Northumbria students 'remember' and 'create' next generation artwork

Two stunning new exhibitions by Northumbria BxNU Master of Fine Art (MFA) students have launched at BALTIC 39 in Newcastle.

I Remember Most What Never Happened is currently on display at the city cenre gallery and brings together work by 10 artists graduating from Northumbria this summer. The BxNU MFA is a unique two-year course, run by Northumbria in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and based in the vibrant studio culture at BALTIC 39 on High Bridge, Newcastle.

This year, the graduating artists have made work that ranges and shifts across performance, video, photography, sculpture, installation and intervention. The exhibition utilises the project space on the top floor of BALTIC 39, which provides an ideal platform for their ideas to unfold, with artwork also spilling out into the public spaces of the building.

Northumbria Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Sandra Johnston, who teaches on the BxNU MFA, said: “Throughout the programme, the artists are encouraged to self-direct a rich spectrum of experimentation, guided by their own curiosity and interests. A distinctive feature of the course is how these individual trajectories then also coalesce into collective exhibition making – a process that is simultaneously demanding, enlivening and revealing.

“I Remember Most What Never Happened, conceived by the third graduating cohort of the BxNU MFA, proposes a zeitgeist born of indulgence, suggestion, and invention.”

Meanwhile on the first floor at BALTIC 39, the mid-point exhibition by the first year BxNU MFA students is also on display. In Games We Create Worlds highlights the choreography of objects, and the ways in which control is suggested through the construction of space.

Sandra added: “In Games We Create Worlds marks the mid-point of the BxNU MFA programme where the artists bring the diverse trajectories of their individual practices together to present a collective exhibition; it is a pivotal point in the course, where the experimentation and exploration of the first year of study tips towards the potential of new directions to come.”

A collaboration between BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Northumbria, the BxNU Master of Fine Art degree is unique for its innovative approach and the high-level professional and creative environment the students experience.  Based in the vibrant studio culture of BALTIC 39 in the centre of Newcastle, the students follow their own personal research interests whilst also working collectively to produce a professional exhibition on graduation.  The course is one of the key elements of Northumbria’s successful strategic partnership with BALTIC.

I Remember Most What Never Happened and In Games We Create Worlds run from 31 May-18 June 2017 with a preview night on 8 June. The exhibitions form part of REVEAL 2017, Northumbria’s annual celebration of its creative courses, including Architecture, Art, Design and Media. Northumbria has been rated as having one of the best Art and Design programmes in the world in recent QS World University rankings. To find out more about studying art at Northumbria come along to our upcoming Open Days on 30 June and 1 July. Click here for details. For more information about the BxNU MFA visit: www.baltic39.com/mfa