BA Fine Art showcase
Our BA Fine Art students 2024-25
See a showcase of some of Newcastle University's BA Fine Art students and recent graduates, and hear what they have to say about their work
You can see more examples of our students' work and more on our Instagram page
Abi Kidd
The majority of my practice takes influence from video game and otaku culture and media. Having a lifelong love of all things cute plays into my work massively, is the taste of strawberries dipped in chocolate to your liking or do you have a toothache?
I love to use digital art to connect with the niches of fandom spaces on the internet, creating work that speaks to these communities and celebrates their individual and my own unique ‘cutesy’ fixations
Abigail Leach
My work delves into themes of time, memory, and temporality, with a particular focus on flowers and their role in both environmental art and artistic engagement. Flowers have been central to my practice, rooted in childhood memories of my grandparents’ garden, where vibrant colours and blooming petals shaped my deep connection to them. Through my art, I’m aiming to imbue flowers with their own power beyond human perception. By engaging with flowers as symbols of beauty, death, and fleeting moments, I invite viewers to experience their presence in new and meaningful ways.
Amelie Nicholson
My practice is an exploration of memory and place through abstract painting. I place a strong focus on the making process, capturing sensory experiences as a way of
reflecting on my understanding of my native Teesside.
I record journeys with quick sketches, then translate them into paintings on soft, translucent fabrics. I infuse memories into the fibre through pouring and layering washes, creating a sense of motion and ephemerality. The process is cathartic, and feels like an energy transfer from experience to sketchbook to painting.
I am interested in the distance created by abstraction, and how that distance affects our understanding of place. This idea runs throughout my research, where critical distance allows me to assess social and political context. With a greater sense of perspective, the notion of place is able to be transitory, fluctuating and fragmented.
This attitude is reflected in both the painting process and the compositions of my work. The surfaces of my paintings are often fractured by visible seams in the fabric,
echoing the pages of my sketchbooks and hinting at the underlying links to contextual source materials.
Bella Benson
Among many things in the urban environment, I am drawn to disrupted advertisements: glitches in digital screens, shop assistants dressing mannequins or torn hoardings that reveal posters underneath.
They interfere with our expectation of what we should be seeing. It is these moments, of humour, beauty or repulsion, moments where I double take, that I am interested in revisiting in the studio.
Cassia Thynne
My practice is a visual mind map of emotion. a form of free therapy. Colour and natures forms has always driven my work. Music is what drives me through each piece I make. Reacting to the feeling it provokes in the moment.
I’ve been building an immersive world—allowing people to step into my inner landscape. For my degree show, I plan to exhibit over 40+ large-scale works. Together, they form a visual diary of my emotional shifts
Each piece reflects the mood or mindset I was in at the time of making. When works feature delicate lines and layered patterns, they often stem from a place of anxiousness or overthinking—moments where I used the process to escape that mindset.
In contrast, bold colours and expressive strokes often come from moments of happiness, stability and excitement. Colour is a vital part of my language—sometimes tied directly to emotion, other times chosen purely by instinct.
This body of work explores themes of loss, separation, stress, happiness, loneliness, anger, frustration, anxiety, and love. It’s honest, raw, and made to be felt.
Catherine Lingward-Ward
My practice creates a world of entangled narratives that, together, form a personal cosmology through painting. Each painting invites the viewer to notice the smaller details, encouraging a slow and careful engagement with the body of work.
In this way, dualities and contradictions naturally arise, and the paintings gain more conceptual depth when experienced together than when seen in isolation.
The figures within the paintings are ambiguous in their identity, fading between ideals of passivity and power. They shift through archetypes and draw on references to mythology, literature, and the canon of art history.
Restaged and reinterpreted, these figures exist in a landscape of uncertainty and ecological instability, reflecting our present moment in the world and the concerns we carry. I look to the past and the conception of nature once embodied here, considering how these stories can help us better understand ourselves, our place within the surrounding ecological web, and what this can teach us about protecting the environment.
Charlotte Payne
A core focus in my practice is using symbolism and innuendo within images associated with food and the body, often sampling the strange and absurd from
social and art history.
I explore these ideas primarily through drawing, writing, printmaking, and occasionally 3d animation. I enjoy how food opens up avenues for so many lines of interrogation: as a sensory experience, in the ways food and sexuality are often linked, its impact on both domestic and global food production and its relationship to social and cultural values.
I try to engage with these ideas in a more playful way, giving my work a sense of interconnectedness- different Perspectives on similar themes.
Connie Gaunt
My work draws upon my personal experiences as a young woman, exploring the unease and vulnerability women often face in both public and private spaces. By facilitating community workshops and discussions, I aim to create spaces that encourage critical reflection and foster connections through shared stories.
I have been developing a community textile of the people I have these conversations with, which I hope to expand throughout my degree show. Some of my own work stems from these dialogues, which aims to serve as a catalyst for further discussion even in my absence. I invite viewers to reflect on societal structures, the power of linguistics and connect with personal stories.
Edie Zand Goodarzi
I am an action painter who explores abstraction, working discursively and intuitively. I have been exploring repetition in my work, based in nature and the landscape. I enjoy the meditative process of painting and try to transport the view into the journey of the push/pull process of making images.
Edith Owen
Specialising in portraiture with a focus on humour and human experience, my work constantly challenges me and the role of comedy in Fine Art. Using phrases and wordplay as a jumping off point for my paintings I find great joy in creating each new piece.
For the last 4 years I have been consumed with certain fictional characters such as Grindah, People Just Do Nothing, and David Brent, The Office, for their laughable self perception. It is this level of fantasy and self image which I aim to reflect through my Artist Persona. A kitten loving, self idolising, obsessive.
Eleanor Palmer
Very simply said, I’m obsessed with beauty. I want to find and express the things that I find beautiful in the world around me, whilst having a fascination with the history and processes found within traditional crafts such as wood carving and ceramics.
Currently this has manifested through an exploration into oysters: Inspired by childhood holidays on the coast and beach-combing trips, I’ve been examining how the apparently hard-edged objects are actually a collection of sinuous water shaped curved, weaving in and out of themselves as a group of oysters fight to grow and take space.
The shells are marks of a life lived on a completely different realm to ours, a history ok the beach that occurs beyond our knowledge. The only way that we are impartial to any of it is to find the skeletons on the beach of an untold and unknowable story.
Emma Williams
“But what if the images made by others of their experiences relate to and conjure our own
photographs and experiences, even to such a degree that in their photographed lives we see
our own?”
Katherine A Bussard
Time has always hung heavy on my mind, and attempts to translate my life into tangible and protectable things have been constant.
My work has repeatedly, in one way or another, been fuelled by this desire, desperation even, to preserve. But what becomes of these artefacts of my life once time inevitably catches up?
Where do these glimpses into my dearest moments and memories go? What story do they tell when no one is left to speak it? I hold these questions dearly as I look at memory, mortality and vernacular photography.
Faye Magkanari
I like to recreate things that already exist to question their integrity when removed from their contextualised environment and perhaps be shown to a new audience. My main interests are ceramics, casting, and metal work.
The work often brings together sculptural and architectural elements, reflecting an interest in structure, weight, and form.
Through this approach, they create objects and installations that carry traces of time, touch, and construction, often referencing symbolic forms.
Finn Johnson
I work in an open-ended process, layering and scraping back the surface of my paintings, letting chance work with intent, falling in and out of control. I’m searching for an abrasive quality yet still capable of the utmost delicacy, in hopes the paint takes on the role of flesh and becomes the sign of life.
The impasto lends to the tangible and the dissolved paint channels the ghostlike. Through dissolving dimensional boundaries, I aim to lead the viewer into a dreamlike world where the familiar is made strange, and then familiar once again.
This fragmentation of representation is set to challenge traditional notions of beauty and wholeness, these fluctuations are the most honest reflection of life.
Each painting and ceramic, through glazing, has been a number of others in their creation, traces from every stage remain in the final image, the
abstract marks converge into warped figurations imbued with mystery.
Freya Beetham
As we grow up our imagination becomes confined to the realms of reality, being able to distinguish what is real and what isn’t.
I often yearn for this time as a child where my imagination felt limitless and would be completely enthralled by fairy tales and stories.
I try to channel this within my work creating my own world of characters and creatures, something I frequently did as a child.
At times I use these creatures as an allegory for the mixed feelings of growing up.
Giacomo Reynaud
My art originates from inner visions accessed through altered states of consciousness and perception—creatures, patterns, and surreal landscapes emerge during synesthetic experiences, meditations, or hypnagogia, the transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep - which is currently my primary source of inspiration.
The deep senses of transcendence and childlike wonder I experience when in contact with the unconscious mind compel me to materialise its mystical, playful, and seductive imagery into art. The more I engage with this realm, the more it offers in return, creating a mutually nurturing cycle between imagination and creation.
Through the immersive environment my works are placed in, I hope to induce viewers into altered states in which they can intuitively interpret my inner
worlds. I hope to intrigue them into seeking encounters with their own unconscious, tune in, play with, and learn from the magical phenomena of the mind, and question the threshold between reality and imagination
Grace Cruttenden
My work focuses on the corporeality of the human body and its strange status as both subject and object; spectator and spectated.
Inspired by both my experience in the dissection room at Newcastle University and research into the power dynamics of artistic representations of the body, I began working with scanography to explore these ideas further.
Whilst the scanner allows for interesting distortions and colour gradients, it also highlights the voyeuristic ‘fourth wall’ of the image-world which I am keen to explore.
Heather Crowte
As a multimedia installation artist, Heather explores the world of reflection and introspection around the journey of grieving. She contextually investigates the Victorian memorialisation practice of ‘Hairwork’ and its meditative crafting power to emotionally process the loss of loved ones.
The human ear is a common symbolism that appears in her work, she considers it as a mythic object. Mirroring a shell, it never rests, gathering echoes of wisdom from its surroundings.
The visual passage of time is witnessed in its unique ridges and contours, passed down from parent to child.
Although it listens to so many voices, it never truly knows its own
Holly Dooley
My work primarily focuses on words. I like words and rabbits. The words I use in my work come from experiences I have had like relationships, conversations at work, things like that.
I’m interested in how different mediums change words and how they are interpreted. I look at size, material and repetition. Rabbits pop up a lot in my practice too.
The rabbits are there to kind of represent me as the artist. My works quite personal, so I think these rabbits are a way of creating a conversation between me and the viewer.
My works almost a visual diary and often delves into manifestation, love , lust and anger. I also like to just keep things fun. Print, textile, beading and photography are currently my main mediums to work with.
Ivy Phillips
My practice explores the fluid relationship between human personality and animalistic form, allowing each to reflect and inform the other.
Through printmaking, I experiment with repetition and distortion to reframe everyday materials—particularly those considered disposable, such as Post-it notes—imbuing them with a new sense of permanence and value.
Playfulness is central to my approach, as I navigate personal connections with specific shapes and creatures. These recurring motifs serve as emotional anchors, transforming the familiar into something intimate, uncanny, and enduring.
Jemima Anderson
I am a painter whose practice involves capturing fond memories and spaces using collage and drawing.
Keys themes include friendship, storytelling and student life. I think as my work as a timeline of different moments in my life.
Some of the images are dreamlike as they are slightly distorted and show interesting perspectives. Drawing and collage is a huge part of my practice a quick way to be playful with compositions, experimenting with scale, orientation and colour.
I enjoy working in contemporary colours using oil and acrylic.
Kitty Sharp
My sculptural work investigates the ways sound can be used for heightened inter-personal connection and awareness. I believe now more than ever, we need to reimagine the ways we inhabit spaces and interact with each other in order to enhance human connection.
As part of my degree show, I’ll be displaying my instruments ‘Horn’ and ‘Sonic Seesaw’ in the Boiler House for public engagement.
In ‘Listening as Activism’, 2016, Pauline Oliveros stated: ‘Listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening’. At the heart of my practice is the communal spirit and ethos of Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations which is always relevant in my work.
Lauren Driver
My work explores living internationally and growing up trying to understand concepts of heritage, family, and what it means to love from a distance.
I’ve spent the last year looking through love letters and archive material left behind by my grandparents, learning about their life and love. This work embodies everything I love about that love (and lots and lots of blue).
Lizy Lazyrus
My current practice plays with the idea of mapping and imprinting; the visceral impressions our bodies leave and where they take us.
This manifests in large-scale drawings and figurative prints made with graphite, oil and charcoal, along with photography which documents this performance-art style of working.
My work considers physiology and physicality, and how the body holds memory in fascial layers beneath the skin – how we hold on to trauma and how we let it go
Lottie Simpson
Where there is a hum of the bees
And spines unfurl
Creations emerge from the belly of the earth
My practice questions how we can listen deeply to and learn from the more than human world. I often grow and manipulate organic and bio-materials into sculptures activated by sound or worn in performance.
Lucy Bennett
Lucy isn’t a doctor, but she is insatiably curious about your medical history. have you had a terrible time at the doctors? have you had a great time, or an embarrassing moment? Lucy has probably made art about it.
She thinks we should all talk more about the fact that all of us will have a stranger look at our bits at some point in our lives. It might help you feel less embarrassed about that funky rash you don’t want to tell anyone about – we all have one, I promise you. It might help you feel less scared asking for help.
Lydia Hamilton
Exploring the interplay between absence and presence has been at the core of my process.
I habitually draw inspiration from peripheral spaces such as abandoned industrial landscapes, forgotten attics, and an ever-growing collection of broken appliances (my landlord has moved to the Philippines)
Max Bryg
I explore the human experience of labour through the lens of labour and what products it creates, positive or negative. I encourage people to look at my work and take a step back from the fast paced and instant gratification orientated society we partake in.
My inspiration comes from personal experience, medical textbooks and ritual behaviour.
Megan John
As a multidisciplinary filmmaker, I create hybrid documentaries that explore women’s experiences both historically and in the present day.
My work focuses on uncovering women’s stories within the music industry and looking at how these narratives are shaped by culture and history.
Storytelling is at the heart of my practice, connecting my interest in folklore with an understanding of contemporary women’s lives.
Molly Andrews
I'm a painter who investigates how we perceive the everyday and what “home” means to an individual, whilst reflecting on my own familiar spaces.
Using acrylic paint as my primary medium, I explore themes of identity and its relationship to the concept of the home.
Throughout my work, I experiment with perspective, challenging our understanding of the painting before us. The work pays close attention to intricate details, taking inspiration from textures and patterns that surround us.
Nada Ibrahim
My work explores cultural displacement and identity through immersive installations incorporating mixed media, photography, sculpture, and archival materials. I navigate the narratives of diaspora-based communities, particularly in relation to Palestine, reflecting on the complexities of existing between cultures and the struggle for representation. Through honest and vulnerable portrayals, my work examines the shifting sense of self that emerges from uprooted-ness, with a focus on the lived realities of displacement.
Her practice has evolved into sculptural pieces that act as artefacts of a fading heritage, responding to the generational loss of culture among immigrant families, who have experienced forced migration.
Using nostalgia-driven iconography, she highlights the tensions of identity, the lasting impact of dispossession, and the gradual erosion of language, heritage, and traditions under colonisation. Her work offers a deeply personal yet universally resonant reflection on the Palestinian experience and broader themes of exile and belonging.
Nancy Andrews
My work revolves around obsession, desire and consumption. I am interested in contradictions such as the beautiful and grotesque, pleasure and revulsion and the natural and artificial.
This year my fixation has been on slugs, their under appreciated beauty and capacity for responses of revulsion.
I explore my own capacity for obsession as well as obsession in broader social contexts such as fashion, media and advertising.
Phoebe Longstaff
My performance “Hungry Ghost Heartbreak” will be an experimental play, inspired by Japanese Kabuki theatre. The play is a love story set during a festival for hungry ghosts, and touches on themes of identity, desire, and nature. It will mix dramatic performance with dance, an absurd pop concert with the bone-chilling screams of a haunted house; a heavily stylised and glamorous performance, with richly decorated costumes.
It involves four characters, who are all ghosts and who are named for the four humours (from the medieval system of medicine): Black Bile, Blood, Yellow Bile, and Phlegm. The story follows the hungry ghosts as they navigate their undead love-lives and search for a meal to allay their boundless desire with.
Audiences will watch as the play moves through seasons, through history, through extreme bodily states, and in and out of rhyming verse. The play will be set to an atmospheric electronic soundtrack made live by Galen C & Matilda von Trapp
Richy Blake
The urban landscape is a focus in a lot of my recent work. I use a mixture of painting techniques whilst obstructing views through his use of raw and rough materials. I hope to bring intrigue to the mundane.
My work has a strong connection to memories and how these can be portrayed in different ways to the viewer.
Having previously covered topics from my past about violence/domestic violence, being brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness and the effects of all this on
mental health; I hope to continue covering these topics in a more nuanced way.
Sarah Cleever-Thorpe
Sara’s work explores loss, nostalgia and domesticity through filmmaking. The ambiguous nature of her films leave space for the viewer to form their own interpretation and personal connection with these universal themes.
Found family footage, such as cine film from the 1960s/70s and camcorder footage from the early 2000s, is frequently combined with recent video to construct an ambiguous amalgamation of visuals.
Shula Rush Glew
Welcome to the society that exists inside my brain.
As someone who finds it difficult to express thoughts and feelings in words, I take subconscious emotions experienced both in the ‘waking world’ and the ‘dreaming world’ and transform them into beings, which I make tangible by turning them into sculptures, and then throw them back into their own narrative through paintings that combine elements of the nightmarish surreal with elements of ‘reality’.
It is up to the viewer to determine what may be real and what may not...
Stella Green
I work across painting, printmaking, objects and sculpture. Through these different forms, I explore abstraction and play with its parameters - flatness and form, object and image, chance and construct, the visible and the hidden.
I use humble materials and put together fragile structures - through these gestures, I hope to stage a surprising encounter for the viewer.
Tyne Greatrex
I'm a digital artist and Internet denizen, who’s art tackles the positive and negative impacts of the Web on the human mind. I pinball between digital prints and online installations, often eschewing the traditional gallery format.
In my spare time, I'm the clown behind PlanetClown, an online store specialising in quirky and brightly coloured stickers for quirky, bright people. I also do frequent collaborations with other members of @stodge.jpeg
