An exhibition of works by MA Fine Art students at the University of East London

Artists featured: Emma Bell’s, Deborah Benjamin, Kimberly Bennett, Susan Cooper, Max Dolding, Klaudiuz Zembrzuski, Fatma Durmush, Sarah Drew, Chien yu-chien.

Private View: Friday 29th of February from 6 pm - 11pm
Exhibition runs from: 1st to 6th of March 2008
Gallery Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday: 2.30 pm - 6.30 pm
Last day of Exhibition - 6th of March: Open from 11 am to 5 pm!

A collection of works by MA Fine Art students at the University of East London consisting of drawing, photography, painting, mixed media and time-based pieces. As well as diverse use of media the exhibition hosts a collection works and themes by the artists who themselves come from a collection of cultures and international backgrounds. The group is unified by the East London’s Docklands Campus but by also the aim to create an exhibition that holds a variety of minds as well as works and to encourage the independence of thought.

Joseph Avery’s work always seems to gravitate back to his own mortality. The themes are usually concerned with the futility of expression in relation to his own self-absorption. Though the medium used may change, drawing is a strong foundation and at present collage and painting persist letting failure, technique and concept fight it out when the work is at its best.

Emma Bell’s work revolves around exploration and experimentation. She uses a combination of traditional and experimental techniques and materials. Her paintings are centred on a passion for her environment and an interest in the juxtaposition between the industrial and the natural.

Deborah Benjamin believes that concepts should dictate the medium of art works and, as such, she utilizes sculpture, installation, time based media, performance and the two dimensional, working with materials that are non-traditional: plastic, hair, wire-mesh, and traditional: plaster, metal. Her concerns are to do with the oppositional elements of chaos and order in the context of the body (the individual) and wider societal issues: rigid conformity and negation. Material elements (metaphors for the body) are often juxtaposed with controlling structures (sometimes grid-based) and ‘void’ space.

Kimberly Bennett’s main concerns as an artist are to do with paying attention to the political and social concerns of the world we live in, and finding ways to develop an art practice that integrates and reflects this.

Susan Cooper has found the “Fairy Tale”, but is still searching for the “Prince”

John Costin: The pavement nearby has been resurfaced hard and shiny, veins of rain glide over it into the gullies of the mind.

Max Dolding loves the City of London, especially the old buildings in the East End and on and around the Thames, the mix of the old and the new, witnessed by the passing crowds. He also finds stimulation in the Essex countryside and Estuary coastline in the early morning.

Fatma Durmush loves working with colour. She won a competition called ‘The String of Pearls Award’ in 2000. The prize was for the work to hang in the National Gallery and to be interviewed on TV by Brian Sewell .

Tim Weston Being a sculptor, Fabian Vogler regards the human being as the main subject of his work. On the one hand, it simply serves him as the essential reference point to which decisions in respect of, most notably, composition, form and shape can be related. On the other hand, it is an exciting challenge to search for appropriate new ways of depicting and illustrating the human body, taking into consideration the great new ideas of so many artists of the last century – famous ones like Giacometti, Moore and Picasso, but also less known ones such as Wotruba, Marini and Fassel.

Sarah Drew is exploring a variety of media based around painting and printing, in creating wall hangings and pieces using the language of painting. She mainly works in mixed media, on wood, on paper, paper, card and fabric. She expresses a keen interest in pattern and takes her inspiration from textiles of the 1950’s and the work of Aboriginal artists.

Chien yu-chien photographs represent a conversation between her and the world; a place she perceives as offering her a place of residence without speech.