Highs For Your Eyes

Lobster by Ellie Tzoni.

The illustration on display at the Kingston graduate show, sales Highs For Your Eyes, sick was of an overwhelmingly high standard, cheapest so much so that I’m going to split this into two blog posts – Upstairs and Downstairs. Plus then of course there’s the animation to consider…

Kingston Illustration and Animation students chose to show their degree work in a gallery space behind the Foundry (now closed, RIP) which shares the same idiosyncratic characteristics of the old bar space. The best of the installation set pieces were shown in the upstairs rooms and downstairs a cavernous space was filled with a plethora of artwork. At the back a rickety industrial belt vanished up into the bowels of the building.

Ellie Tzoni‘s work was the first that I saw as I entered the show. She plays with strong iconographic screen printed shapes and words to create graphic designs. I really liked her deceptively simple pieces, which reduce seafood to the simplest of shapes and textures.

Jason Munro showed a host of curious globular animals in scrumptious colours, some of which formed letters and numbers. I absolutely adore his very unique style.

Eve Lloyd Knight specialises in a kind of abstract surrealism that involves tiny figures scaling huge neon brick blocks. Curious animals and evocative words also feature in her work.

In the next room Tom Clohosy Cole had put together an extraordinary installation to showcase his insurance based final piece. Sounds boring, but was anything but that. Are You Covered? asked a suspiciously wonky sign on top of a carefully constructed plywood booth. He explored the imagery of accidents such as falling down sinkholes, gas poisoning, car crashes, falling and even the results of nuclear fallout. A billboard declared that You are at Risk from the Eight Perils. All of it was rendered in a simplified screenprinted colour palette of raspberry red and layers of berry blue. I was quick to take my very own insurance hand out, stacked at the side of his stand.

Next door Abigail Read‘s work featured diagrammatic layering of shapes and lettering and a carefully made 3D pop out book on a stand that took my breath away. Her delicate bike collages were framed so that they seemed to pop out in motion, with shadows behind.

At the back Henry Wood had grabbed some space on a flat surface to showcase his wonderful sculptures of… wood. Sadly the website given on his business card does not work, but you can try him here on this website.

Hey Gyeong Jang has only the most minimal of blogs, which is a shame as I struggled to take photos of her artwork through thick panes of glass. Absolutely loved the anthropomorphic watercolour foxes, squirrels and owls that populate her landscapes. I apologise about those pesky reflections.

Patricia Voskova works mainly in black to create simple shapes and textures that tell a story. I loved the people tramping up and down an endless staircase in her showcase book.

Jack Hughes created a Tender Buttons juke box and piano stand in response to a brief put together by Diesel for the D&AD student awards. He has a very special way of putting colour together. I also picked out this book cover from his website.

Sam Falconer‘s work dwells in the land of fairy tales and children’s stories. His enormously fun collages feature curious people and animated buildings. Through copious use of a mild grey tone they manage to be both bright and subtle at the same time.

Next door Sarah Maycock had pinned a giant friendly bear to the wall and beneath this she had piled up some limited edition screenprints on newspaper of an equally lovely fox. There were none left when I came back upstairs later but she kindly gave me a print made on much better quality paper. He’s a winner I’m sure you will agree!

I also liked the watecolour buildings and books next door to Sarah’s work, which was the work of Nina Cosford.

Emily Rudd had appropriated the staircase with a series of bold monochrome screenprints on newspaper inspired by a book written by Albert Camus. I can’t get her website to work but you can follow her on twitter.

I hope that I’ve got everything right in this round up – it was incredibly hard to match business cards to my photos when I got home. Note to future graduates: it’s so much better to have a clear name on a wall next to your work. Now I’ve just got to tell you about the stuff downstairs…and the animation…

Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday June 17th, 2011 11:45 am

Categories ,2011, ,Abigail Read, ,Albert Camus, ,animals, ,animation, ,Are You Covered?, ,D&AD, ,Ellie Tzoni, ,Emily Rudd, ,Eve Lloyd Knight, ,Foundry, ,Graduate Show, ,Henry Wood, ,Hey Gyeong Jang, ,Highs For Your Eyes, ,illustration, ,Jack Hughes, ,Jason Munro, ,Kingston University, ,Nina Cosford, ,Patricia Voskova, ,Red Gallery, ,Sam Falconer, ,Sarah Maycock, ,screenprinting, ,Sculptures, ,shoreditch, ,Tender Buttons, ,Tom Clohosy Cole, ,watercolour

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