Rigour, taking risks, and something to say – MA Fine Art Summer Show 2015 at Chelsea College of Arts, London

The final group exhibition from artists on the MA Fine Art course opens on 5 September 2015 at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Five post-graduate courses in all display a resolved body of work from the previous year, including: MA Fine Art, MA Graphic Design Communication, MA Interior & Spatial Design, MA Textile Design, and MA Curating & Collections. This must-see show from London’s newest group of makers and designers ends 10 September 2015.

Disciplined risk-taking pays big dividends

“Welcome to the Mud ride, enter at your own will” intones one work at this year’s MA Fine Art post-graduate show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. This MA show has to be one of the strongest from Chelsea in many years; from alter-egos to conceptual art, from painting and object-making and almost everything in between, there’s a real sense throughout the show of the pay-off that follows a year’s worth of disciplined risk-taking.

*Christopher Bagnell (detail), in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.*

Just over 100 artists have completed the year-long (or two years part-time) post-graduate course, culminating in Chelsea’s annual showcase that includes a wide range of art practice that is certainly not limited to painting, sculpture/object-making, and photography; visitors will get a real feel for global contemporary art practice here through the more recognisable-as-art pieces as well as immersive installations, video art, performance, sound, interactive artwork, and print/text-based art.

Kelise Franclemont (detail), in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Installation by Georgia Hollands and Justin Rang (detail) in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

A few of the artists have capitalised on other identities that manifest inside the artwork, and one artist has dispensed with usual methods of art-making altogether and has instead published an experimental contemporary art fiction novel titled, “Return of the Super Maria Sisters,” about “two female video game characters who were beat out by the Super Mario Bros in 1985“.

Ambika Subramaniam, 'Return of the Super Maria Sisters', 2015, book , in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Image courtesy the artist. — *Ambika Subramaniam, ‘Return of the Super Maria Sisters’, 2015, book , in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Image courtesy the artist.*

About the show itself? The MA Fine Art exhibition is spread across areas in four buildings and the Parade Ground, which could be seen as a number of “mini-shows”, each room/space highly considered and thoughtfully placed, with concern for “flow”, juxtaposition, aesthetics or other artistic concerns.

Rosemary Cronin (detail), in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Sarah Faulkner, in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Installation view with Scarlett Bow, Daniel Goodchild, and Marilyn Collins, in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Along with a refreshing variety of artworks, what’s also plain to see in this exhibition is the strength of the group as well as the individual artist, each with rigour, intentionality, and something to say.

Kaveh Ossia (detail) in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

James Pimperton and Andrew Rickett in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Stephen Hennessey (detail) in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Questioning, experimenting, challenging – that is what much of the artwork at Chelsea is about as these artists seek to enlarge their practice, and find innovation in expression or ways of working in a supportive and highly critical environment. A large number of international students join the Londoners to share diverse culture and experience. The traditional is complemented, rather than supplanted, by new media/technology or alternative display. And so on.

Installation view in D-Block, in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.

Throughout the course, students are encourage to question their practice, think critically, and some will look to answer, What is art? What does it mean to be an artist?

*Maria Jose Carvallo (detail) in the MA Fine Art 2015 Summer Show at Chelsea College of Arts, London. Photo credit Kelise Franclemont.*

Of course, the answer to that question is never intransigent or resolute, and perhaps right now, that is the only answer for those artists coming out of the MA Fine Art course today! Whether the artist’s intention is about process or politics, concept or creation, as part of the MA journey, each student was repeatedly admonished, in the words of course leader Brian Chalkley, to