The Strand, London, UK (2024); The Bomb Factory, London, UK (2024);  No Man’s Art Gallery, Jiuba Art Space, Amsterdam, NL (2024); Christie’s, London, UK (2024); Indigo+Madder, London, UK (2023); Collective Ending HQ w. Baesianz, London, UK (2023); and Studio Chapple, London, UK (2023).

Kardashian & Durban have completed residencies at Forma HQ, London, UK (2025) and Sarah Kravitz, London, UK (2024). Since 2024 they have programmed a series of screenings and talks at Prince Charles Cinema in London, centred on female directors and stories concerning women of colour. Their first artist publication, Hopelessly Devoted, was published by Lichen Books in 2024, and in 2025 they presented a temporary public artwork in response to the archive of Gurinder Chadha at the BFI in London.

Tarek Lakhrissi (b. 1992, Châtellerault, FR. Lives and works in Paris, FR) is a French-Moroccan artist and poet that uses sculpture, text, film, installation and performance to explore sociopolitical narratives and speculative situations of transformation and magic. Grounded in literature and informed by pop and visual culture, his work critically examines the ways language, desire, race and power shape bodies and subjectivities.

Through symbolic and affective forms, he constructs speculative narratives that challenge dominant representations and foreground questions of visibility, vulnerability and otherness. Using a formal and symbolic language that references motifs of fantasy, nostalgia and 90s pop culture, his work crosses themes of marginality, self-determination and social violence, language and codes, magic and weirdness, love and self-defence. Building emotional and political landscapes where vulnerability becomes strength, Lakhrissi creates sanctuaries for survival, care, and collective dreaming.

Lakhrissi completed the post-graduate Art programme at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon in 2020, having previously graduated from his MA Theatre and BA Literature at Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle in Paris, with one year spent studying History of Art at Université de Montréal. Recent solo presentations of his work include: Tina Gallery, London, UK (2025); Kanal Pompidou, Brussels, BE (2024); Migros Museum, Zürich, CH (2024); Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin, DE (2024); Galerie Allen, Paris, FR (2023); and Collective, Edinburg, UK (2023); Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna, AT (2022); Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno, UK (2021) and Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene, IT (2020).

He has further exhibited internationally at institutions including MAMCS, Strasbourg, DE (2024); Kunsthaus, Zurich, CH (2024); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, FR (2024); Somerset House Studios, London, UK (2022); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, FR (2022); Matter of Art Biennale, City Gallery, Prague, CZ (2022); Hermès Foundation, Brussels, BE (2022); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DE (2021); Manchester International Festival, Manchester, UK (2021); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2020); 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, AU (2020); Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2019); and Baltic Triennial 13, CAC Vilnius, LI (2017).

Lakhrissi has recently completed residencies at Ateliers Médicis, Clichy-sous-Bois, FR (2025); Confort Moderne, Poitiers, FR (2023); Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, FR (2022); Maison Populaire, Montreuil, FR (2021); Wiels, Brussels, BE (2020); and Sophiensaele, Berlin, DE (2020). In 2022 Lakhrissi was nominated for the Zurich Art Prize, and following nominations for the 22nd Ricard Foundation Prize in 2021, the Matsutani Occident Prize and PSC Art Prize in 2019. In 2024, he was selected by the internationally renowned artist Ugo Rondinone as part of the mentorship program at Reiffers Art Initiatives in Paris. 

Lakhrissi’s work is held in prominent public collections including the Fiorucci Art Trust, London, UK; Fondazione Sandretto, Turin, IT; Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris, FR; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, FR; Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, FR; Migros Museum, Zurich, CH; Johns Hopkins University Collection, Baltimore, US; FRAC Aquitaine Méca, Bordeaux, FR; FRAC Grand Large, Dunkerque, FR; and the Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, FR. 

He currently holds teaching positions at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdk) and Énsba Lyon, having previously taught in the CCC Research Master Program of the Visual Arts Department at HEAD, Geneva School of Art and Design.

Louis Morlæ (1992, Melbourne, AU. Lives and works in London, UK) is an artist whose multimedia world-building spans sculpture, video, installation and robotics, together exploring the intersection of digital technology, industrial design and character-driven narrative. Interested less in a distant and abstracted future, but the furthest and most tantalising edges of what might be possible within the current moment, Morlæ’s work evokes a surreal, science-fictional landscape populated with an array of android-like figures, game-engine animations and futuristic mechanical infrastructure.

Created using contemporary techniques of computer-aided design, 3D printing and algorithmic processing, his work touches on the metaverse, industrial automation and artificial intelligence, depicting humanity’s accelerating relationship to the digital with tactility, escapism and humour, oscillating between visions of progress and upheaval, utopia and dystopia. 

Morlæ completed his Post-graduate Diploma in 2023 from the Royal Academy of Arts, London, having previously studied BFA Design, at the Manchester School of Art in 2014. Recent solo presentations of his work include Rose Easton, London, UK (2025); Somerset House, London, UK (2024); Duarte Sequeira, Braga, PT (2023); Final Hot Desert, Isle of Sheppey, UK (2022); Moarain House, London, UK (2022); Asylum Studios, Suffolk, UK (2018); and Soft Opening, London, UK (2018). 

Group exhibitions include Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, EE (2025); Gathering at ECHO, Cologne, DE (2024); Silke Lindner, New York, US (2024); Roman Road at The Columbia, London, UK (2020); Horse Hospital, London, UK (2019); and Cob Gallery, London, UK (2017).

In 2023 Morlæ completed the Somerset House Studios Creative Technologies Fellowship and was awarded The Keeper’s Prize from the Royal Academy of Arts, London. His work is now held in the Royal Academy of Art’s public collection. In 2025 Morlæ was awarded the illy Present Future Prize 2025, and in 2026 will present a major solo exhibition at Tranen in Copenhagen, one of Denmark’s oldest contemporary art centres, as well as a solo exhibition at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

The Skyliners
Sadie Coles
James Lingwood & Jane Hamlyn
Evan Tawil

The Jarmans
Carolyn Dailey
Es Devlin & Jack Galloway
Andrew & Stephanie Hale

The Holzers
Jenny Holzer
Penny Mason
Hugh Monk
Vivienne Monk
Maureen Paley
Sara Stewart
Felicity & Robert Waley-Cohen
Katy Wickremesinghe
Rebecca Wilmshurst

The Bristows
John Cavanagh
Ronojoy Dam
Thibault & Fatima Geffrin
Anthony Gormley & Vicken Parsons
Judy Greenwood
Claus Heilmann
Mariana Heilmann
Monica Irani
Marcelle Joseph
Isabella de Sabata
Don Weniz & Sandra Knight

The hi boos
Nathalie Baume
Janine Catalano
Elizabeth Dellert
Emma Dexter
Rózsa Farkas
Abbie Heilmann
Karen Roberts
Susan Spindler & Peter Brown
Malcom Temple
Roxane Zand

& those who wish to remain anonymous.

Visual Arts Commissioning Circle
Selim & Houda Bouafsoun
Sebastien & Caroline Mazella di Bosco
Idris Khan & Annie Morris
Ryan Taylor
Rachel Verghis

Live Events Commissioning Circles
Naomi Milgrom AC
John & Emma Donnelly
Glass Castle Foundation
Lukas Zueger-Knect