City & Guilds Foundation Show 2025
Foundation art shows can be a tricky viewing. You have to remind yourself that the work on display isn’t just an early attempt to explore artistic voice, it’s also the output of mostly young individuals still growing and maturing into their adult personas. It’s a clash that often becomes evident in political or social commentary works, and usually any video.
Sometimes it’s just easier to assess the work by separately evaluating the execution from the message, but that approach can too easily lead to being distracted by booths that shout the loudest.
Did I get stuck in that trap? Here’s seven things that kept my attention as I worked my way anti-clockwise around the show.
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1 - Isabella Dennison (@isisabellasart) — made a giant monster head that could be used in theatre or film productions. Yes, costumes are art, and the installed wall is a powerful welcome to the show.
2 - Thomas Chorley (@thomas_chorley_artist) — monochromatic old-timey style paintings that are accomplished and eye-catching, although I can’t shake the feeling that the diptych scene on display is Harry Potter fan art.
3 - Fiona McHugh (@fiona.mchugh) — street scenes etched into curved golden mirrors are beautifully frustrating to study in bright sunlight.
4 - Kubra Aliyeva (@kubraa_art) — the abstract light tower looks like a stack of jellyfish, but reading that it’s inspired by the first Azerbaijani women's newspaper, published in 1911, made me even more curious.
5 - Ariana Budge (@ariana_budge) — the Victorian settings and a glitched-out heroine made my brain start spiralling into creative storytelling.
6 - Beth Lewis (@bethdoesartinnit) — one or two of the self-doubting, insecurity messages would have been twee. Hundreds of them, literally falling off the wall, makes for an unsettling and unhinged view.
7 - Fin Coble (No IG listed) — I almost walked right past the sculpted relief of a fox, disappearing into the wall like a fossil in quicksand. Then I gazed into its eye and saw the carnage inside.
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Plan your visit
‘Foundation Show 2025’ runs 14-17 May, 2025.
Entry is via the Kennings Way entrance on 100 Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4EF. Access to the show is via two flights of stairs.
Visit cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk and follow @cglartschool on Instagram for more info.
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