LONDON.- Goldsmiths alumni Pearce & Ramsey exhibit a showcase of the best graduate talent across the UK. Twenty years on from Freeze, the exhibition that launched the YBAs, Pearce & Ramsey place themselves firmly as the successors of the DIY generation.
Best in Show is the culmination of Pearce & Ramsey’s trawls across the United Kingdom to survey the graduate shows of summer 2008. After visiting scores of shows including institutions in Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, their travels will conclude with an exhibition of 19 emerging artists from across the country working in a range of disciplines such as sculpture, painting and installation, whose practices reflect both curators’ personal preferences for humorous, process obsessed and provocative work.
Exhibiting at the John Jones Project Space provides an opportunity for Pearce & Ramsey to collaborate with some of the best in emerging graduate talent in an atmosphere free from institutional constraint, giving the artists involved the opportunity to forge new networks and - for many - act as their first foray into exhibitions post degree.
Pearce & Ramsey commented “On the twentieth anniversary of Freeze, arguably the first professional student show, it is impossible to ignore how important the 'do it yourself' ethos of Hirst et al has been in influencing the artists and curators of today. Freeze captured the zeitgeist of the 1980s and its legacy still hangs in the rafters of Britain's art schools. Best in Show is an opportunity to see how far the art produced by a new generation has changed.”
Acting as a census for this year’s art graduates, ‘Best in Show’ will also feature a series of performance pieces and a panel led discussion surrounding the nature of art education today.
Matt Roberts, freelance curator and Chair of Matt Roberts Arts said: “In 2008 there will be more BA and MA visual arts students graduating from British Colleges than ever before. Without a visible support network in which they can continue to function as practitioners, it is a crucial time to question the methodology and purpose of current arts education. In this field Pearce & Ramsey have led the way, […]to better engage with the highest quality of work being produced. […]Pearce and Ramsey are one of a small number of London-based groups actively pursuing an understanding of this evolving geography.”
Featured artists: Keith Allan, Tom Badley, Elia Cantori, Louise Chang, Ruth Angel Edwards, Daniel Ford, Malcolm Gauldie, Charl Jourdain Heynike, Charlie Hood, Dominque Humphrey, Catherine Hyland, Richard John Jones, Gwenda Thompson Marchesi, Sharon McPhee, Ollie Murray, Matthew Musgrave, Liam Richardson, Giles Ripley, Joanne Smithers.
