GALLERY 1
PORTAL 2022
09 SEPT — 29 OCT 2022
Portal is our annual group exhibition of graduate artists and makers that aims to demystify working in the arts. By giving new voices support, tools, and the opportunity to develop skills, Portal reaches beyond the gallery walls to give emerging artists the best possible start for forging sustainable careers.
Through a constellation of practices that range from painting, photography, soft sculpture, metal work, digital media, ceramics, and textiles, Portal 2022 showcases a collection of 15 of this year’s graduates. With artists from local institutions such as Cardiff Met, Coleg Gwent, and Hereford College of Arts, to further afield, including Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. We hope that this exhibition captures the energy that is coming out of art schools throughout the UK.
The work on display explores the multiple ways we construct, and deconstruct, ourselves, as well as how we can connect, and rebuild our connections, with our surroundings. Through reflecting on how our identity is shaped by daily life, storytelling and societal expectations, these artists have considered how screens, imaginative play, personal histories, football, and experiences of motherhood and masculinity continue to impact our sense of self.
Moving beyond the individual, other work looks outwards, seeking to form meaningful relationships with our environment through acquiring lost knowledge, inhabiting bio-virtual landscapes, connecting to the soil, and consciously using biodegradable materials.
These concerns suggest a level of care and introspection that are perhaps a result of the isolation we have separately experienced over the last two years, combined with an urgent need to be part of, rather than in conflict with, the natural world.
Featuring work from:
Alice Hackney, Annie Higgins, Anthony Jones, Beth Holloway, Emily Brooks Millar, Emma Caldow, Eunice Bell, Hannah Day, Jake Quinlan, Matthew Lloyd, Max Freeman, Ren Wolfe, Spencer Fritter, Stefanie Smith, Tom Hancock.
There will be an opening in the gallery on Friday 2 September 6 – 8pm, and the exhibition will run until the 29 October 2022.
