24 Glasgow School of Art 2020 graduates have unveiled work in Graduate Drive Thru, a group show staged on the top of the Glassford Street NCP carpark.
This exhibition kickstarts an autumn of exhibitions created by GSA 2020 graduates across the world which the GSA is supporting
Full text of Graduate Drive Thru press release below
Media Release
Graduate Drive Thru is a centrepiece of 2021 Glasgow Open House Arts Festival
24 artists and designers who graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in 2020 have unveiled work on top floor of Glassford Street NCP carpark as part of grassroots festival
Images: work by Council Baby, Dylan Esposito and Joe Habben in Graduate Drive Thru
These artists offer us all some hope and some light in an anarchic and irreverent exhibition
on the roof of an NCP carpark. How very ‘Glasgow’.
Karla Black
24 graduates from The Glasgow School of Art have unveiled work on the top of the Glassford Street NCP carpark today, 24 September 2021. A multidisciplinary show featuring sculpture, painting, photography, film, performance and print, the exhibition is a centrepiece of the 2021 edition of the Glasgow Open House Arts Festival, an initiative established in 2013 to encourage artists to use alternative, domestic and public spaces to exhibit their work. The free exhibition runs over Glasgow’s September holiday weekend (Saturday 25th – Monday 27th) at 11 Glassford Street, Glasgow G1 1UP
“This exhibition evolved in response to physical Degree Shows being cancelled due to the pandemic,” explain organisers Chao-Ying Rao (Betty) and Robert McCormack, both GSA 2020 Painting and Printmaking graduates.
“What is particularly special about showing as part of the Glasgow Open House Arts Festival is that it is a grassroots event that has given us the opportunity to create and curate our own show in an unusual and exciting space.”
“This space is uncompromising and it can be difficult, being open to the elements in a shared public space. But what it offers is egalitarian. The opposite of a traditional white cube, it is accessible to all. It’s transient in nature and anti-establishment in concept, and by choosing to take on the challenges it offers, we wish to provoke discussions about how art should be consumed, who it is for, and how it could exist”
“Graduate Drive Thru wish to give a very special thanks to our supporters: The Hope Scott Trust for funding two fresh graduates with no track record, the William Syson Foundation for helping tackle economic disparities in the arts via providing us the ability to pay the real living wage for ourselves, our media & invigilation team. And to the Glasgow School of Art for giving us invaluable advice and support with professional practice, funding, health and safety training, and for believing in this vision.”
Supporting the exhibition Turner Prize nominated artist, Karla Black, said:
“It is so heartening to me to see these fresh Glasgow School of Art graduates taking the initiative to make sure that their art is seen in the city right now. After a terrible two years in which because of Covid art students have had
no physical degree shows and little studio time or in-person social bonding – all things that are so crucial for their development – this group offer us all some hope and some light in an anarchic and irreverent exhibition on the roof of an NCP carpark. How very ‘Glasgow’.
“Continuing in the tradition of many internationally renowned artists who have emerged from this city, these young people are to be commended for their tenacity and dynamism in the difficult task of making art and getting it seen, especially in these tough times, and in directly dealing with ideas about elitism, capitalism, access and opportunity, which are more important now than ever. Support this new generation, and go to see their show. I will!”
“Last summer when we launched Graduate Showcase 2020, our specially designed digital platform where graduating students exhibited their work to a global audience, we also committed to supporting physical exhibitions staged by 2020 graduates when covid restricted allowed and they became possible,” says Glasgow School of Art Creative Network Manager, Sam de Santis.
“Graduate Drive Thru kickstarts this programme of exhibitions created by GSA 2020 graduates across the world which we are delighted to be supporting.”
“One of the very special things about Glasgow is the way artists use the city as their gallery, finding unusual and innovative spaces to show work, and what a fabulous space this is! It’s very exciting to see our graduates contributing to the restart of the city’s cultural offer which is incredibly important to Glasgow’s status as a leading creative city.”
Participating artists and designers:
Council Baby, Joel Davidson, Dylan Esposito, Lisa Gavienas, Annie Graham, Joe Habben, Sam M Harley, Olivia Leven, Molly Lindsay, Angus Macdonald, Robert McCormack, Jack McElroy, Rachy McEwan, Joe O’Brien, Christian Alexandru Popa, Chao-Ying Rao (Betty), Eilidh Reilly, Sean Robertson, Viktoria Szaboova, Alex Warner, Chandelle Waugh, Jimson Weed, Sam Welch, Dexter Stokes-Mellor
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Chao-Ying Rao (BETTY) is an East Asian multi-disciplinary artist based in Glasgow. Her research interests tend to circulate around fringe and contentious topics as she seeks to analyse our habitual discomforts. She’s fascinated by their undertones, and finds them to speak volumes about our cultural anxieties and shared values.
Robert McCormack is a Scottish artist who engages in education, develops studio-based outputs, and coordinates grassroots arts projects. Robert holds a BA (Hons) in Painting and Printmaking from The Glasgow School of Art and is currently undertaking an alt/MA in Contemporary art practice with the New Art School, Glasgow. Roberts’s work draws upon queer theory and pedagogy with a particular focus on the intersection between children and pets. The work often manifests as process-driven installations encompassing drawing, sculpture, and performance. ‘Poor Hansi’ is made up of various studio objects which litters the space. The work thinks through the child and pet in relation to speech and is informed through recent readings of Michel Foucault’s seminal text ‘Discipline and Punish’ and Jack Halberstam’s new book ‘Wild Things; Disorder of Desire’ as well as working in a high school with children with additional support needs.
Sam M Harley is an artist/curator working and living in Glasgow. My practice explores the idea of thingness and how the art object and the typical object function alongside each other. It is important that painting as a medium is pushed to its extreme and there is a tension between the traditional high-fi nature of the paint and the low-fi everyday objects. I use the familiarity of everyday objects to give the viewer something recognisable to relate to, yet through the addition of paint, it elevates the everyday into something new and different. I will exhibit paintings on everyday hardware materials, such as tarpaulin and corrugated plastic as a way to combat the obscurity of a car park gallery.
Rachy McEwan is an artist based in Box Hub studios in Glasgow, Scotland. Working with a range of media, that provokes all senses – visual, auditory and olfaction. Rachy juxtaposes the natural environment with man-made worlds – fusing multi-sensory experiences with synthetic and evolutionary biology to form bio-fictional landscapes. Through her research, she introduces concepts of the sensorial ecology of intelligence – confronting the confusion in the concept of identity and forces us to question where one organism stops and another begins.
Dylan Esposito’s work often critiques the utopian visions of architecture and design, exploring the mistranslation between their ideas & realities. His sculptures usually take the form of utilitarian objects that have been rendered unfit for purpose. His new work for the “Graduate Drive Thru” exhibition builds upon ideas of functionality, normalcy & things not going to plan.
Council Baby is a Scottish sculptor based in Glasgow. Interested in the in-between and the tension between opposites, she creates work inspired by her contradicting job roles, Catch Me If You Can and telephone boxes. Each work visualises what she struggles to say, often commenting on how bad times feed, nourish and make the good times possible.
Lisa Gavienas is a sculptor/artist based in Glasgow who likes to explore personal themes; the body, rejection, love and imagination. Often using text as a way to work through ideas quickly, never doubting the initial thought process. Tending to view every piece created as a rough draft for a bigger idea and avoiding giving in to iconography. Influenced by a wide range of schools of thought but always leaning into Critical Theory, Intersectional Feminism, Marxism and Liberalism. Attempting to navigate the ‘art bubble’ with a sense of humour whilst remaining true to myself, however absurd and contrived this notion may seem.
Joe Habben is a photographer, filmmaker and artist based between Glasgow and Brighton, UK. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2020 with a First Class BA (Hons) in Communication Design: Photography. Joe’s practice explores human intervention, globalisation, social issues, public space and the climate crisis. Exploring the converging and contesting elements found between urban inhabitants and the environment, Joe’s work seeks to investigate and question our relationship with the natural world. His ongoing project: ‘In Moleca’ recently won the Earth Photo 2020: ‘A Climate of Change’ category and was featured by VICE, The Guardian and Creative Review.
Annie Graham – Glasgow, Scotland. The matter of wood and the matter of the body are both dynamic fields of relations. Through the transformative and non-linear act of woodcarving, my work aims to rebirth politics behind the workshop. Focusing on the historical influence to construction that thinks not only of gender and sexuality but also race, ethnicity, labour and class. My recent works for the Graduate Drive Thru poke fun at sculptural conventions and critique policies of systemic violence through the subjective violence of the sculptural act.
Chandelle Waugh (b.1998, Stirling, UK) graduated from her BA Honours in sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art with a first class degree in 2020, with a notable solo show held at Whitespace Edinburgh, Funeral for a F*ckboy. Returning to Glasgow in 2021 to endeavour on her master’s studies where she graduated with distinction. Through an autobiographical practice Waugh aims to unpick the fundamental challenges of the female experience, opening conversation and normalising the topics once taboo. Through creating raw, unedited, work she hopes to create empathetic relationships, provoking emotional responses.
Eilidh Reilly – Glasgow based artist. As a working-class woman, my drive to make work stems from the desire to explore the systems of inequality that are so deeply ingrained within our culture they are simply accepted as inevitable facts of a society. Through my work, I hope to confront and interrogate these societal structures; I hope to pull them apart and expose their ragged seams. As part of Graduate Drive Thru I am presenting my most recent work, Who’s Het? that explores gender-based violence and street harassment while questioning the myth of the unlucky woman.
Joe O’Brien is an artist and photographer currently working in Glasgow. Recent exhibitions include The Alternative Degree Show Festival 2021 and the 2021 International Landscape Exhibition online for The Glasgow Gallery of Photography. His work has also been featured in Landescape Art Magazine’s Special 2021 edition. His projectWithdrawn was in Pupilsphere’s top 9 most viewed projects of 2020 and his work was selected by Nicola Shipley for Source Magazine’s Graduate 2020 edition. O’Brien shall also be showing work at ISO Design in Glasgow at the end of September. He is also part of an upcoming group show called Still Water, curated by Aeji Seo at The Living Art Gallery in Phuket, Thailand in November 2021 – February 2022.
Through using photography, video and writing, O’Brien attempts to find beauty and peace within the world he explores. For Graduate Drive-Thru, he shall be displaying photographs and poetry in the elevator going up to the rooftop of the car-park. Having an interest in transit spaces, O’Brien considers the simple act of waiting and taking in one’s surroundings to be of importance for inner solace.
Jack McElroy is a multidisciplinary artist who explores subjects surrounding Scottish identity and social history through personal and participatory research by collaborating with people and groups. Born in Glasgow and brought up in a working-class background, he has informed his interests in accessibility to the arts by making artwork that aims to attract people who may not think of themselves as ‘interested in art’ to encourage participation in the arts from a wider audience. Artwork for Graduate Drive Thru is a site specific sculpture, a viewing platform for the view from the top of the car park, Enjoy the view.
Olivia Leven is a Scottish artist based in Glasgow. She graduated in 2020 From Glasgow School of Art with a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking. Her work is concerned with the fricative spaces between self and other, playing out these frictions with narrative acts, rituals and systems of reflection. Her latest work Angel Plane is a reflection on upward-ness. Using multimedia installation to explore a non innocent attraction to the aerial figures of angels and aeroplanes, The work inverts these unearthly avatars , re-imagining these figures as unfixed and non linear.
Sam Welch is a multimedia artist and 2021 graduate of Glasgow School of Art. Working in the mediums of sound, audiovisual projection and spatial sculpture his practice explores the relationship between perception and the self, capturing what it means to notice something. Influenced by rapid visual collage, musique concrète and Gonzo journalism. He will be exhibiting a collaborative audio visual piece exploring the implications of receiving, the implied notions of gifting, a learnt thing.
Molly Lindsay is an image maker who graduated in 2020 from Glasgow School of Art. Working in photography and filmmaking, she uses painterly techniques to address themes of fear and desire. Red lines run intrinsically throughout her work.
Joel Davidson is an Edinburgh based artist. His work explores themes of class, masculinity and neo-medievalism . Working predominantly through painting and sculpture. His work manifests in quasi-figurative sculptures that blend the grotesque, the bodily and the absurd. Incorporating influences ranging from GREGGS pastries to historical paintings.
Viktoria Szaboova is a Glasgow based artist and a recent graduate from the Glasgow School of Art, Fine Art – Painting & Printmaking. Her work is concerned around identity politics – an umbrella term for personal experiences concerning authenticity, cultural heritage, childhood and womanhood.
Alex Warner artistmaker b. 1998, also known as koolkatwarner, works within a range of different mediums but works specifically using and exploring the uses of primary colours within day to day life. His surroundings effect and inspire the things he makes, which reflects on: British consumerism, chicken shops, sport, everyday life, the urban landscape and bold primary colours.
Dexter Stokes-Mellor is a multimedia artist based in Glasgow. Their work focuses on the impact film, music and art has on our day to day life. Whether it be repurposing a song as if it were a found object, or re-editing a film to change the way it is viewed. Stokes-Mellor makes art that changes the way we engage with contemporary culture.
Chandelle Waugh is a multidisciplinary artist based in Glasgow. Her work steams from a need to create an understanding of being a woman by addressing mental health issues and traumatic experiences, in turn highlighting the strength women have. Waugh craves a connection between the viewer and the art work, with a want to remind us that there is no rose without a horn.
Jimson Weed is a scarecrow born, mixed media artist raised in the fields of Scotland. They are interested in exploring the mysterious, psychoactive and contemporary aspects of nature, love and relationships. J.W’s purpose is to help reconnect people of the digital age with the living world around and inside them.
Angus Macdonald is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician based in London, working with computer generated and stop-motion animation, installation, kinetic sculpture and performance.
Sean Robertson is an interdisciplinary artist interested in the manufacturing of social narrative and essence, investigating the construction of character through flesh, proxy, and the concept of dystopian universalities. Working across video, simulation, animation, installation, painting, and etching. Born in Edinburgh, Robertson graduated in Painting & Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art, graduating with First Class Honours.
Christian-Alexandru Popa is an audiovisual artist/ filmmaker, a Graduate of BA Film Studies at the University of Essex and Mdes Sound for the Moving Image at The Glasgow School of Art. Alex has started using sound in his practice as a central element since arriving in Glasgow, collaborating with musicians and artists coming from diverse backgrounds to create
innovative music videos and moving image works.
The exhibition is supported by the Hope Scott Trust, the William Syson Foundation and The Glasgow School of Art
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