Imran Perretta, ‘Devotion’, 2014, prayer mat (facing Makkah), tape recording, newspaper clippings, Nag Champa scent. Courtesy the artist and Bloomberg New Contemporaries

Welcome to HERO Young Art Week – our essential, multifaceted guide to the new wave of creatives working at the vanguard of contemporary art today. Across a dynamic week of digital content, we’re exploring what’s happening at the epicentre of this global community: from the ground up, the artists themselves and the key figures witnessing the evolution of the ideas, trends and movements defining this art generation.

As director of Bloomberg New Contemporaries – one of a growing number of institutions providing major support to young students, graduates and budding professionals within the British art landscape – Kirsty Ogg is at the forefront of nascent, young art. Providing a touring exhibitive platform for new and fine art graduates, each year, Ogg joins a panel of influential art voices to select 50 winners for the finalists exhibition, which kicks off at the World Museum in Liverpool before touring to the ICA in London.

For Young Art Week, she goes head to with each of her five selected artist highlights from this year’s final line-up.

Kirsty Ogg: Tell us about the work that was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries.
Imran Perretta: The work that I am showing at BNC is a meditation on memory and loss. However, it is also an attempt to negotiate the inheritance of identity and the uncertain sense of belonging that inevitably follows.

KO: Is there anything you are thinking of developing in your work following your selection for Bloomberg New Contemporaries?
IP: I am keen to explore this narrative further and to evolve a visual language that reflects on the ghosts of this deeply problematic, personal and post-colonial history.

KO: What are the current challenges faced in your own practice?
IP: The convivial atmosphere of art school is something that I have come to miss since graduating from the Slade. I was privileged to be able to share in a space of mutual support and discussion. This was an experience that greatly enriched my practice and something that I have found difficult to replicate outside of the institution.

KO: How will you utilise this opportunity?
IP: The diversity of the work on show at BNC has given me a fascinating context within which to reconsider my work. It is always interesting to think about the crossover, and indeed incongruities, of ideas and methodologies between peers. I hope that this will give me the momentum to really challenge the scope and the scale of my work going forward.

The Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition shows from until 26th October at World Museum, Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN. The exhibition will show from 26th November to 25th January at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH

Check out Kirsty Ogg’s interviews with other New Contemporaries finalists Camille Summers-Valli, Emily Motto and Jesc Bunyard.

Stay tuned for more HERO Young Art Week content in the coming days and plug into our social media platforms for updates as they come.