Graduate Showcase 2022 | Finalists
Oct 6th 2022
Once again a massive thank you and well done to all the artists who were shortlisted for this year's graduate award. The quality of the work and range of expression was really felt by the selection panel. The team did have to make a decision however and would like to extend a huge congratulations to the artists who have been chosen for our Graduate Showcase 2022.
Graduate Showcase 2022 Finalists:
Kitty Glover
Kristina Merchant
Mia Takemoto
Charlott Rodgers
Emma Caldow
Freya Moran
Kitty Glover | Glasgow School of Art
Kitty Glover is a nonbinary twenty-something who’s unbridled enthusiasm for human and non-human life forms continues to bring immense joy - and distress - into their existence. They have recently graduated from Sculpture and Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art and are the winner of the GSA Sustainability prize.
Kitty Glover is a sculptor and draughtsperson. They use hand-textiles to create installations that combine community crafting, world building, and cheekiness. They explore interdependency within animal and textile ecosystems and are fascinated by visualising the idea of progress. Kitty currently runs and acts as a support artist in creative workshops with older people, and children.
Photo credit Jessica Wishart
Kristina Merchant | Glasgow School of Art
Kristina Merchant born 1995 in Edinburgh, Scotland, is an award-winning Scottish designer recently graduated from The Glasgow School of Art. Since studying Kristina is undertaking an Artist in Residence at The Glasgow School of Art. Her graduate collection Vision of Beauty involves carving amber and bone creating a narrative jewellery-mise-en-scène themed scour of the street.
Kristina Merchant creates conceptual and narrative-led artworks that engage the viewer in playful perceptions on material preciousness. Her graduate collection Vision of Beauty is a narrative jewellery-mise-en-scène themed scour of the street. These pieces are imbued with realism and materiality. The objects and jewellery pieces highlight a message on societal norms of littering single-use plastic and disregarded objects found along the cracks of the concrete pavement. From the most littered item on earth, the cigarette filter, to pavement pennies, these pieces aim to spark a conversation about what is considered precious material, but with a humorous intention.
Mia Takemoto | University of Edinburgh
Takemoto is a British-Japanese artist born in Australia. In 2022, Takemoto graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master’s in Fine Art and Art History. Takemoto’s graduate work was awarded First Place in the Astaire Art Prize. She is currently working and continuing her art practice in Himeji, Japan.
Takemoto is a painter who celebrates cultural hybridity and transnational movement. The artist’s ongoing Roots and Routes series examines the places she feels rooted in and the places she has routed through. Her movements through Scotland, Japan, England, Australia and Canada are captured in amalgamated yet fragmented landscapes, composed of her real and imagined memories. She works primarily in media that require hand-preparation, including egg tempera and sumi ink. The process of preparing the materials become as important as the painting itself.
Charlott Rodgers | Edinburgh College of Art
Charlott Rodgers is a glass and ceramic artist based in Glasgow. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany and moved to Glasgow in 1998 to study classical singing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RSC) and went on to complete her BA Musical Studies at the RSC. She subsequently trained as an Iyengar Yoga teacher and has been teaching since 2004. She completed a HNC in Applied Arts in 2010 at the City of Glasgow College followed by a HND in Silversmithing 2010-2012, a HND in Glass 2013-2015 and a HND in Applied Arts in 2019; all awarded by the City of Glasgow College. In 2021 she completed her MFA IN Glass at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. She is currently a full-time member of the Glasgow Ceramic Studios based at the WASP Studios in Glasgow and is hoping to continue her academic studies into Foam Glass with a PhD at Edinburgh College of Art starting in September 2022.
Emma Caldow | Gray's School of Art
Emma Caldow is a Scottish Artist, based in Achiltibuie and Aberdeen. Emma recently graduated with a BA Painting (1st Class) from Gray’s School of Art, where she was awarded the John Gray’s Legacy Award and George Davidson Trust Scholarship.
Emma seeks to dismantle and sustainably reassemble the ‘Image’ in Fine Art. She embraces Transdisciplinarity, working across Painting, Fine Art, Environmentalism and Material Science, to contemplate Landscape, the Anthropocene, and Sustainable Practice. Emma’s ongoing work, ‘The Anthroposcene’, explores the material potential of Shell and Seaweed within Fine Art Practise. By gathering matter from Scottish Beaches, Emma creates site responsive ‘Material Images’ of the Anthroposcenic Landscape. The ‘Material Images’ are inherently biodegradable and marine degradable and can be safely returned to the environment that they originate from.
