Gathering together a group of artists through a curatorial rationale often requires a series of threads or ideas. On this occasion I am indulging and taking a broad curatorial sweep to share the brilliance of these stellar graduates of 2021. Contemporary art is a wondrous thing, not only because it holds what is beautiful, powerful, naïve, knowing, and at times that which is mundane, or even grotesque or frightening, but also because it is a necessary human function. Artists are rare creatures sent among us to do the things we only wish we could do. They document and hold truth, create fiction, protest, lament, discover and reimagine – some experiment with the medium itself – stretching and warping materials, technology and our imaginations through an ever-evolving visual vernacular. The artists have powered through yet another onerous year of lockdowns to bring forth art in all its rapturous forms. And in that I observe moments of what art historian Geeta Kapur describes as the audacious proposition of seeing the “history of art in conjunction with the history of humanity”.