Student artists come of age - Rhodes Fine Art graduate exhibitions

The Rhodes University final year B.Fine Art students of 2009 graduate exhibitions open for viewing at 5pm on Friday 20 November. This is unquestionably one of the highlights on the Rhodes visual arts calendar and promises to be a real bumper art happening! Taking the form of a gallery walkabout this vibrant event will commence at the Art School Gallery in Somerset Street and then visit exhibition venues nearby.

It is the first time that the Fine Art Department is showcasing the graduate submissions in their entirety thereby maintaining the integrity of the work, along with the resonance of exhibition sites and exciting installation spaces. A new accompanying catalogue will also be available which supports a decisive approach to instruction in contemporary professional practice.

These exhibitions represent the culmination of four years of focused study in the visual arts and reflect the art student’s growth of individual vision and often rigorous self-reflexive interrogation. They have sought and found appropriate contemporary creative means to express diverse concepts and ideas, often in a strong and unique personal vocabulary. A number of students have responded to facets of their immediate environment – these include loaded sites of crime and violence, scarred and sustainable landscapes, mediated domestic interiors, contested urban space, and ever present security and surveillance. Several have looked inward, introspectively searching for familial identity, gender constructs, and escape from strictures. In turn others have found departure points in art history, popular media and mass communication. Within their search some students have embraced traditional mediums of artistic expression with alacrity while others have challenged and pushed these frontiers through integrating, or trafficking between, new and expanded media.

Head of Department, Prof Dominic Thorburn, notes that “globally graduate exhibitions, or ‘degree shows’, of student artists are generally considered a celebration, a coming of age – and so too for our 21 young artists. Importantly these exhibitions are also for most the first time they are going public – a right of passage that requires courage and can be both intimidating and empowering.”

The exhibitions also bear testimony to the dedicated lecturing staff of the Fine Art Department who work tirelessly to allow students to realise and extend their creative potential as concept driven thinkers and innovative image makers. Thorburn states that “through their facilitation they ensure the Rhodes art school remains a supportive, flexible and enabling environment in which students can develop as inspired individuals and emergent artists.”

Picture of Fay Jackson's Sculptural work from her exhibition ‘Bastard’