- Venue
- Surface Gallery
- Location
- East Midlands
before doing a degree, if i were to review an exhibition with the word finest in the title, i would have been very easily tempted to refer to a large corporation supermarket. having completed a degree i’m a little more widely knowledged to know that would be a waste of words to develop some connection between the two. i’m a big fan of time well spent.
arriving at the private view, i got the first impression of the exhibition. quite an achievement as being around work that is being installed always has left me with a slightly hollow feeling on private view night due to the wonder of discovering works in the exhibition having already been played out.
the exhibition is made up of eight works, drawn from four universities. the opportunity to see all eight together seemingly being one of the reasons for the surface gallery to stage this show of newly graduated fine art students. not that in any way this is a handy barometer of the universities represented, represented implies competition, again in no way is there any of that going on. i can certainly see long term benefits of an annual show that brings together graduates from a collection of institutions. i also wonder if any of the institutions would want to become involved if there were invited to be?
at this point i really would have liked to have been a well established critic with an established style within my writing as i could have reviewed the exhibition with that wider picture in mind. i could have commented on the use of reclaimed materials, scale, the creativity of the individuals and the amazement of what you can find in skips these days.
instead, as the exhibition is in nottingham, it seemed appropriate to review the show, as i have a piece of my own work within it. this has given me the chance to say that the final curatorial decision about placement of work was very much to my liking. my first impression on pv night was just how well the space had taken to showing the work of the eight artists chosen for this inaugural show. i understand there are hopes to make this an annual event. given the surface galley’s stand alone position, it allows newly graduated students an opportunity to exhibit away from the hyper crit world of undergraduate fine art.
the exhibition continues till 29th august (not open mondays).
