Photo opportunity: 6pm, Cooper Gallery, DJCAD, Friday 24 October, Curator of Exhibitions Jenny Brownrigg, Assistant Curator Donna Lovell with participating artists.
Pictures of exhibited work by Clare Stephenson and Christopher Orr.
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the School of Fine Art with a show presenting work by some of Scotland’s most celebrated fine art graduates.
The School is widely-recognised as one of the leading art institutions in Britain boasting facilities such as the Visual Research Centre at DCA, and high-profile graduates such as Calum Colvin and David Mach, as well as this show’s contributors.
The Moment of Fiction in the Cooper Gallery, DJCAD, features selected works of seven artists who graduated from The School between 1995 and 2000.
Also opening tonight at DJCAD (Matthew Gallery) is Observations 2. Roland Ashcroft, Karen Longmire, Bob McVicar, and Dermot Curnyn present photographs and installations. These artists are associated with The School of Design, DJCAD, and the Department of Art and Design, Dundee College.
Participating artists are:
Luke Fowler
Kevin Hutcheson
Graham Little
Alan Michael
Scott Myles
Christopher Orr
Clare Stephenson
The works, mostly on loan from private collectors, are united in their meticulous attention to detail and their surreal figurative narratives.
Dwelling upon a skewed reality, many of the subjects have been removed from the familiar or contemporary and placed in another realm. The classical Greek statue, a traditional teaching device of the art institution, is situated in an altogether more abstract landscape in the screenprints and drawings of Clare Stephenson (graduated from DJCAD 1996).
For Graham Little’s (graduated 1995) drawings of fashion models, the artist utilises the contemporary medium of coloured pencil to meticulously record the surfaces of fabric, skin and hair in a style reminiscent of classical painting.
The small intimate oil paintings of Christopher Orr (graduated 2000) bring science fiction to the everyday.
The title of this exhibition is taken from one of Kevin Hutcheson’s (graduated 1997) works, where delicate watercolours of gangsta rappers have been painted directly onto the torn out pages of pulp crime novels.
Head of the School of Fine Art Mr Euan McArthur said, "Graduates from DJCAD’s School of Fine Art in Dundee have played an important part in visual art in Scotland and internationally over many years. This exhibition demonstrates that a new generation of young artists has emerged that is carrying on that tradition with as much or even more success than ever. They have had the confidence to go out and establish themselves in a highly competitive and critical art world, and are now showing their work widely in Britain and abroad. The strength and diversity of their work has its origin in the multi-disciplinary culture of the School of Fine Art in which they were educated.
This has been the School’s chief characteristic since its formation in 1983 when the School of Drawing and Painting and the School of Sculpture merged. The exhibition marks the 20th anniversary of that merger, and the School has evolved a long way since then, not least as a consequence of the merger with the University of Dundee 10 years ago. In that time, the importance of both multi- and inter-disciplinary education has grown and the range of media in which our students are working is wider now than ever. This exhibition is an excellent opportunity for today's students, and others, to see what some of our graduates have achieved in the relatively short time since they completed their degrees with us."
Editors’ notes
Preview: Friday 24 October, 6pm
The Moment of Fiction runs 25 October - 22 November
Observations 2 runs 25 October - 12 November
Gallery opening times: Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 4.30pm. Admission free.
University of Dundee Exhibitions Department, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, 13 Perth Rd, Dundee DD1 4HT, call 01382 345330.
The Exhibitions Department would like to thank DJCAD’s School of Fine Art, IBID Projects, The Modern Institute, aspreyjacques, Jennifer Brugelmann, Christopher Gorrell Barnes, Deborah Davis.
For further information on the School visit www.dundee.ac.uk/fineart/
By Esther Black, Press Officer 01382 344768 e.z.black@dundee.ac.uk