2020 seems to have emerged directly from an Octavia Butler novel, yielding more questions than answers, forcing us to look inward. While facing these questions, our graduates looked to their creativity for the answers. Discovering resilience, steadfastness, courage, strength, belief in one another and hope for a better world, their work is truly a reflection of the intense emotional, psychological and physical conditions laid before us.

Painting builds new worlds, traversing media and time. Complex, layered and multi-functional, it is visually seductive yet abhorrent, drawing its strength from our ancestral paths, existing in the present while providing a gateway to the future.

Our graduates confront a multitude of themes and concepts, from gender to (mis)representation, from climate change to materiality. They have built up and excavated surfaces, molded, stitched, embroidered, poured, cut and glued. Students who began the year making work in their studio were suddenly forced to stay home seeking out alternative ways of making. The work shown here is a reflection of now. We have the choice to meet ourselves where we are, face what has been revealed and use our “voices”. This is the moment to seek out the answers to those most difficult, pressing questions.

Alexandria Smith
Head of Programme

Instagram: @rca_painting
Study Painting at the RCA: rca.ac.uk/painting

Above image: Sae Yeoun Hwang, Peng Ting Painting, Acrylic on canvas, 208 x 37 cm, 2019 

"Peng ting is derived from a Jamaican word but in this case refers to the British slang which means a very attractive person."