Alter/Altar

28 Jan-5 Feb 2023

Overview

Alter/Altar presents works by the graduating students of Camberwell College BA Painting degree at the Southwark Park Galleries in January and February of 2023. Over one hundred emerging artists will participate in this two-week exhibition, which takes place simultaneously at the Lake Gallery and the Dilston Gallery, both of which are located in the heart of Southwark Park.

PT1: 28–29 JANUARY // PT2: 4–5 FEBRUARY 2023 

Painting is the primary interest of this year’s art graduates. For this exhibition, however, students have chosen to employ a wide spectrum of art practice forms. On display will be drawings, paintings, textiles, hangings, and multi-media installations, as well as a range of contemporary and traditional themes. In these depictions, young people’s struggles are prominently discussed, particularly in relation to how identity is formed within a 21st century culture of media and environmental concerns. With pressures that stern from this, as well as interruptions and anxieties caused by the pandemic during the students’ time at art school, many works stand as expressions of hope and encouragement, showing evidence of presence and stillness in uncertainty. Also featured are juxtapositions of danger and beauty in nature, along with topics such as gender, myth-making, the surreal, and the existential. As graduating students, they explore what it means to be an artist in today’s climate and approach these themes with unwavering confidence.