Art and Design students from Reading College and University Centre welcomed friends and families to their Art Exhibition Private View on Thursday 18 June.
The art classrooms at the Kings Road campus were turned into an interconnecting art gallery showcasing artwork by students studying Visual Art and Design programmes, from Level 1 through to Art Foundation (a one-year pre-university course).
The exhibition featured a range of art styles including fine art, fashion, textiles, photography, mixed media, painting, films, architecture, games, concept art, video, art installations, interior design and much more.
Students studying Art and Design at Level 1, Level 2, or the first year of their Level 3 extended diploma were given the brief Mythical, Magic and Monsters as a theme to start their projects.
Those studying the second year of their Level 3 extended diploma and Art Foundation developed self-directed projects, based on their own individual briefs, allowing them to explore personal concepts, materials and professional creative practices in preparation for progression into higher education, employment and apprenticeships in the creative industries.
The exhibition celebrates the hard work, creativity and dedication the students have shown throughout the year, highlighting the effort, experimentation and personal growth behind each piece of work.
The exhibition is open to the public, staff and students until Thursday 2 July.
An installation representing the differences between a child’s and an adult’s mind
One of the most striking pieces was an installation representing a child’s mind and an adult’s mind and showing how they differ by Simran Bansel, who is studying a Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication Level 3 Extended Diploma at the college.
She said: “My work represents the adult and childhood minds. The viewer can walk through the adult mind to explore reality and visit nostalgia in the childhood mind.
“I wanted to explore how the adult mind can process, and the contrast between the adult mind and the childhood mind. How your childhood can feel magical and mystical, and your adulthood can feel quite daunting, chaotic and some may say monstrous.
“For the adult mind I used two hula hoops to build a big frame. I used thick yarn for the adult mind and positioned the yarn on the outside to be uniform but chaotic on the inside.”
In contrast, Simran showed the differences in the childhood mind by using multiple pieces of organza fabric to create a coloured canopy with hearts and other shapes hanging down depicting different emotions and memories.
In September, Simran will continue with the second year of her extended diploma at the college and is considering exploring practising more architectural artwork because she is interested in studying Architecture at university.
Exploring bad traits through film, painting and 3D art
Another eye-catching series of work was a short horror film, painting and masks by Cadence Romans who is studying a Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication Level 3 Extended Diploma at the college.
She said: “The short film goes into how people can have bad traits and they can be perceived as monsters, but they wouldn’t realise it themselves. The film looks into four different characters with different traits, deceit, narcissism, aggression and manipulation.
“The fine art piece is about the two people that were in love. The background is a wash of red. I used acrylics, graphite and charcoal to mimic how love can be beautiful but also messy at the same time.
“The masks mimic each of their traits that the characters have. I chose different colours for each of their masks to link to their different characteristics.
“I chose mankind because there’s a lot of things going on in the world right now where there’s people that are doing good things and there’s people that are doing horrible things.
“I wanted to explore why and how people act the way they do and how a characteristic can affect a person’s life.”
In September, Cadence will continue with the second year of her extended diploma at the college with the aim of pursuing more psychological art, as she would like to study Psychology alongside an Art degree at university.
Yaniz Andres Castro, Teacher in Art and Design at Activate Learning, said: “It’s exciting to see all the students and their parents at the Private View because it’s all their work all together.
“Setting up and taking part in the exhibition is part of the students’ work development as an artist and gives them more tools and experience for the future.
“They complete the cycle of an artist because they help teachers and vocational trainers to set up the exhibition.”
Discover our Art, Design and Digital Creative programmes available to study at Reading College or contact us via 0800 612 6008.
