Image of Megan Leal Causton by Ewan McCaffrey

Joanne Dawson is a final year student of the BA(hons) Painting and Printmaking course at The Glasgow School of Art, graduating from the School of Fine Art a year after the fire of the Mackintosh Building. She is currently working up to the 2015 Degree Show using a variety of video, sculpture, screen-print and installation. She tells us more about what this year’s graduating Painting & Printmaking students have planned.

47 graduates from the Glasgow School of Art Painting and Printmaking course will exhibit their work in London at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane on the 2 – 6 July, as part of The Free Range Show. With the destruction of the Mackintosh Building, we lost a valuable platform for showcasing the culmination of four years hard work. We were in third year during the fire, so our work was not personally damaged, but we worked very closely with graduate students during that time, and we know how much it affected them along with the following repercussion that impacted ourselves in our final year. ALL YOU CAN EAT is the perfect opportunity for us to take our work beyond Glasgow and to exhibit to a wide new audience in a location central to London’s art scene.

Image of Rosie Swan by Ewan McCaffrey

Image of Nathan Cook by Ewan McCaffrey

ALL YOU CAN EAT is more than a painting show. We are an eclectic group and we will be running community workshops, performances, poetry readings and other events throughout the week in London. There is very little restriction on what will come out of the show, however we want to project how strong we have all been as a year together. We initiated this project entirely off our own back, and have been fundraising ourselves over the past year. With huge support and with much gratitude, our Kickstarter raised £3000 in just over a week (here is a link with a video by Gary Zhang). £3,000 is only half of the full cost. If we do not reach our target the show must and will go on. The cogs for potential resolutions to a lack of funding are already in motion. We are trying to supplement our funding through other avenues, writing proposals to different arts charities, throwing club nights, events, and bake sales.

After the funding is fully realised our largest challenge will be safely delivering, curating and installing the best possible show. The event, in the Old Truman Brewery in London, takes place between 2 – 6 July, a fortnight after the official Fine Art degree show in Glasgow will be held in Tontine House, off Trongate Cross in Merchant City from 13 – 20 June. The building surrounds a public art project of Douglas Gordon – his EMPIRE sign.

Image of Jude Hagan by Ewan McCaffrey

Image of Lewis Prosser by Ewan McCaffrey

Image of Jessie Whiteley by Ewan McCaffrey

You can follow our Instagram account here @gsa_painting with regular updates throughout our degree show and lead up to ALL YOU CAN EAT Graduate show. Preview students’ work on The Free Range Portfolio site here. Information will also be posted on The Glasgow School of Art’s website about our upcoming Fine Art Degree Show in the new Tontine Building.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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