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Photograph of abstract wall painting at London Graphic Centre, Covent Garden
Mural for Winsor & Newton Mural Project, London Graphic Centre, Covent Garden, Jessie Stevenson, 2023

Photo: Peter Cattrell

Jessie Stevenson, Material Research Project, Honorary Fellow, has created a wall painting at the London Graphic Centre, Covent Garden for the Winsor & Newton Mural project. She writes:

"My work is inspired by the natural world as a way to explore physical and emotional energies. Built of shifting, bright colour dynamics, the wall painting investigates a sense of escapism as a poetic and philosophical narrative. The expansive piece embodies a feeling of a brooding storm, using bold curvilinearity and applying thin layers of acrylic paint to create an ethereal effect. The clouds and waves are inspired by the tumultuous stormscapes of the Dutch Old Master artists, William van de Velde the Elder and Younger whilst using a contemporary soft colour palette to situate the work today. ‘Loosed from its hold, how no one knew’, 2023. 400 x 300 cm."

3 tone paintings of flowers taped to a wall.
UCL East Saturday Club in Art and Design - 3 tone paintings of flowers, November 2023

The UCL East Saturday Club in Art and Design is a free weekly art and design workshop for Years 9,10 and 11 living and/or attending schools in the East of London. For some of these students Art is not on offer for GCSE at their schools.

This term's Saturday Club began on Saturday 4 November 2023 with 25 students, the Slade is leading seven sessions, organised by Sandra Smith, Slade Summer School and Short Course Coordinator. This session involved working with light, making delicate lumen prints alongside classic three tone painting exercises, all with plants.

There are seven sessions, which move through working with light, drawing, geometry and pattern, casting, video, sound, performance and broadcasting. All sessions are intertwined and related to questions about the human/non human.

For more photos, see our Widening Participation page.

Photobooth images of Liz Rideal against a pink background
Think Pink, Liz Rideal

Slade lecturer Prof. Liz Rideal and alumnae Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Judy Clark, Catherine Elwes, Bhajan Hunjan, Zarina Bhimji, Sutapa Biswas, Mona Hatoum and Anne Tallentire are showing in , 8 November 2023–7 April 2024, at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG.

Women in Revolt! Is a landmark exhibition of feminist art in the UK from 1970 to 1990. It will explore how interconnected networks of women used radical ideas and rebellious methods to make an invaluable contribution to British culture. Showcasing work by over 100 women artists and collectives living and working in the UK, this will be the first major survey of its kind.

Spineless Wonders of Wales is hybrid event takes place at Y Drwm, NLW/LLGC, Aberystwyth and online, Friday 17 November, 10.00am - 5.30pm.

Spineless Wonders is an international network of artists, writers, academics and librarians, creating and researching small press publications including artists books.

Presenting small press material by small publishers in Wales at NLW/LLGC we will be joined online by presentations of material in the Welsh language from library collections at University College London, UCL and The Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

The aim of the day is to focus attention on these small press collections with poetry readings, film and visual art presentations, discussion panels, and a creative workshop.

FREE, register:

Woburn Square Refurbishment
Woburn Square Refurbishment, 2023

Photo credit: Fred. © Haworth Tompkins

Haworth Tompkins have worked with University College London (UCL), University of London (UoL) and the UCL Slade School of Fine Art to deliver the refurbishment of eight top-lit painting studios in the Bloomsbury area of London. Designed in the 1950s by Charles Holden as gallery spaces for the Courtauld Institute, the studios sit on the top floor of the Warburg Institute building but are accessed by a dedicated entrance and stairwell.  

A glazed roof and laylight ceiling provide filtered natural light, creating ideal conditions for painting and sculpture, while retaining maximum available wall space for display. 

The spaces have been called ‘home’ by generations of students at the Slade. Haworth Tompkins have refined and refreshed the interiors with respect for the integrity of the original design. New heating, lighting and ventilation systems are carefully incorporated to improve the studio’s energy efficiency and user comfort to contemporary building standards.

These sensitive refinements give the studios a new lease of life, providing refreshed creative spaces for generations of students to come. 

Portrait photograph of Mary Evans
Mary Evans, May 2023

Photo credit: Christa Holka

We are delighted to welcome Mary Evans as new Slade Director, who started on 4 October. To get to know her better, we asked her five questions:

  1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice?
    My research interrogates the social and political frameworks of Diaspora. I work mainly on large scale site and research responsive installations. My main medium is paper which I use because it is both fragile and resilient and is a metaphor for the investigations at the core of my practice which involves making the Black Body visible. I deploy craft-based processes and my work is often ephemeral and temporary.

  2. What was your previous role and what did it involve?
    Previously I was the BA Fine Art Course Leader at Chelsea College of Arts/UAL. I led the staff team in the running of the course and was also a personal tutor for 30 students a year. I particularly enjoyed teaching in year 1 when students are starting on their creative learning journey. I consider teaching to be part of my practice as an artist. Before Chelsea I was an associate lecturer at CSM where I taught on the BA Fine Art XD pathway as a personal tutor.

  3. What is your vision for the Slade?
    At the core of my vision for the Slade is to strengthen equity in relation to staff and students and reduce barriers to inclusion and progress. I want to nurture and strengthen the diverse voices and experiences that make up the community of practice at the Slade.

  4. Which artists do you admire?
    Kara Walker, Zanele Muholi, Carrie Mae Weems, El Anatsui, Sonia Boyce.

  5. What advice would you give to artists starting their careers?
    Say ‘yes’ to opportunities, apply for opportunities: open calls, residencies, calls for papers etc. Even if you may not be immediately successful, you never know who will see and remember your work and contact you in the future.
Poster for Grace Lee: Fitting Room at Huxley Parlour, opening Tuesday 24 October, 6-8pm. Show open 25 October - 25 November, 45 Maddox Streret, W1S 2PE
Poster for Grace Lee: Fitting Room at Huxley Parlour, 2023

Grace Lee has a solo show, Fitting Room, at , 45 Maddox Street, London W1S 2PE, from 25 October - 25 November 2023.

Grace Lee completed their MFA in 2021 and was awarded the Bartolomeu dos Santos Award in 2021. They said: "The award really has been such a help since graduating, and allowed me to keep working as an artist without constant financial pressure".

Installation views of Jesse Darling, Enclosures, at Camden Art Centre 2022. Photos by Eva Herzog. Courtesy of Camden Art Centre
Installation view of Jesse Darling, Enclosures, at Camden Art Centre 2022.  

Photos by Eva Herzog. Courtesy of Camden Art Centre

Congratulations to Jesse Darling, who has been nominated for the Turner Prize 2023 for his solo exhibitions No Medals, No Ribbons at Modern Art Oxford and Enclosures at Camden Art Centre.

An exhibition of shortlisted artists' work is now showing at , East Sussex, from 28 September 2023 to 14 April 2024. The winner will be announced on 5 December 2023 at an award ceremony in Eastbourne’s Winter Gardens.

Installation photo of stones, the first with the text: 0º00 Navigation Part II: A Journey Across Europe and Africa
0º00 Navigation Part II: A Journey Across Europe and Africa, Simon Faithfull, 2023

©the artist

This installation, part of the public art project, The Line, forms part of a body of work called 0º00 Navigation by artist Simon Faithfull. It relates to two epic journeys he undertook in order to trace the 0° line of longitude (the Greenwich Meridian) across the planet. It seeks to explore the paradoxes and absurdities of this hypothetical line.

Two films documenting Faithfull’s journeys, available on , will also be on show at Cody Dock Gallery Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm, until 1 October.

Figurative study, in ink
Study for Crivelli’s Garden, 1990‑91, Paula Rego, 1990‑91, Indian ink and wash on paper, 29.5 × 40.5 cm

Courtesy Ostrich Arts Ltd and Victoria Miro © Ostrich Arts Ltd

More than 30 years after Dame Paula Rego (1935–2022), the National Gallery’s first Associate Artist (1990–92), was invited to create a mural for the Sainsbury Wing Dining Room, a new exhibition celebrates the relationship of one of the most ambitious of Rego’s public commissions titled to the National Gallery and its collection.

Room 46, , London until 29 October 2023, admission free.

Alumna Hiroko Imada was commissioned to create a woodblock print to mark the collaboration between Dr. Martens X The Met (Katsushika Hokusai). The video of the process can be seen on .

Dancing in the Silent Blue
Dancing in the Silent Blue, Winston Branch, 1982, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 245 cm

image courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery

Winston Branch: Jasmines blowing in the wind, is showing at Simon Lee Gallery, 12 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DT is showing from 22 November 2022 - 14 January 2023. .
Winston Branch and curator Rianna Jade Parker will be in conversation at the gallery on Tuesday 6 December at 18.30. .

Image: Winston Branch, Dancing in the Silent Blue, 1982, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 245 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery.

First Floor Left
First Floor Left, Lyndsey Gilmour, 2022, installation shot

Congratulations to alumna Lyndsey Gilmour who was awarded the Lyon and Turnbull Award for Painting at the Royal Scottish Academy 196th Annual Exhibition for her diptych painting "First Floor Left", 2022. The work was displayed at the Royal Scottish Academy 196th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh, from 23 April - 12 June 2022, which can still be .

Lisa Milroy is showing in Stage Effects at Kate MacGarry, 27 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HR, from 11 November - 17 December 2022. See the  for further details and opening hours.

Shrouds 1,2 & 3
Shrouds 1,2 & 3, Lara Smithson, 2021, pencil and soft pastel on light reflective fabric

©the artist

Lara Smithson is showing in the Brewers Towner International at Towner Eastbourne, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne BN21 4JJ, from 15 October 2022 to 22 January 2023. See the  for details.

Studio West Now Introducing 2022
Studio West Now Introducing 2022

Congratulations to MA alumni Adam Boyd and Andras Nagy Sandor, and current graduate painting student Ross Head who have been shortlisted for . The exhibition opens on 11 November from 6pm at Studio West Gallery, 216 Kensington Park Road, London W11. The show will continue until 10 December 2022.

Interested in studying for an undergraduate degree in fine art? Join us on Tuesday 15 November 2022, 2:00 - 3:00pm, for an in person question and answer session with Slade tutors and students. Places are limited, 

The event will take place at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.

Slade Graduate Programme Q&A online: Wednesday 7 December 2022 . We have two sessions, 10-11am and 4-5pm (GMT). This live online Q&A event is an opportunity to ask a panel of Slade graduate tutors and students about our MA/MFA programme. See our MA/MFA degree page for more information.

 53°44 07.95  N 2°12 10.84 W (Deerplay Hill)
 53°44 07.95  N 2°12 10.84 W (Deerplay Hill), Onya McCausland, 2018, earth pigment in oil on canvas, 152cm x 182cm,

©the artist

Onya McCausland is showing in Expanding Landscapes: Painting After Land Art, curated by Rebecca Partridge and Joy Sleeman at Hestercombe Gallery, from 12 November 2022 - 26 February 2023. The show also includes work by alumni Jessica Warboys and Damian Taylor. See the  for details.

Expanding Landscapes: Painting After Land Art brings together historical works by artists associated with Land Art, with contemporary artists who engage directly with landscape through the language of painting. Works by artists associated with Land Art including Nancy Holt, Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Smithson, Richard Long, Michelle Stuart, Roger Ackling and Marie Yates, are on show alongside contemporary works by painters Hannah Brown, Sam Douglas, Onya McCausland, Rebecca Partridge, Damian Taylor, Fred Sorrell and Jessica Warboys. Prints from Ingrid Pollard’s Landscape Trauma series mediate between the contemporary and historical aspects of the exhibition. The exhibition explores the romantic motifs of earth, sea and sky through a variety of materials and processes, including the physical experience of landscape as a creative act in itself. Sharing a concern for the vulnerability of nature and the importance of our attention to it, for materiality and the record of time, for all these artists and their predecessors the experience of being in the landscape is at the heart of the work.