GALLERY 1
PORTAL 2026
12 SEPTEMBER – 21 NOVEMBER
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 ceramics, painting, sculpture, illustration, glass and film, Portal 2026 showcases a collection of 15 of this year’s graduates. With artists from Welsh institutions such as Cardiff Met, UWTSD Swansea, and Carmarthen School of Art to national universities such as Hereford College of Arts, Bath Spa University, Norwich University of the Arts, Kingston School of Art, and Falmouth University. We hope this exhibition captures the collective spirit and ideas coming out of art schools this year.
The way we relate to each other and our surroundings, and what happens when we don’t, underpins a lot of the work on display this year. Finding connections through people, in community traditions, folk customs, rituals, and storytelling is balanced by the connections we make with materials.
From unlikely fusions, such as sculpture that combines ceramics and aluminum, tools that take on ornate forms, to the reactions and interactions materials have with our bodies or local geology, there is a shared interest in meeting points.
Whether these are points in time, like the beginning of summer; objects that gather us and become emotional containers; or familiar stories we reimagine or weave into the fibers of fabric, these connections bring warmth, comfort, and joy.
While some artist celebrate the ways we come together, other contend with the frictions and disconnect that happens when we don’t. Loss and change brings loneliness, both on and offline, to the surface, while social pressures and perceptions cause struggles with identity. Some construct physical barriers, limiting and restraining our bodies through wearable sculptures, while for others just the thought of loosing the traditions that connect us is enough to spark fear.
However, our desire for connection is persistent, and Portal 2026 demonstrates this loudly and quietly in celebrations that take over towns, picking up the phone to call a friend, listening to the sound of rustling of leaves, and in the larger role art and culture plays in bringing people together.
Featuring work from:
Abi Harverson, Edie Carney, Friday Lawrence, Iara Talledo Violani, Iestyn Davies, Iris Murray, Jessica Theobald, Jonas Tew, Laura Nicholls, Lauren Degg, Oliwia Ciabaszewska, Rhian Lewis, Sam Dowling, Sophie Cridland, Twig Searle
