Degree shows 2016: beautiful paintings, visceral sculptures, and the things we don’t see

a-n’s final Instagram degree shows takeovers come from City & Guilds of London Art School and the Royal College of Art, with London-based artist (and 2016 RCA postgraduate) Nadine Shaban posting images from both shows.

Highlights at the City & Guilds of London Art School show include these large-scale works by Odilia Suanzes (detail above) described by Shaban as “beautiful paintings”. Suanzes says her works deal with the ‘inner phenomenological experience’ of landscapes that are so ‘overwhelming they are beyond description’.

Christopher Stead says his series Vandal vernacular (top) is ‘inspired by a bizarre night from my graffiti days’ whilst ‘painting some trains’ when, along with some friends, he came under fire from a rifle-wielding, combat-attired rail worker. This piece is entitled Trespass.

Emma Young’s sculptural installation mixes everyday objects including hoover bags, rubber tubing and a garden sieve with handmade processes and other ‘craft’ elements such as felt making. This work Inhale / Exhale highlights the idea that we ‘fail to consider many of the everyday functional objects within our lives’.

Anouska Leyens’ work (below) seeks to make the familiar seem uneasy and, she says, ‘openly exhibits what is usually private’. Shaban describes the work as “Bold, vibrant and very textural”.

Stunning and vibrant

Included in the visual communication show  at the Royal College of Art, Shaban describes Marta Hernandez Galan’s monoprints (below) as “a really stunning and vibrant collection”. Hernandez Galan says of the work: ‘It’s about trees, but it isn’t about trees. It is about things we don’t see.’

Holly Hendry says she uses architectural elements to engage the body in a social, as well as physical, way. This work Gut Feelings (above) is described by Shaban as a “visceral sculpture”. Another visceral work in the sculpture show, Rebecca Jagoe’s I scream for Ice Cream (below), features a large sculptural lump of plaster fused into a wool Flokati rug.

Walk all over me (below) is one of six mixed media sculptures created by Nadine Shaban as part of her visual communication MA. Shaban says her work seeks to externalise inner psychological differences through the use of visual and physical material, ‘creating a language to express emotions and experiences that can’t be articulated verbally’.

Thanks to a-n members Olivia Aspinall, Maddy Hearn, Andrew Jones, Sheyda Porter and Nadine Shaban for their coverage of this year’s degree shows, and to all the artist graduates whose works we have featured. You can catch up with all our degree shows Instagram takeovers here.

Images
1. Christopher Stead, Trespass, alkyd resin, ink, soil, barbed wire, polyester, fence, granite, wood, cotton and fire, 260x172cm, 2015.
2. Odilia Suanzes, Untitled, mixed media, 250x200cm, 2016
3. Emma Young, Inhale / Exhale.
4. Anouska Leyens, degree show installation at City & Guilds of London Art School.
5. Marta Hernandez Galan, monoprints.
6. Holly Hendry, Gut Feelings.
7. Rebecca Jagoe, I scream for Ice Cream.
8. Nadine Shaban, Walk all over me, mixed media.

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