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Undergraduate Graduate Show
20 – 26 June*, Tavistock Place PL4 8AT & Studio 11 PL4 8BE
MA Graduate Show
21 – 31 July*, MIRROR PL4 8AT & Studio 11 PL4 8BE
Open Day 21 June, Tavistock Place PL4 8AT
Discover work by the graduating class of 2025. Free entry and open to the public: aup.ac.uk
*22 June & 27 July closed
Lauriston Campus
Friday 30 May to Friday 6 June
10am – 5pm daily
Thursday 5 June Late opening until 8pm FREE! Book tickets for all our events on Eventbrite.
a-n Head of Programmes Wing-Sie Chan introduces our 2025 publication.
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CLASS OF 2025
Featuring interviews and profiles of work by 31 graduating students from art schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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MYTHS IN STITCHES
The performative practice of Hereford College of Art student Rebecca Baddeley challenges folk myths and feminine stereotypes through the creation of handstitched costumes and masks.
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FLOOD DEFENCE
With her Futile Acts project, Loughborough University student Issie Martin addresses the issue of climate change with a variety of impractical tools such as a seaweed mop and chalk sponge.
26-28
COVER STORY: A DIFFERENT REALITY
University of the West of England student Emrys Thurgood uses photography to create an expansive, open narrative exploring their struggles with derealisation – a condition of detachment and dissociation common in experiences of gender dysphoria and gender questioning.
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For Leeds Arts University student Tafsia Muzib Dana, painting is a way to capture family memories and the evolving built environment of her fast-changing home city, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
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ABSURDLY FASHIONABLE
Inspired by avante-garde fashion, Northumbria University student Issy Everton turns her outlandish designs into playful living sculptures that both unsettle and raise a smile.
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Four 2024 graduates featured in last year’s guide look back on their degree show experiences and share how they’ve got on over the last 12 months.
PLUS: We talk to artist Lydia Makin about graduating during lockdown and how she’s developed her painting practice over the last five years.
Art’s power to provoke and question, soothe and sustain feels vital, needed. Art can speak to us, connect and enrich us in sometimes unfathomable ways – and that makes this degree show season particularly welcome.
Graduate shows are often characterised by a kind of delightful chaos, brimming with the enthusiasm of not-quite-fully-formed ideas. Their off-kilter energy and newness is infectious, lifeaffirming.
That is to be expected and good to see. And yet what is striking about much of the students’ work featured in the pages of this year’s a-n Degree Shows Guide is just how clear-eyed it is; how certain it is of its intentions and execution. That too is satisfying and exciting to see. We are proud to champion this creativity and progressive spirit.
If there is a theme that connects much of the work, it is perhaps this: care. That is, care for our planet, care for ourselves, care for each other. Real, unconditional, tangible, and expressed through painting, film, photography, sculpture, craft, textiles and sound.
All 31 of the featured students were selected through an open call that attracted applicants from arts schools across the UK. Of these, 12 were interviewed for the guide’s main features and Q&As, with shorter pieces previewing the other students’ work.
For this year’s Next Steps section on life after graduation we rewind to our 2020 guide and talk to a Slade School of Art graduate who featured on that year’s cover. Starting with how she coped with lockdown, Lydia Makin describes how her practice has progressed over the last five years.
We also welcome back four of last year’s graduates to reflect on their degree shows and offer a fresh perspective on life ‘on the outside’.
Welcome, then, to this year’s degree shows – and to a new generation of thriving artists.
Wing-Sie Chan, a-n Head of Programmes, May 2025
www.a-n.co.uk/degree-shows
Editor: Chris Sharratt
Editorial contributors: Jack Hutchinson and Ellen Wilkinson
Advertising: Jenny Picken
Marketing: Jessica Roper, Charlotte Chappel
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© writers, artists and a-n The Artists Information Company 2025
ISBN: 978-1-907529-37-5
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Painting, sculpture, photography, outlandish costumes, documentary film – the work of this year’s graduating students is diverse and thoughtful, surprising and imaginative. Featuring 31 artists selected by open call and drawn from art schools across the UK, welcome to the Class of 2025.
from fabric. This reflects the domestic. I opt for fleece because it’s forgiving and you can manipulate it and stretch it over forms. I won’t say the figures are realistic because they’re not, though I think the fleece suggests a relatability, a possibility that they could exist. I hand stitch the masks. If I can wrangle the fabrics through my sewing machine for the costume then I will, but that often ends up hand stitched too. It’s a definite labour of love, made with blood, sweat and tears – that’s so much a part of the work.
Fleece is an inviting, tactile material but the forms that you’re creating are not. That juxtaposition definitely appeals to me. I really like that the figures are monstrous and kind of cuddly.
What will your degree show encompass?
For the Monstrous Feminine project, I want to go back to a domestic setting. I’ve made a prototype mask but the
“I want to make costumes that are too big, too tall or too hairy to conform to norms in patriarchal society.”
final version will have a full body costume, with breasts and exaggerated features and hair. I’m envisaging it in a fabric house, a bit like a Wendy house, with words or phrases included that connect to women’s bodies. I want to make people confront their own biases.
Degree show: 6-14 June (PV 6), Hereford College of Arts, Folly Lane, Hereford HR1 1LT
Elene Sturua, BA (Hons) Painting, Edinburgh College of Art Elene Sturua creates large-scale oil paintings that examine violence in everyday life. By juxtaposing war symbols with ambiguous imagery, she creates tension between overt representations of power and subtle unease. The figures in her paintings are often isolated, yet their gaze towards the viewer complicates this solitude. The results ask the question, where does observation become confrontation?
Deg ree show: 30 May – 6 June, Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF 1
Ryan Bancroft, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Lancaster University
With work that explores the connection between ourselves and the natural environment, Ryan Bancroft’s process involves capturing the ephemeral traces of nature in the landscape while hiking. He then transforms intangible elements such as the flow of a river into gestural prints which aim to reflect humanity’s place within Earth’s vast historical strata.
Deg ree show: 18-25 June (PV 18), Peter Scott Gallery and Bowland Annexe, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW
KAI FUKUNAGA, BA (HONS) CERAMICS, CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
Kai Fukunaga’s ceramic objects are made by pressing together thousands of individual dots of clay in a method that emphasises repetition, sequencing and pattern. Through this slow process, works like Bruised by Rain embrace the idea “that small insignificant parts can come together to form a whole,” she comments. Explaining her works’ evocative titles, Fukunaga says: “My making process is intuitive and my choice of colours and form are often determined by what I’m feeling at the time. When I was making Bruised by Rain I was in a melancholic mood; the constant grey, rainy weather reflected my state of my mind. The form is confused and exaggerated, seeming to be searching and reaching for a solution.”
Deg ree show: 13-20 June (PV 13), Cardiff School of Art & Design at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Llandaff Campus, Western Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB
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degree show at Oxford Brookes University, in a space that already has a sink and radiator that will be taken full advantage of. “There’ll be a kitchen and living room setting which will include ceramic objects. I’ve recently made a dustpan and brush, an electric kettle and a Dettol cleaning spray bottle. These items might seem throwaway but actually people often have such preference and thought-out care when it comes to selecting and using these objects.”
This preciousness is conveyed through the physical fragility of the ceramics, a medium that also carries domestic connotations, and the skill with which the work is made and decorated. Sacred Cleaning Product s (2025), for instance, includes a bottle of Fairy washing up liquid and an open pack of Finish Powerball dishwasher tablets, complete with the tablets themselves, all with glossy glazes that mimic their distinctive, branded packaging.
“With Kettle Reliquary (2025), I was inspired by ancient reliquaries which often have holy saints’ body parts inside them,” explains Klico. “A kettle is such an important feature of a British home and I wanted to use ceramics to highlight this, taking it from just being a plastic kettle to something more special and delicate. I really like making things, being physically involved in my work. That it's handmade is important.”
“I’m fascinated by how people’s homes can reflect their religious practises or identities.”
Klico will include an armchair within her degree show, inviting audiences to spend time and interact with the presentation. She says she is keen for people to touch the work, facilitating both a relatability and a consideration of its deeper issues through tactility as well as humour. She plans to stage a performance within the space that connects to the Eucharist, the bread and wine replaced with tea and biscuits, as seen in her pen and pencil drawing, Teatime Blessing (2024).
In the sink, Klico will place ceramic mugs, semi-filled with resin to imitate tea dregs. Candle wax will be added to some of the mugs “to make it look almost like an altar to washing up,” she says. “My aim is to create a ceremonial space like the washing up station of a house. I want to involve viewers within this. I want them to drink tea.”
Klico is keen for her personal experiences and memories to connect with those of other people. “Everybody has their own domestic experiences but there is such a collective memory around certain ones, especially in British culture. I want people to smile when they see the work.”
Deg ree show: 10-15 May, Glass Tank and Richard Hamilton Building, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP
Phoebe Wilke, BA (Hons) Ceramics, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Phoebe Wilke creates playful objects that contrast figurative pastels with ambiguous, disproportionate forms. The Feeder is made up of stacked bowls that can be taken apart and rearranged. Featuring elongated, disproportionate and androgynous forms that contrast with the playful pastel slips, it is part of a series of works inspired by and named after traditional feminine archetypes.
Deg ree show: 13-20 June (PV 13), Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University Llandaff Campus, 200 Western Avenue, Cardiff CF5 2YB
Andreea-Daniela Ene, BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of Reading School of Art
Through her performances, Andreea-Daniela Ene explores the idea of land and our connection to its essence, both physically and metaphorically. Works such as I am not part of one reflect her journey as a Romanian immigrant and how dual economic systems shape the lives of those striving for a better future in a new country.
Deg ree show: 2-8 June (PV 30 May), University of Reading School of Art, Pepper Lane, Reading RG6 6PU
very ephemeral tools to carry out obviously pointless acts. The Seaweed Mop and The Chalk Bucket are about stopping the tide by mopping up excess water from the land. Fill Your Boots is more subtly political and includes seaweed boots and a sink which fills to the point you think it will flood. It’s about climate change; how people fill their boots, then realise they’ve been too greedy.
When did you start gathering materials from the coast itself?
I was interested in finding sustainable, cyclical ways to have an arts practice without making as much waste. Sometimes you stumble on interesting things like broken down bits of groyne, or chalk that’s fallen off the cliff onto the beach. When I’ve used those materials, it’s felt like capturing home, but I don’t like to take too much. I’ve collected a lot of seaweed, but it can be really smelly. I boiled it once to make a dye ink, and my housemates weren’t too happy.
What kind of responses do you get to Futile Acts ? I think having a human figure in the landscape makes it easier for people to comprehend. It’s something to focus on, because images of the natural world can make you
“As sea levels change, I think about how our relationships with the landscape can change too.”
feel separate – you feel like it’s all too big and wonder if you can make any difference. Including my own interaction with bodies of water is a way to understand where I sit within huge climate change issues.
How did your year abroad in Spain influence your practice?
Teruel [in eastern Spain] was actually where the Futile Act s began. The landscape there is super dehydrated with all these orange rocks, and just one dam about a three-hour walk away. I decided I was going to saturate myself and saturate the land, so I took this big water bottle and filmed myself trying to do that. The video is terrible but it sparked the idea for the whole project.
What kind of challenges lie in preparing for a degree show?
Previously the focus has been on making and developing the work, but now I have to think about curating it. With video works at exhibitions, people might not watch very much, so it’s gauging what someone can take from it. I’d like to piece together a narrative, where videos sit alongside prints that allude to ideas of site and circulation without stating anything too obviously. The videos are quite meditative, so I’d like this to be a space where people can spend time, and even if they only watch five minutes, leave with an awareness of their environment; a consciousness of what’s around them.
Deg ree show: 14-18 June (PV 13), Loughborough Fine Art Building, Loughborough University Creative Arts, Epinal Way, Loughborough LE11 3TT
OOIJMAN, BA (HONS) FINE ART, CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL OF ART
Elena Ooijman’s degree show work Elena and the Ooijman is part of a series based on images that came to her subconsciously. The four-metre long acrylic painting on unstretched canvas features avatar versions of the artist in a nightclub chatroom of an online game, referencing the online media the artist consumed when she was younger. In Elena and the Ooijman, which verges on the surreal, Ooijman appears as the central protagonist, in multiple. Two of her, in matching dresses, are shown embracing and kissing, while another pair are engaged in a circular conversation in speech bubbles: “I am the best” says one, “You are the best” replies the other.
Deg ree show: 6-13 June (PV 5), Ruskin Gallery and studios, ARU Cambridge Campus, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT
MAYA ATTWOOD, BA (HONS) FINE ART, SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY
Disillusioned with drawing and painting, Maya Attwood discovered the vital ingredient her art practice was missing – other people.
By ORLA FOSTER
When Maya Attwood started her Fine Art degree at Sheffield Hallam, she wondered what she had got herself into. A growing disillusionment with drawing, sketching and painting had left her unsure of why she'd ever wanted to be an artist in the first place, and she was finding the experience isolating. “I’d hit a massive wall, and struggled to find anything I enjoyed doing,” she recalls. “Because it was self-directed, finding a purpose or project I could stay motivated by was really hard.” It was only when she became a youth worker that she realised her values didn’t need to exist separately from her practice. Conducting research into activism, accessibility and the barriers faced by people accessing creative and educational spaces was a call to action. She wanted to prove that art didn’t need to feel solitary or elitist, but instead could be something people experienced together, outdoors, with organicallysourced materials and open minds.
As she approaches the end of her course, these ideas have swiftly taken shape, starting with the workshop she hosted alongside Sheffield-based art collective Anomaly Arts in March. Whether making paper from avocado skins or hammering petals into fabric patterns, participants were encouraged to try out new skills and let themselves experiment without overthinking the results. A self-confessed perfectionist who shudders at stray pencil shavings on her desk, Attwood has unexpectedly found she is happiest when she can “get on the floor and mess with some mud”. She now wants to create an environment where others feel just as invigorated making art.
“Sustainability is a huge part of my practice, but it goes beyond environmental conversations,” Attwood explains. “Building healthy, accessible communities is key to everything. If people are empowered to access natural spaces, it gives them a chance to create positive relationships with the natural world, and they're more likely to care about it.”
Attwood now plans to bring those positive relationships into a gallery setting. Her degree show will include a short film of her workshop in action, voiced by attendees and soundtracked by birdsong. While watching, visitors can sit at a table and experiment with additional materials, creating an informality and looseness that Attwood feels was lacking in her previously exhibited
work. “My goal is to translate the workshop experience as authentically as I can,” she explains. “Last time I got too rigid, using plinths to display workshop objects. Someone said it was like a still life, and they meant it as a compliment, but that was exactly what I didn’t want!”
Preparing for workshops can be labour-intensive; as well as filling out stacks of paperwork Attwood spends months stockpiling food waste and scrap materials. But besides minimising her environmental impact, reusing these items breeds spontaneity. “My favourite thing about using organic material is you never know what's going to happen,” she says. “You have to submit to whatever the material decides to do. For example, with flower bashing you can’t control how much pigment comes out, or the way it picks up on a fabric. You're less likely to get caught up in an outcome – it's about just enjoying the process.”
For Attwood, that process is as much about ongoing discovery as forward planning. Her research constantly uncovers new ideas, like reading up on how to extract ink from oak wasp galls – tiny growths created when wasps inject their eggs into trees. “That fuelled me for weeks!” She is “always making different goops in my kitchen”, to the point her partner gifted her noseclips for Christmas. But no matter what techniques or materials she might introduce, the defining themes of Attwood’s degree show will be inclusivity and shared experience,
“If people are empowered to access natural spaces, it gives them a chance to create positive relationships with the natural world.”
and taking a close, curious look at the beauty of the natural world.
With her presentation, Attwood is reappraising art as a tool for bringing people together in Sheffield's green spaces, extending a warm invitation to anyone interested in unlocking their creative potential. “I hope to make people want to try natural craft, connect with others and be outside under some trees – just a little space where they can engage with nature and community,” she concludes. “Because I don’t have an art practice if I don't have people showing up and giving it a chance.”
Deg ree show: 30 May – 8 June (PV 29 May), Old Head Post Office Studios, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield S1 2AY
Emrys Thurgood uses playful characters and uncanny environments to explore the numbness and euphoria of genderqueer derealisation.
By JAMIE LIMOND
A spikey, star-headed entity peeps out from behind a door, like something from Tsugumi Ohba’s Death Note Another star-headed figure, this time in Team Rocket pink, sits forlornly atop a stack of wooden chairs; an image of strangely perky numbness in the middle of a small white room. The characters and scenarios in these photographs are part of an expansive, open narrative exploring UWE student Emrys Thurgood’s struggles with derealisation: a condition of detachment and dissociation common in experiences of gender dysphoria and gender questioning.
The characters in your photographs are trapped in an empty house. It’s almost a cliché now to read the pandemic into anything related to isolation, but did the work develop in any way specifically around that?
My experience of derealisation is actually tied to my experience of lockdown. It was there beforehand but that made it so much worse. A lot of the project is shot around my parents’ house. The upstairs is entirely white floors, white walls, it’s quite an uncanny space. It works as a metaphor for my brain, but it’s also literally where I was for so much of that time! It was the only place that felt real to me during that period and now I’m bringing it back as
an unreal place. The house is this enclosing, isolating space, but the other location in the work is the woods, which transition into this more open, euphoric space. I’m playing with the crossover between the two.
Where do the star heads come from?
A star has a physical presence, it’s comforting, but you can’t have any tangible relationship with it because it’s so far away. And that’s what it feels like to be derealised, in a way. Do you know the film I Saw the TV Glow [2024 American psychological drama directed by Jane Schoenbrun]? I don’t know if it’s a spoiler to say that it’s a trans allegory, but the stars are kind of my version of how they use the TV show in that film. That’s all I’ll say. The pink star-headed character is also just something I’ve been drawing for years and years.
Is there an anime influence?
A lot of my references do come from animation and illustration. I think a lot in terms of children’s storybooks when I’m doing the fabrication. I also really love the video game Night in the Woods. It follows a 19-year-old who is experiencing dissociation, and the world they’re in just gets weirder and weirder. I do plan on showing some prints for the degree show, but it will mostly be presented as a photobook. I want to create a very non-linear narrative, and with a book you get this little encapsulated world to play in.
Do you see the non-linearity of photography itself as an advantage?
I think it’s really good for my specific kind of storytelling. You can do things in an abstract way in video, for example, but it’s so much more fun to create these frozen moments and these disconnected little spaces in time
through photography; especially as my work is about these numb, unreal spaces. The fact that it’s a silent medium is also good, as it gives another element of detachment from reality. Having these characters who have no opportunity to speak or to be heard plays into that as well.
Are the setups predetermined or is there a lot of improvisation?
Oh, I am meticulous. The clearer the plan I have, the more likely the photograph is going to turn out how I want it. There’s always wriggle room within that, but it’s very planned.
It’s very playful. Do you find it important to reclaim these difficult experiences in that way?
One artist I feel compelled to name-drop is Pia Guilmoth. She’s a trans photographer who lives in rural Maine. Her world is so joyful even though she’s exploring something which hasn’t been the most fun of experiences. At the end of the day, derealisation is just my brain trying to compensate for an overwhelming world around me. But, you know, I’ve got a bit of whimsy about me. There’s nothing so revolutionary as being able to find some kind of personal euphoria within these difficult spaces. I’m very pro that approach.
Deg ree show: 7-11 June (PV 6), Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA; 26-29 June, Copeland Gallery, Unit 9, Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Road, London SE15 3SN
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With a focus on the slow, meditative process of weaving textiles, Karen Hamilton’s work explores light, colour and form in the natural world. “The beauty and rhythms of nature inspire my designs,” she explains of her degree show piece Winter Reed II, which is made from materials gathered from the shores of Lough Erne, County Fermanagh. Hamilton’s practice reflects a desire to work in tune with nature and the seasons. Explaining her choice of materials, she comments: “I use natural, deadstock and recycled materials and often incorporate elements taken directly from the landscape. I want my designs to endure but I want them to leave a light footprint on the earth.”
Deg ree show: 6-20 June, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University Belfast, 2-24 York Street, Belfast BT15 1AP
MAKLYN KENNARD, BA (HONS) FINE ART, UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
Maklyn Kennard’s vibrant mixed-media compositions evoke a sense of belonging while challenging cultural norms.
By JACK HUTCHINSON
Maklyn Kennard’s work explores identity, representation and transformation through mixed-media compositions. Fusing painting, sculpture and textile elements, her pieces examine social dynamics and belonging within shared spaces.
In Kennard’s people-filled paintings, figures interact in constructed environments, blurring the line between observer and observed. Often depicting characters from her own life – friends, collaborators, and other people
she’s interacted with – she first takes photographs before reworking the image in paint and other materials. Identities remain ambiguous, raising questions of memory, social visibility, and how people are perceived or forgotten over time.
In Inequitable Hotties, for example, traditional notions of attraction and value are challenged, questioning who gets seen, celebrated, or discarded in contemporary culture. Similarly, Isn’t It Amazing How People Can Feel Like Home – made with mixed materials, including fabric – reflects on how relationships can create a sense of belonging. Kennard explains: “I wanted to capture how familiarity and connection can transform people into places of refuge. I think the work raises questions about what ‘at home’ actually means.”
There is a certain degree of chaos in Kennard’s work, something reflected in the variety of materials she deploys. “I don’t like to be tied to one medium, and I
“I wanted to capture how familiarity and connection can transform people into places of refuge.”
Jack Dixon, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts
In Jack Dixon’s three-minute film Trying to Draw Time, we see a hand painting a simple clock face, which gradually disappears beneath ink lines until a black circle is left. Dixon explains that the work “presents a failed attempt to grasp the present and freeze it, hinting at the beauty in this failed endless chase”.
Deg ree show: 18-25 June (PV 18), Peter Scott Gallery and Bowland Annexe, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW
Freda Osayuki Igiogbe, BA (Hons) Ceramic Design, UAL Central Saint Martins, London
Exploring ideas around memory and cultural identity, Freda Osayuki Igiogbe’s ceramic sculptures draw on her devout Christian upbringing, “grappling with religious teachings that instilled both reverence and fear –especially towards traditional African spirituality”. Works like Ekpo “confront these ingrained fears, reflecting on cultural displacement, evolving beliefs and the complexities of heritage”. For her degree show, she is working on a human-sized sculpture, with smaller sculptures surrounding it.
Deg ree show: 19-22 June (PV 17&18), Central Saint Martins, 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA
Kelly Wu is a queer Chinese-British artist whose practice combines sculpture, performance, and installation. She fixates on objects: the small, the found, the stolen and the gifted, and with them she thinks about her past. The State in Which We Are was developed in response to her mother’s hoarding behaviours and how removing various objects from her parents’ flat to create the installation helped relieve some of the pressure hoarding can create. “Most of my works have some relation to the act of remembering, as I like to look into the past, rather than the future, in order to generate my practice. Acts of archiving are integral to both my artistic practice and my day job as a library assistant.”
Deg ree show: 19-22 June (PV 17&18), Central Saint Martins, Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA
TAFSIA MUZIB DANA, BA (HONS) FINE ART, LEEDS ARTS UNIVERSITY
For Bangladeshi student Tafsia Muzib Dana, painting is a way to remember what would otherwise be forgotten. By ISAAC NUGENT
The world around us is constantly changing. Sometimes all that remains of an environment we once cherished are our memories of it. Visual art can be a powerful tool for exploring these memories, recalling a place that no longer exists.
In her work, Tafsia Muzib Dana investigates her memories of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh where she grew up. Lamenting the pace of change in her home city, she paints as “a way to remember what was there and preserve what had once been”. Adopting a bright palette of viridian green, lemon yellow and tangerine orange, Dana says that colour helps her “to guide myself through” memories of the city. In Dhaka, “when you get out into the street, there are so many colours, just screaming.”
Moving to the UK in 2021 to complete the Art Foundation course at Leeds Arts University, followed by a BA in Fine Art, Dana returns to Dhaka during university holidays. On a recent visit to her old neighbourhood, she discovered skyscrapers where she once lived. “It was very strange. There used to be these nice old houses with a very specific kind of architecture,” she recalls. Mournful for the loss of these traditional buildings, Dana remembers the “beautiful motifs” that they used to have on their window grills.
Recently, Dana made a painting on an old wooden box that was lying around her studio. Titled Out of Place, it typifies her approach. With plywood sheets used to divide the space into compartments, it depicts a series of rooms. It was inspired by the house where she grew up, which no longer exists in the form she remembers it. During the rainy season, all of the furniture was eaten away by termites. “I went back to a completely empty space,” she explains. “I thought I would make a painting of how this place used to look…I had to remember where everything was.”
“I don’t have an idea of how a painting will end up. It is interesting to see how the composition changes.”
We discuss her painting process. “It is difficult for me to make a strict plan,” she explains. Paintings sometimes start with her blocking in abstract shapes, allowing the image to develop over time. “I see what works with the composition and the colours. I don’t have an idea of how it will end up. It is interesting to see how the composition changes.”
Drawing is central to Dana’s approach to painting. She uses a sketchbook to develop ideas. “I use it as a way of remembering,” she says. If a drawing feels “interesting” to her, she continues working on it. An idea might be sketched out multiple times before it is ready to be used as a starting point for a painting. However, this is not the end of the process. ‘It [the painting] begins with a drawing, but does not stay with it,” she explains.
Dana also makes dry point etchings, enjoying the unpredictability of this printmaking process. “You’re drawing into a plate and spending so much time on it, but you don’t know how it is going to turn out. I think this really feeds into my practice.”
In Dana’s paintings, similar motifs reoccur over and over. “It happens quite unintentionally, but I guess because these things are so frequent in my life, they appear subconsciously in my work.” Cats feature frequently, “not because they are so adorable” but because these animals “change their shape depending on how they are feeling”. Cats help to establish the mood of the work. In some paintings, they create an atmosphere of mystery and unease, while in others they suggest warmth and relaxation.
After four years at Leeds Arts University, Dana is sad to see her course come to an end. “It feels like home now because I have been here so long,” she says. Over the summer, there are plans to travel to France and maybe Italy, where she will see the work of the Impressionist painters in person. “I feel like I owe it all to the Impressionists.” She also intends to find a studio in Leeds, where she will continue to develop her work. As Dhaka continues to change, Dana’s work records what made the city important to her. These vibrant paintings preserve the past, even as it is threatened with erasure.
Deg ree show: 16-21 June, Leeds Arts University, Blenheim Walk, Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9AQ
Harry Wilkins, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Bath Spa University
Working across printmaking, drawing, photography, moving image and performance, Harry Wilkins explores, in his words, the “continuous change and flux of spaces”. Work such as the series Stool Strategies “investigates fleeting experiences, making visible the possibilities and consequences that shape our spatial and temporal understanding”.
Deg ree show: 14-21 June (PV 13), Bath Spa University, Locksbrook Campus, Locksbrook Road, Bath BA1 3EL
Ina Thomas, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds Arts University
Ina Thomas’ multi-disciplinary practice focuses on themes of girlhood, womanhood and their “trials and tribulations”, as she describes it. Her mixed-media piece Ophelia 28 combines drawing, paint, photographs, collage and text quotations from Shakespeare’s Hamlet describing Ophelia’s death, to express ideas of female rage and revenge.
Deg ree show: 16-21 June, Leeds Arts University, Blenheim Walk, Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9AQ
MEGAN JOHN, BA (HONS) FINE ART, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
Megan John’s documentary films give voice to female folk music artists in the North East.
By JESSICA RAMM
Megan John’s film-making practice responds to the collaborative spirit of Newcastle’s music scene. Her documentary films explore how the North East’s rich folk music heritage intersects with a vibrant DIY culture in which marginalised voices are becoming more visible. John has found a strong sense of community in the city and will use her degree show as an opportunity to build a platform for local independent musicians.
What are you working on at the moment?
I did an interview this morning with a woman called Frankie Archer who makes folk electronic music. We talked about how it is to make an independent and sustainable career in music today. The film I’m making is going to weave together audio from multiple perspectives within the North East folk scene, looking specifically at women and non-conforming genders or queer communities. A lot of traditional folk songs are sung a certain way about women – not very positively – and these contemporary artists are flipping that on its head and bringing new perspectives to light in their songs, which I find really interesting.
Tell me more about the film you’re making for your degree show.
Obviously music is going to be a big theme. I’m telling a story in the same way that these artists are building
songs with different components that come together. I’m hoping to code lights to the film and when the film rises and flickers that will be timed to the lights so the whole room will go from all black to lit up. Overlaid images will come together with the sound to create a full immersive picture. There might be one section of someone forming a poem, but then a backdrop of someone else's vocals or someone playing the fiddle that I've recorded. So it's going to be everyone's ideas and artistry combined into one.
How do you feel about your own role as an author in that process?
I think about it a lot. I did my dissertation on music documentaries, looking at how directors approach telling stories that are not their own in a respectful way. For me it comes naturally and organically when I meet people and find a connection. I think it's important to be genuine and really embed yourself in the community that you're working with. It matters where things are coming from and what we see and consume on a daily basis. Who's behind the camera. OK, we might be seeing this community, but whose role is it to tell that story?
What brought you to documentary film-making? I was doing abstract painting when I came to Uni and then I did an art documentary strand with artist and filmmaker Susie Davies. She made this documentary in 2021 on the rave scene in Ouseburn, a part of Newcastle that is now really gentrified. It was all about the history of warehouse raves. She interviewed everyone that used to be part of that scene, talking about how it was a space for community; people coming together. Her teaching
CHARLOTTE HENRY-STUMPE, BA (HONS) FINE ART, ARTS UNIVERSITY PLYMOUTH
Over the course of her degree, Charlotte Henry-Stumpe has developed a multidisciplinary practice that examines personal lived experiences. In works such as The Female Objects, which are presented in the form of pages from zines hanging from clothes hangers, she reimagines the interaction between power and subversion, navigating “harmful societal perceptions within British culture and historical lineages of subjugation”. Conceptually – and within the process of making – Henry-Stumpe reclaims language with phrases and etymology used to highlight the “continued use of gendered epithets, as political commentary, provocation and irony”.
Deg ree show: 21-27 June (PV 20), Studio 11, 10 Regent Street, Plymouth PL4 8BE
Shiv Lalgi’s paintings explore the conventions of eastern and western representation, revealing the stories within shadows and the shadows within stories.
By JAMIE LIMOND
An elegant hand and forearm cast the midnight-blue shadow of a swan on a wall, perhaps for a child at bedtime. For Slade student Shiv Lalgi, the painting, Sawn Song (2025), represents just one of the countless small gestures and illusions that pass by in the theatre of motherhood.
“There’s a great essay by Alice Walker, called In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” she explains. “It’s about women, particularly women of colour, who had this creative spark but had to channel their creativity domestically. She talks specifically about her mum’s garden and how she curated and nurtured it, how everything she planted grew as if by magic. I really love that imagery.”
For Lalgi, it also strikes a personal chord. “My maternal grandmother is part of this government scheme in India that offers women financial independence by giving them creative tasks. She’s been making these bird-shaped toran beads for maybe 50 years now. It’s a lot of labour for not enough money, and the things she’s made will never be seen in an artistic sense. There’s a sadness to that.”
The shadows in Lalgi’s paintings also perhaps recall the western origin myth of painting: Dibutades of Corinth tracing her departing lover’s profile from his shadow on the wall, sealing painting up with notions of ephemerality, loss and remembrance. “In a way the subject or story of these paintings is also painting itself. There’s a presence but also an absence there. Whose hand is casting the shadow? Who is the artist? Who is the maker? The shadows are like paintings within paintings. They’re part of this unseen, domestic form of creative labour.”
In a similar way, Lalgi describes how the work has become less about specific mythology and more about the idea of mythology. “Swans can represent wisdom and enlightenment in eastern mythology, but the transformation between a woman and a swan is quite a
“In a way the subject or story of these paintings is also painting itself. There’s a presence but also an absence there.”
Leetzuy’s oil painting, Powling, is a portrait of sorts, in which a figure holds a red, shiny, textured object in front of their face, as if clutching a bowling ball, ready to swing it back before release. The close-cropped framing provides few clues as to what exactly is taking place, but the artist describes her choice of title as “a word clue”. She explains: “I was searching for words that feel familiar even for a nonnative English speaker, yet still foreign enough, because there’s an undercurrent of strangeness in the image that I wanted to preserve. I wanted a verb and ‘Powling’ is somewhere between sweet and vulgar.”
Deg ree show: 20-23 June (PV 19), Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths University, St James’s, London SE14 6NH
JENNA RUBINSTEIN, BA (HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY, LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION, UAL
Shooting on medium format film, Jenna Rubinstein’s black and white photographs strive for intimacy and calm. By LAURA DAVIDSON
Standing in front of a rock face, two topless figures curve their backs towards each other in an embrace. Five fingers are resting on the back of one of the figures, like smooth pebbles balanced on top of a large boulder. The intimate moment has been captured in a perfectly square black and white photograph, part of an ongoing series by London-based American student Jenna Rubinstein. Being an onlooker doesn’t feel intrusive – it feels like you are invited in. “You can really place yourself in the image and feel the embrace of someone warm,” says Rubinstein, who will graduate from BA (Hons) Photography at London College of Communication this summer.
“I’m trying to queer the landscape and find the body within it, and pull on a different meaning.”
Rubinstein’s project began with the body and with sculpture. She explains that she is interested in “how textural elements relay in terms of skin, rock, organic surfaces, and how that plays with each other”. As well as photographs of her friends, the series includes images of the landscape of her native California. “I often found myself looking out at nature and seeing the body within our landscapes,” she says. Waves roll towards stones on the beach, boulders curve in towards each other, mirroring the embrace of the couple in the first image. Rubinstein says of her approach: “I’m trying to queer the landscape and find the body within it, and pull on a
consume images digitally with smartphones. There is no doom scrolling here. Instead, Rubinstein wants to pass on that sense of stillness to viewers, who she hopes will spend time sitting with the photographs, basking in their warmth and intimacy.
From speaking with her, it is clear that Rubinstein places a high value on craft, caring for others and the planet, and on exploring new ways to live. We briefly touch on current events in the United States. “I just had this profound urgency. Knowing how politicised and policed my body is – or other bodies, trans bodies, queer bodies – back home. It became a deeply personal project, for sure.” There is, however, a sense of optimism within her photographs, because they show a portal to current and future realities, where different ways to live and respecting nature thrive.
The mother, as Rubinstein is trying to make us understand, is central, woven into our relationships with each other, and that, she believes, gives us hope in the dark. “Where we are in our political and social climate, I think collective mothering is at an all-time high. In terms of community and space, and where we are as artists and young people, we can really create safe spaces.”
SANDRA MUTUKWA, BA (HONS) FINE ART, LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY
After a small bird hit her house window and died last summer, Sandra Mutukwa found a new way to explore migration and race in her paintings.
By JACK HUTCHINSON
Liverpool-based artist Sandra Mutukwa was born in Poland to Polish and Zambian parents. She creates paintings that explore the internal conflict of being a mixed-race immigrant, with her latest series of works produced in the wake of last year’s anti-immigration riots in Liverpool. She invites viewers to imagine a world where, through necessity rather than choice, humans migrate as birds do.
Has your heritage always played an important role in your practice?
I wouldn’t say being a mixed-race immigrant is something that I like to think about day to day, but when things like the riots happen it reminds me that ‘Oh, actually I’m not from here’. I struggle with identity a little bit and not knowing where I fit because I would say that I don’t fit in in Poland either, even though I was born there and lived there for the first few years of my life.
I don’t feel like I fit in anywhere really and even when I went to Zambia to visit my family they referred to me as their white cousin! Even if I may be perceived as Scouse by some people, there’s always going to be others out there who say I’m not. And it’s just a psychological struggle on the inside sometimes.
How has your work evolved over the course of your degree?
I’d previously explored immigration in my work, but last summer when the riots happened it really hit home. I’d received some messages from friends who were working in Liverpool city centre at the time saying they’d been put into lockdown and had to escape through the back entrances of their store to try and get home. I was volunteering in the Open Eye Gallery and we had to close early. I could see all these people on the streets and I was watching live streams of what was happening. It was a really scary time.
Your paintings feature the repeated image of a bird. Why did you choose to make this the focal point of your images?
During last year’s riots a small bird hit the window of my house and died. I initially panicked thinking it was a brick being thrown at our window. But when I went outside into the garden I realised it was actually a bird. I took several photos of it on my phone, and have used it in various paintings since. I wanted to create a narrative whereby the viewer could imagine what it would be like if humans migrated across the planet like birds do –through necessity and not by choice.
What is it about painting that you enjoy?
I came to university with a mindset of ‘I am a painter’. In the first year we were encouraged to try different mediums, but I always seemed to be drawn back to painting. When I go and look at other people’s art in exhibitions, that is what I enjoy looking at. It was good to experiment with things like sculpture, but with paint I feel I can say what I want to.
What work will feature in your degree show?
I’m currently painting an oil painting that will be the focal point of the show, but also working on a projection of an animation of a bird going round in a circular motion. It will symbolise life and death and its cyclical nature. I am also exploring screen printing onto the actual walls themselves, so it will be quite site specific. Even at this stage I am experimenting.
Is it important for you that the viewer understands the backstory of your work?
Yes, definitely. Obviously, some people will take my work out of its context and make their own interpretations, but as much as I can, even with things like titles, I think it’s important to try and get across what I’m trying to say. I think the title ‘Imagine a world where people migrate as birds do’ captures the themes of my painting. It’s about not necessarily 100% fitting in, and I feel like a lot of other people probably also feel that way.
Deg ree show: 23 May – 6 June (PV 22 May), Liverpool School of Art and Design, The John Lennon Art and Design Building, 2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD
“I wanted to create a narrative whereby the viewer could imagine what it would be like if humans migrated like birds do.”
Ren Yeates Black, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Liverpool
John Moores University
The work of Ren Yeates Black responds to personal experience of grief and memory loss in relation to her now deceased grandma. “I found myself seeking out experiences and activities that reminded me of her.” This led to a community garden in Everton, and for her degree show a poly tunnel will be lined with soil, dried lavender and thyme, and feature the sound of her grandma’s voice.
Degree show: 22 May – 7 June, Floor 4, John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool John Moores University, 2 Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD
Pam Briggs, BA (Hons) Artist, Designer, Maker: Glass and Ceramics, Sunderland University
Pam Briggs created No money to burn as a response to the fuel crisis in the winter of 2022/23, reflecting a time when those who couldn’t afford to heat their homes had to dress more warmly. She used a traditional method of making to create a series of ceramic coats, working quickly with soft, wet clay to capture movement.
Degree show: 7-14 June (PV 6), National Glass Centre, Sunderland SR6 0GL
Multidisciplinary artist Félice Knol creates work that investigates the intersection between the social and the visual. Human interaction and social behaviour are recurring themes in Knol’s practice, with works such as Bliss a part of her living archive of photography of friends, youth culture and nightlife in London and Amsterdam – the two cities she calls home. Knol considers the context the images are shown in as part of the work, bringing the photographic medium into the realm of sculpture. “I am interested in the social possibilities of photography in fine art, and prefer to show my work in social spaces such as bars and clubs, instead of just the white walls of the gallery.”
Deg ree show: 23-29 May (PV 22), Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
“These aren’t things that you’d see in everyday life – you’d probably see them in a fever dream.”
ADVANCED PAINTING GRADUATE SHOW ‘FACADE’
2-6 JULY 11AM-6PM ESOP N22 6TZ
PAINTING MATTERS 1
19-22 JUNE 11AM-6PM
ART PAVILION E3 4QY
ADVANCED PAINTING INTERIM SHOW
9-13 JULY 11AM-6PM
ESOP N22 6TZ
PAINTING MATTERS 2 26-29 JUNE 11AM-6PM
ART PAVILION E3 4QY
ADVANCED ABSTRACTION
1-7 JUNE 11AM-5PM
8 JUNE 11AM-2PM WINNS GALLERY E17 5JW
Fine Art, BA Art & Contemporary Craft, BA Craft Practices, MFA Craft Practices
Preview 4 July | 5–7pm
Open 5–11 July | 10am–5pm
Fine Art, BA Art & Contemporary Craft 16–20 July
Open 12–6pm
Late opening 17 July | 6–8pm
The West Dean Summer Show showcases original work by emerging artists and craftspeople studying for BA Art & Contemporary Craft, BA Craft Practices, Fine Art Graduate Diploma and MFA qualifications.
westdean.ac.uk
So, what happens now? Postgraduate life can be daunting, baffling, full of challenges. But rest assured, whatever you’re going through, someone has been through it before. One year on, four 2024 graduates share their experiences, while painter and 2020 graduate Lydia Makin provides a longer view.
Four 2024 graduates featured in last year’s guide look back on their degree show and what they’ve been up to since. Introduction: CHRIS SHARRATT
As Duncan of Jordanstone graduate Lewis Cavinue so eloquently puts it, “It’s a tricky one this post-university life, isn’t it?” After three or more years of the structures, rituals and designated studio space of higher education, here you are, out in the big bad world, on your own, facing an uncertain future and – probably – years of student debt.
Only of course you’re not on your own at all – you are one of many recent graduates, all grappling with similar issues, similar worries, similar doubts and hopes.
You’re not on your own in other ways, too, not least because of all those artists already making their way in the ‘real’ world, all those artist-run initiatives creating opportunities and offering advice, all those artist organisations – like a-n – that you can connect with, learn from, work with.
This, then, is your new community: bigger and more dispersed than at university, and perhaps a little scary at first. But here it is, waiting for you to make the most of.
None of this is easy. The shock of no longer being a student can be disorientating and strange. And, as Brighton University graduate Alice Triff says, it may be “harder than you think and you may not get to where you want to be immediately”. But remember, she adds, “you can change things with time”.
So, welcome to life after art school. Let the new adventures begin.
So, looking back to last year, were you pleased with your degree show?
Lewis Cavinue: I was very pleased. After many months working on the show, I truly think I achieved
“Come to terms with your present circumstances, knowing that you can change things with time. And don’t let the inner critic’s voice get too loud.”
Alice Triff, Brighton
what I had originally envisioned. Much changed from when I spoke with a-n for last year’s guide, but I love how the work was able to grow and change with the exhibition space. The performance element to my work exceeded my expectations. It was a durational work across the entirety of the degree show run and I was cautious about pulling it off, but the reactions and conversations I heard while in the space gave me such validation for my work.
Gwilym Pearce-Jones: We were quite a big group of graduates so slotting us all in took some time, but thankfully our lovely technicians and tutors had a plan from the start and it was just a case of hanging, looking, re-hanging and so on. I was so pleased with the work I ended up displaying, which was quite different to what I submitted for last year’s guide. I was given an entire span of wall to display on, which really worked with my focus on narrative art and ‘reading’ the paintings from one end to the other.
Amy Lee-Julian: The degree show was a great success and we all worked together really well to put on a great show. My main focus was on delivering paintings that
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portrayed my initial intention to ‘challenge society’s misperceptions of disability’. I had six paintings featured and they seemed to resonate. The private view had a fantastic turnout, with visitors engaging in thoughtful discussions about the diverse artworks on display. This was one of the most rewarding and successful aspects of the show – it was a meaningful experience to see the audience interact with the art pieces, and to have the opportunity to speak with people about my art and listen to their interpretations. The day felt like a collective celebration for everyone’s achievements.
Alice Triff: Putting on the degree show was an invaluable experience. I especially loved curating the space and navigating the practical and aesthetic needs of each project. As a year group we dedicated a full day to painting the walls – we played loud music and it brought everyone together.
What have you been up to since graduating?
LC: It’s a tricky one this post-university life, isn’t it? You work so hard, for such a dedicated number of years, to be then thrust out into an art world that is completely different to the one in art school! It’s a constant cycle of learning to unlearn and relearn. So of course I became a full-time barista at my local coffee shop – I can officially add ‘Latte Art’ to my artist CV! But I genuinely felt I made great connections with people in Dundee while still in art school, and I have since joined the operational
“Every artist wants their work to be seen, for themselves to be seen, so allow yourself the thrill of exhibiting – anywhere and everywhere you can.”
Gwilym Pearce-Jones, Carmarthen
committee at Generator Projects, one of the oldest artist-run initiatives in Scotland. People have asked if I’m doing/why I’m not doing a masters, but honestly Generator is my masters in disguise. Being on the committee is an opportunity for me to learn absolutely everything about how artist-run spaces operate and also how the art ecosystem in Scotland operates. Having the space and chance to programme ideas and projects that you feel passionate about is the most rewarding experience ever. I am genuinely so excited and proud to be on the committee and hope I can continue to add and advocate for the legacy of such a vital space for emerging and early-mid career artists.
GP-J: On graduating from Carmarthen School of Art I applied for the residency available on campus, which would allow me a year of facility usage and a studio space. I was successful and have been working from there since September. I felt this was definitely the right move for me, not just because of the studio space or the facilities, but because staying connected with an art community face-to-face had become something I really
South East’s Platform Graduate Award 2024, which was an amazing opportunity to showcase my paintings with students from other universities. Disabled Women Make History (And Art) digitally showed Taking Up Too Much Space with Disability EmpowHer Network at Toledo Museum of Art, and the same work was chosen for the Curator’s Prize at the online ‘Art As A Response To Mental Health’ exhibition for Doncaster Art Fair. My painting Empty Powerchair will be shown digitally for the Outside In National Open Exhibition, ‘Shelter’, at The New Art Gallery Walsall (27 June – 19 October) and Christie’s, London (12-22 January 2026). I plan to hopefully attend both opening days.
AT: I am proud to have been nominated for the Platform Graduate Award which led to an exhibition in September at Phoenix Artspace in Brighton. Aside from that, through mingling at exhibition private views I’ve met artists who have subsequently asked me to assist them with the installation of their exhibitions. Helping other artists with their own practice has kept me engaging with my creativity in a less pressurised way than making work of my own.
Finally, is there any advice you would give this year’s graduates?
LC: If you’re graduating this year and you haven’t yet been to an opening or event at your local artist-run initiative, GO! If you haven’t met some people working outside of the art school at different organisations or studios, etc, GO MEET THEM! Without going out and meeting those other folks working and celebrating art in the ‘real’ world, it’ll be a lot stranger to function as an artist on the ‘outside’. The people at openings, screenings, workshops, performances, festivals are your
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“If you’re graduating this year and you haven’t yet been to an opening or event at your local artist-run initiative, GO!”
Lewis Cavinue, Dundee
colleagues – you’re all artists trying to do the same thing independently, so why not figure it all out together?
GP-J: Say yes to everything! Every opportunity gives your work a new audience with new perspectives, which can totally impact your drive to keep making. Every artist wants their work to be seen, for themselves to be seen, so allow yourself the thrill of exhibiting, anywhere and everywhere you can. Another thing to remember is that doing a degree in the arts is potentially just the beginning of the journey. You don’t really know what it’s like being a working artist until you get to be one, so have patience with yourself that you’re always improving. It’s a lovely feeling.
AL-J: My advice would be, ‘Don’t stop painting!’ Try not to take a long break after graduating, continue where you left off, keep the momentum going so you can build on what you have already created. Also, take time to reflect on the artwork you have made, really look at it and let it speak to you, give yourself time, problem solve narratives with paint. This reflection can help you understand what you have learned and identify areas you would like to explore further. Try not to overthink things. Follow what interests you and what you feel connected to.
AT: Manage your expectations for postgraduate life –it’s probably going to be harder than you think and you may not get to where you want to be immediately. Come to terms with your present circumstances, whatever that may be, knowing that you can change things with time. And don’t let the inner critic’s voice get too loud.
Lewis Cavinue, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art, Dundee
Gwilym Pearce-Jones, BA (Hons) Fine Art Practice, Carmarthen School of Art
Amy Lee-Julian , BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing and Printing, Arts University Plymouth
Alice Triff, BA (Hons) Photography, University of Brighton
Lydia Makin’s work was featured on the cover of the 2020 a-n Degree Shows Guide, prior to her graduating from Slade School of Fine Art in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown. Five years on and having completed an MA at the RCA, she shares her story so far.
What was it like to graduate during lockdown?
I remember feeling disoriented and apprehensive about how the pandemic would unfold. It was disheartening not to have the degree show as planned, but we were fortunate at the Slade as they managed to organize a physical show in September 2021. This decision was worked on for several months, and for a long time we didn’t know if it would be possible. Now looking back I view this period as a time of deep introspection. Despite the isolation, life carried on, and when travel reopened I found myself going back and forth to Florida for a few years before I returned to London.
Were you able to find ways to continue your practice and make connections?
The pandemic was a time of contrasts. While it posed many challenges, it also led to a surge in online engagement and virtual art shows. The Slade responded with an online showcase for our year. From this I began a conversation with Gallery Rosenfeld, which led to my participation in a group show in 2022. I was also part of ‘Circa 20:20’ where one of my paintings was featured on Piccadilly Lights. The project highlighted graduating artists from London art schools in 2020.
In many ways, I felt grateful to be a painter during the lockdown. All I needed were my paints, brushes, and a space to work. After leaving art school, I continued to develop my work. While I valued the solitude, I couldn’t shake the sense of disconnect from London. Like many artists, I missed attending openings, galleries, and studio visits in real life. These experiences are essential, as they keep you connected to the ongoing conversation surrounding the work.
How have you managed in terms of studio space since graduating?
I consider myself fortunate during the pandemic, as I had a space in my garden that I transformed into what I now call ‘my art shed’. At the time, I was staying with my parents in Edingley, Nottinghamshire. I later had the experience of acquiring a studio in Florida, where I made a body of work. In 2023 I began my MA at the RCA in Battersea and now my studio is based in north west London. It is tricky acquiring a studio in London, but I would advise getting on as many wait lists as possible and collaborating with friends.
How have you balanced pursuing your practice and getting by financially?
During my time at the Slade I was awarded the PainterStainers’ Company Scholarship, which significantly supported my materials. In this moment, I work parttime at an art store a few days each week.
“My time at the Slade was pivotal in my development as a painter, planting seeds that have blossomed into the work I create today.”
Have you sold work, and has that been important to you?
All my paintings are important to me. I always struggle to let them go, as each one feels like an extension of myself. A standout moment for me so far was my solo booth with PM/AM Gallery at the Untitled Art Fair last December in Florida. It was a wonderful place to present my work.
How do you feel your work has developed since graduating, and what has influenced those changes?
During the 2020 lockdown my paintings took on a new intimacy, mirroring the slower pace of the period. Recently I’ve felt a shift, as if a long-simmering energy has been released. While I always aim to challenge my practice, my time at the RCA played a pivotal role in catalyzing this transformation. In the past, there were times where I over-analyzed certain elements to my paintings, as a means to make the image ‘work’. Now, through removing expectation, I find myself engaging more directly with the act of painting.
What led you to do an MA, and what did you get out of the experience?
I had always considered the RCA, especially since many of my friends from the Slade pursued an MA shortly after graduating. However, given the intensity of my time at the Slade, I felt I needed some space to reflect and digest that experience. I found it valuable to live outside the bubble of art school for a while. During my first year at the Slade, a final-year student gave me a tour and said, ‘Art school is what you make of it.’ This remark has always resonated with me – the opportunity to learn and challenge oneself is unparalleled. At RCA, there was a period where I struggled to bring several works to a resolve. I wanted more from my work, but I didn’t know how. I then had a tutorial with Alexis Teplin which really changed things for me. She simply advised, ‘Start a new one, let these go.’ In that moment, I felt as though she granted me permission to release paintings I instinctively knew I had to abandon, which was difficult given the time and energy I had invested.
In hindsight, I realize that these difficult periods are intrinsic to my process. Painting requires being in the right headspace. After taking Alexis’ advice and beginning a fresh, large canvas, it felt like a form of release. It’s important to emphasize that this breakthrough wasn’t forced – it arose from the tension accumulated over months of struggle.
Looking back, is there any one thing that you feel has been key to your development as an artist? My time at the Slade was pivotal in my development as a painter, planting seeds that have blossomed into the work I create today. One standout experience was the
‘Big Painting Week,’ organised by Andrew Stahl. Working on such a monumental scale drew something out of me. I began to transcend the medium, painting with a newfound sense of freedom and confidence. The week ended with group critiques, where we reflected on our work. Andrew was a deeply passionate and influential tutor, he always encouraged us to be bold and push boundaries. His recent passing [Stahl died 15 October 2024] has left a profound void, and his impact on my artistic journey will never be forgotten.
If you were giving advice to a 2025 graduate about what to do after leaving art school, what would it be?
I would firstly reassure them that there is life after art school, and that things do not come to a halt. I remember feeling so daunted by the prospect of leaving the Slade, like I was about to fall off some cliff edge. The relationships and connections formed during that time, along with your painting practice, continue to evolve long after art school.
Is there anything, with hindsight, you would do differently?
My experiences have undoubtedly shaped me, and I don’t think I would paint the way I do now without having lived through them. I’ve always stayed true to what feels right in my soul, both in my art and in other areas of life. So, to answer the question, no. lydiamakin.com
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