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Finding talent on UAL Showcase: Norman Rea Gallery

A photograph of 3 curators installing an artwork
  • Written byRachel Segal Hamilton
  • Published date 08 October 2024
A photograph of 3 curators installing an artwork
Installing UAL graduate Lucy Chapman's work for the Norman Rea Gallery Perceiving Nature exhibition

Norman Rea Gallery events organiser Ella Sparrowhawk used to spend hours trawling social media for graduate artists to exhibit – until she discovered UAL Showcase. Here, she tells us how she found a wealth of talented emerging artists to show through the platform.

Norman Rea Gallery is the UK’s only student-run gallery. Since the 1970s, generations of students at the University of York have gained hands-on experience in curating, events and business before launching art world careers. But as York doesn’t offer any creative degree courses, they have always looked beyond their own campus for artists to exhibit.

Art History graduate and former Norman Rea committee member Ella Sparrowhawk used to spend hours on Instagram hunting for artists, direct messaging them and often not hearing back. Once a colleague pointed her in the direction of UAL Showcase, this task became a breeze.

2 curators installing work at Norman Rea gallery
The Norman Rea team installing the ArtSpeak exhibition

“It was really easy to use,” remembers Ella, who worked with 10 UAL graduate artists she’d found through Showcase during her 2 years at the gallery, featuring them in group shows such as Cache Money, which considered the societal impact of emerging digital technologies, and  ArtSpeak, exploring the relationship between art and language.

“When the committee picked an exhibition theme, we would pull together a list of keywords that indicated how we intended to approach it,” she explains. For example, the keywords for 2023’s Perceiving Nature exhibition included ‘folklore’, ‘whimsical’ and ‘fairytale’ to reflect a take on nature that was less about traditional landscape and more about spirituality.

One of the artists chosen was 2023 Central Saint Martins MA Art and Science graduate Lucy Chapman, whose life-sized installation Forever is Composed of Nows portrays a kelp forest in watery blue cyanotype, a historic photographic process.  “Lucy’s work was so different. It really stood out. It wasn’t just another print on a wall.”

A photograph of an artwork by UAL graduate Dio Dunbar
Install of artwork by UAL graduate Dio Dunbar

Compared to social media and other university websites, the platform felt “curated and inviting” says Ella, providing instant access to a directory of relevant projects, complete with contact details. “If I found an artist whose work I loved, I could then look at the bottom of their profile at the related projects and themes and discover even more.” In addition to fitting thematically, the quality of artists’ work was an important deciding factor.

“I like the way profiles are structured, with the final work and artist statement but also space to read about the process behind it. That sums it up nicely, helping us make a quick judgement.”

When selecting artists for 2023 show queer!, Ella was struck by the paintings of 2022 Camberwell College of Art Foundation Diploma graduate Dio Dunbar. "We wanted to celebrate queer diversity and queerness in its many forms. Dio’s work fitted these criteria perfectly as it explores the narrative of Black queerness through striking use of colour and texture,” she says, adding, “Dio was such a joy to work with.”

Though Ella has now moved on, the current team at Norman Rea Gallery continue to use Showcase regularly. “I would definitely recommend it,” she concludes. “If you’re looking for work on a specific idea or theme, it’s great for finding what you’re after. Even if you’re slightly tech phobic like me!”