Currently, five Royal College of Art (Hattie Malcomson, Sean Davidson, Tobias Francis, Jan Valik and Imi Williams) and two Royal Drawing School (Nancy Martin and Lilith Piper) MA students are showing with New Blood Art. Of particular note are Nancy and Lilith’s full scholarships, as is the case with the school’s Drawing Year. The two art schools are synonymous with outstanding art education, having produced some of the country’s most well-known artists, from David Hockney to Tracey Emin. Anyone who has recently attended an exhibition at one of London’s public or private spaces will have likely, witting or unwitting, come across the work of graduates from these two schools. Indeed, such is their influence that there’s a good chance you’ll see their work further afield, both nationally and internationally. As such, and in celebration of their achievements, we have put together a collection of their available work.
Though the work is varied, common themes and threads run between the works. A pairing can be made when looking at Malcomson and Williams, one abstract and the other figurative, there is plenty of commonality. In both, vibrant colour and voluminous brushstrokes create curved lines, inviting us to enter the pictorial space and celebrate its bodily forms. Similarly, a collage-like sensibility runs through Davidson and Francis’ work. For both, people and things come together in strange ways. The painting is always a space of ambiguity and happening, somewhere where stories are constructed and put together, taped or tacked in place with meaning never entirely fixed. Lastly, a deftness of touch typifies Valik and Martin’s work, a few knowing gestures sufficient to make or change the meaning. As a group, these artists offer an opening to contemporary painting discourse, each is one to watch for the future.