Era Journal was pleased to present ERA 2022, a group exhibition showcasing the work of twenty-seven UCL artists, on display at the Crypt Gallery from 31 January to 1 February.
Era Journal’s online platform and biannual print editions showcase the talent of UCL’s students through articles, creative writing and artwork submissions. ERA 2022 enables these artworks to be engaged with in person, exhibiting a diverse line up of emerging artists, all of whom currently study at the Slade School of Fine Art, the Bartlett School of Architecture, and various other academic departments within UCL. We were very excited to return to the Crypt Gallery, where we hosted our annual exhibitions in 2019 and 2020, and to host our first exhibition under our new name.Â
ERA 2022 featured a range of exciting media, from painting to digital art, installation to performance, all of which tackle increasingly relevant contemporary themes. Cataña Arango’s Temezcal installation explores Latinx identity in the United Kingdom, questioning how this is lived and transformed through voluntary displacement. Isidore Bishop-Sauve’s painting, Rhubarb, draws on art historical references such as Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy and Van Gogh’s peasants, utilising these visual references to encourage a more respectful relationship to the land. Izzy Titherington’s Believe in you @ plays with media, consisting of a photograph of one of the artist’s paintings printed onto synthetic fabric, exploring the boundaries between the physical and digital realm. Selena Scott’s No Spirit, No Song is a work based on the myth of Tantalus, aiming to generate discourse surrounding the systemic inequalities keeping positive progression out of reach.Â
Our private view featured a number of live performances: ambient noise musician Alex Baine created abstract noise, working with his guitar in unexpected and untraditional ways; performance artist Poor Mother will showcased Slippery When Wet, an ambitious text piece leading the spectator through the experience of swimming in an abandoned pool; singer-songwriter Mia Elisabeth performed an acoustic set.Â
A full list of artists is as follows: Ada Bond, Castaña Arango, Cherry Song, Claire Scandella, Eric Feitoza, Fei Li, Georgia Jones, Hal Lewis, Isidore Bishop-Sauve, Izzy Titherington, Jess Young, Jione Choi, Juan Cantu, Junyi Lu, Laura Dethloff, Leo Fox, Lydia Merrett, Marcos Wolodarsky Newhall, Mila Sarabhai, Okiki Akinfe, Saskia Colwell, Scott Brown, Selena Scott, Stela Kostomaj, Teed Lomardi, Yeon Ju.
Curated by Will Ferreira Dyke and Emily Pujol Manca.
Installation photographs taken by Richard Hardy. Photographs of the private view taken by Kimi Zarate Smith. Poster designed by Stela Kostomaj.
