Graduate Show celebrates fresh creative spirits

Thousands of captivating pieces of work – which explore new possibilities for the disciplines of Art, Design, Music and Architecture & Landscape Architecture – will be on show from Friday 2 June to Sunday 11 June.

Eye-popping installations

Among the eye-popping installations are three giant cartoonish heads suspended from the ceiling, a large-scale draped map of the geological fault that separates the Highlands and the Lowlands of Scotland, and a striking black sculpture of volcanic rocks.

The ten-day exhibition is taking place at the Main Building of Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) at Lauriston Place.

The Graduate Show website will also share the students’ artworks and portfolios, with over 6000 works on the online hub made available for a global audience.

Creative disciplines

The Show reflects the spectrum of training in creative disciplines on offer across ECA, including painting and drawing, sculpture and installation, architectural planning and modelling, animation and digital visualisation, musical composition and performance, film, photography, textiles, jewellery and interior design.

The annual event offers the public a window into ECA’s culture of celebrating and cultivating students’ creativity and fresh perspectives.  

This year’s portfolios draw on a range of influences and themes, including solutions for sustainable design, fashions of the future, and art and design in a digital world.

The visual feast includes Big Heads! Get Bigger an installation of three heads by Niamh Layson; The Highland Boundary Fault, by studio group Critical Zones present a delicate printed geological tapestry of draped maps and Amorphous by Angeni Perez-Jamieson, a meditation on the dramatic black volcanic landscapes of Iceland.

Other works to look out for include Dan Anderson’s architecture project developed with fellow students Toby Eccleston and Peter Brewser imagining an ancient Spanish plaza, which had an underground car park and office complex imposed on it 20 years ago, being returned to its former use.

Also from Architecture, Michael Becker’s thoughtful portfolio project considers the accessibility of timber construction and the potential of the building site as a place of change in the city.

In Fine Art, Tabi Hull’s elaborate acrylic lace sculptures examine the material’s modern decorative implications against a backdrop of its historical presentation in Royal Courts.

Design portfolios

Millie George’s Interior Design portfolio is an imagined re-use of the Infirmary Street baths in Edinburgh, transforming it into City Pride, a social and exhibition space for the LGBTQIA community.  

Lucia Sheppard’s Intermedia project, Saudade: an untranslatable yearning, contrasts the strength of steel with the vulnerability of glass-blown footprints to project a surreal set suspended in time. 

Also from Intermedia is Callum Watt’s enquiry into the sculptural qualities of languages expressed through a combination of physical and digital works and still and moving images.

In Jewellery and Silversmithing Louisa Thomson’s powerful designs are influenced by the camaraderie of the 'Herring Lasses' who travelled Scotland's East coast gutting, salting and packing fish in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Creative works

Tilly Rigby’s Landscape Architecture project, Nuclear Legacies, traces the complexities of managing nuclear waste and proposes solutions such as deep geological disposal and dynamic soil construction. 

From Music, Oskar Jones moving compositions explore humanity's relationship with the natural environment through four sonic soundscapes from a hypothetical future.

Painter Remi Jablecki creates abstract works inspired by gardening, Polish heritage, and queer bodies to represent fragilities, difficulties, and the dependencies of life.

Elsewhere Performance Costume student Ryan Dai’s creation, Mid-World dancer, is inspired by Surrealist artists and the fictitious art of Patrick Danville, a character in Stephen King's Dark Tower.

From Product Design Maddie Haye’s work tackles aging and isolation by creating an inspired collection of soothing objects that explore breath and comfort.

Billy Brown’s eye-popping sculpture focuses on the hutting community in Scotland, a traditional, off-grid style of living that emerged between the two world wars. It uses sustainable materials including industrial hemp in keeping with the philosophy of the original hut dwellers.

Clementine Murdoch’s knitted, dyed and printed textile collection use responsibility sourced materials to portray the impact that climate change is having on the architectural heritage of Edinburgh.

Key events during the Graduate Show

The ECA Graduate Show 2023 will be open Friday 2 June to Sunday 11 June, 10am to 4pm, with late night opening until 8pm on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 June.

Entry to the Graduate Show is free. Booking is advised, but walk-ins are welcome.

As well as hosting a captivating array of exhibits at ECA’s Main Building, the Graduate Show also features a series of events, including screenings, concerts and live performances.

• A live music concert at the historic Reid Concert Hall will air works by graduating students from the School of Music on Wednesday, 7 June.
• The Wee Red bar, part of the Lauriston Campus, will also be hosting two gigs from the music students on Thursday 7 June and Friday 8 June.
• Magnificent designs from ECA fashion students will take centre stage at three catwalk shows at Edinburgh’s St James Quarter on Friday 9 June.
• The electrifying ECA Fashions Shows – tickets for which are available to buy via Eventbrite – will feature 17 collections.
• The St James Quarter-based cinema, The Everyman, is hosting a celebration of the ECA Animation Students with a screening and drinks reception on Tuesday 6 June.  
• An ECA Undergraduate Open Day on Monday 5 June will offer prospective students a programme of talks and tours, and the opportunity to see ECA at its best during the Graduate Show.

Booking for all ECA events 

Graduate Show website 

Edinburgh College of Art website