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Student Showcase Archive

RCA Graduates exhibit at Saatchi Gallery for London Grads Now.21

London Grads Now. 21 opens today until 16 January 2022 at the Saatchi Gallery. Royal College of Art graduates will join six other leading London Art Schools in a graduate-led exhibition with 200 MA graduating artists, 8 graduating curators, over 250 artworks across 30,000 sq ft of exhibition space.

London Grads Now.21 at the Saatchi Gallery - gallery with works in background
London Grads Now.21 at the Saatchi Gallery
Photographer: Myro Wulff
Following the success of London Grads Now. 2020, the new exhibition will present a survey of London’s new emerging art scene and the teaching techniques and studio practice of the schools that underpin it. The schools represented include the RCA, Goldsmiths University, UAL: Camberwell College of Arts, UAL: Chelsea College of Arts, UAL: Central Saint Martins, UCL: Slade School of Art and Kingston School of Art. 100% profits from the sales of artworks will go to the artists.

Addressing pressing contemporary dialogues, this year’s graduate curators have selected artworks focusing on themes including: gender identity, environmentalism, post-pandemic reflections, UK racial politics as well as explorations of the human psyche. The works selected for London Grads Now. 21 span moving image, assemblage, installation, performance, painting, sculpture, photography and drawing. 

London Grads Now.21 at the Saatchi Gallery - gallery with works in background
London Grads Now.21 at the Saatchi Gallery
Photographer: Myro Wulff

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries said: ‘This exhibition will showcase some of the best new artistic talent our city has to offer and represents another brilliant reason for visitors and Londoners to come back into central London to visit our world class galleries as part of the Mayor’s Let’s Do London campaign. More than 200 artworks created by the next generation of artists will be on display – each one represents a triumph for art against the setbacks faced by so many emerging artists during the pandemic.’

Nine galleries across two floors of the Saatchi Gallery will be used for the show, with a dedicated exhibition space allocated to the graduates of each school. The RCA rooms are being curated by our 2021 MA Print graduates Thomas Hjelm and Lauren Bevan under the theme of Aftermath, underscoring artwork provoked by the necessary absences, new forms of community and political resonances of the pandemic.

London Grads Now.21 at the Saatchi Gallery - gallery with works in background
London Grads Now.21
Photographer: Myro Wulff

RCA Curators Thomas Hjelm and Lauren Bevan said: ‘A second wave of provoked ingenuity; this selection of RCA2021 Graduates continue to define themselves through their fortitude and resilience. It has been our privilege to work amongst this community of artists that relentlessly inspire and uplift one another. The RCA has long been famed for its innovative character; what you see across these rooms is a collective of artists that have a willingness to embrace the raw and unknown with unflinching certainty.’

London Grads Now.21 at the Saatchi Gallery - gallery with works in background
London Grads Now.21 at Saatchi Gallery
Photographer: Myro Wulff

List of RCA exhibitors: Albeiro R Tomedes; Alex Lewis; Alexandra Diez de Rivera; Amalie Gabel; Anna-Lena Krause; Anne Carney Raines; Art Sokoloff; Catherine Repko; C Lucy R Whitehead; Camilla Bliss; Daniel Wheeler; Esther Merinero; Emil Lombardo; Frances Knee; Graham Martin; Ġulja Holland; Hamit Üçok; Hawazin Alotaibi; Hoa Dung Clerget; Hsi-Nong Huang; Janina Frye; Jesse May Fisher; Junwei Chen; Kalman Pool; Katya Granoval; Kirsty Siml; László von Dohnányi; Lauren Bevan; Melanie Issaka; Mia Faithfull; Myro Wulff; Ning Zhou; Noah Petri; Nour Jaouda; Nuno Gil; Oisín O'Brien; Po Lam Chan; River Cao; Richard Burton; Rin Coppola; Ronan Porter; Savvas Theofanous; Samuel Padfield; Sergei Zinchuk; Sophie Giller; Sophie Goodchild; Sten Link; Svetlana Talanova; Thomas Hjelm; Yukako Tanaka.

Book your tickets to London Grads.21 from the Saatchi Gallery.