UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 08 FEBRUARY 2019
Now, more than ever, Birmingham’s artistic community is thriving. Forward: New Art from Birmingham is a group exhibition, including work by approximately twenty five artists who are living and working in the city. The exhibition aims to highlight the depth and vitality of a wide range of practices.
Taking place in Medicine, the artisan bakery, café and gallery, the work epitomises the progressive ethos of the city. The venue is the former gallery space of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, from which included elements of Birmingham School of Art and the founders of the Ikon Gallery.
The exhibition includes pieces from a number of graduates and members of staff from the School. Included in the collection is BA (Hons) Fine Art student Dion Kitson who explained more about his poster work:
“I've had the posters for years now and they've been sitting around from studio to studio and I've picked off various ones for different ideas” Dion explained. “I hadn't seen them for a year before rediscovering them and decided it was time for them to become art.”
“I liked the idea of seeing a recorded world before Brexit mainly. Having this physical opinion of newspaper about the political affair while traumatic headlines and bizarre non-stories all together as one. The good the bad the ugly and all being about the Black Country area, it's interesting to see what can be news. Having no context to the headlines provides this whole space for filling in the gaps.”
Exhibiting in the city is an important element for all of our students, as Dion says:
You can keep up with Ikon’s behind-the-work interviews with exhibiting artists on their blog.