Welcome to (hidden), the University of Leeds MA Fine Art Degree Show for 2022, opening on Thursday 8 September.
Our MA Fine Art finalists invite you into their School and studios to encounter some of the numerous ideas discussed and developed over the past year, culminating in the works on show which have been devised, critiqued and generated in recent months.
(hidden) showcases the work of six international and local artists from China, Bosnia and Herzagovina, Peru and the UK. They each chose the University of Leeds to study for very different reasons and expectations but will leave, I am certain, with a similar set of core values regarding research, knowledge and the methodologies surrounding art practice and what it means to be an artist and a curator in the 21st century.
Whilst our studio spaces allow each individual the chance to present a honed and purposeful body of work, the Project Space provides an opportunity for the six to exhibit together once more as a collective. They have supported and encouraged one another during the latter half of a pandemic and the restrictions it brought towards a more hopeful — though unequivocally different — future and set of social, cultural and political challenges.
From exploring the salsa as a physical language to the global appropriation of ‘Peruvian sheep’, from growing up in a post-Balkans war society to the eco-cultural tourism of Lanzarote, from technological aesthetics to the ethicalities of physical theatre, the artists each bring their personal dynamics and critical agendas to the fore.
Chris Taylor
Professor of Fine Art Practice and MA Fine Art programme lead
