New artwork on display at University exhibition

A free art exhibition will be held at the University of Reading’s School of Art from 10-13 September.

Including sculpture, installation, printmaking and other media, the artwork is the culmination of work by full-time and part-time MA Fine Art students, alongside a PhD research exhibition.

Entitled Thresholds, the exhibition explores change and transformation in all its forms - between people, materials, technologies and cultures. Visitors can wander through works that capture moments of passage between physical, emotional and social states, from a behind-the-scenes journey through a data centre to a pair of ghostly oxen.

Everyone is welcome to join the opening drinks reception on Thursday 10 September, 4pm – 8pm at the School of Art, Pepper Lane, RG6 6PU.

The exhibition then continues on the following dates and times:

• Friday 11 September, 10am – 6pm
• Saturday 12 September, 10am – 6pm
• Sunday 13 September, 10am – 4pm

Featuring MA Fine Art students Amal Aljaber, Caitlin Croft, Chantal Ferrer, Julia Hopkinson, Dima Husein, Mark Lumsden, Birhanu Manaye and Yujie Xing, alongside PhD researchers Emma Tabor and Dana Tsarfaty, the exhibition is curated by Emily Butler, Lecturer in MA Fine Art at the University of Reading.

Emily Butler, PHD Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Reading School of Art, said: "The show is titled Thresholds because it marks a moment of significant transition, the MA Fine Art students at the University of Reading are graduating and moving into the next stage of their practices.

"As a curator, I'm interested in art's capacity to transform, to translate an artist's ideas into a shared space, and to invite audiences to experience the world differently. Thresholds is an exhibition about being on the cusp of change." 

Birhanu Manaye, MA Fine Art student, said: "Studying the MA Fine Art at Reading has been a transformative experience for my practice. Coming from Ethiopia to study in the UK, the course gave me the space to develop my ideas through research, critical discussion, experimentation and making.

"Putting the final show together was particularly special because it was the moment when months of thinking, making and long hours in the studio finally came together. Seeing the work alongside my fellow artists made the process feel tangible and gave me a different perspective on how the work could be experienced by an audience."

Dr Annabel Frearson, Director of Postgraduate Studies in Art at the University of Reading, said: "These bold projects speak emphatically to our MA artists’ distinctive artistic positions, national and international experiences, and outlooks on the world that the MA Fine Art programme seeks to cultivate, with care and skill and joy."