FBA Futures 2017

Interesting exhibition at the Mall Galleries of recent work by art graduates chosen by members of the Federation of British Artists.

This show had a very similar premise to the Bloomberg Contemporaries next door at the ICA but was a completely different show. This one concentrated on ideas of representation and draftsmanship rather than ideas.

Like next door there were still quite a lot of bad paintings but there was also some lovely work. I liked Felix Higham’s expressive figure groups and the anomalies in them like the outline of bottle floating on a bar. I also liked Conor Murgartoyd’s still lives in interiors. James Rogers take on Caravaggio’s Narcissus was interesting pairing a picture with a 3D printed sculpture.

My favourite work was a stunning still life of surgeons instruments laid out in an operating theatre pictured from above by Inez-Hermione Mulford. It was larger than life and hyper real with modern Dutch Golden Age feel to. I’m not sure I could live with it but it would look amazing in a university or

Closes on 20 January 2017

 

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