Work by artists of the future goes on display at the Ruskin Degree Show 2025
The Ruskin School of Art is opening its doors to the public from Saturday 21 June to Wednesday 25 June for this year’s highly anticipated Degree Show of work by graduating students.
The Degree Show is an annual exhibition celebrating the creative and intellectual learning journey of graduating students.
TODAY WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY (2025), Mild Steel and Digital Print on Lining Paper, 26 × 22 x 3cm, by Shayna Fonseka
With previous alumni including artist Oscar-winning costume designer Holly Waddington, BAFTA-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin, and the Turner prize-winning artist, Elizabeth Price, the showcase offers a rare opportunity to engage with emerging contemporary artists at the start of their professional careers.
In this year’s showcase, 46 final-year students of the Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) and Master of Fine Art (MFA) courses will present their work featuring a diverse range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance.
Professor Ian Kiaer, Head of School and Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, said: "Three years of art school, where people have talked, learned, laughed, and argued—all the while trying to make things of significance, are now invited to exhibit together. Each student has had to find their own uneasy way; negotiating the stark, empty walls that first had welcomed them, finding the means to make their studio their own, developing initial concerns, dropping some, deepening others and encountering moments of crisis, impasse, uncertainty and doubt. This is to think and make art, to stay and engage with its difficulty, to talk with friends and peers, to critique and challenge, support, encourage and comfort, and to openly invite those same interrelations."
Jarad Jackson, a student on the BFA programme, said: “We are all very excited for our upcoming degree show and opportunity to exhibit our works together for the public. After three years of developing our individual practices together as a cohort, this moment has brought great anticipation yet a confidence in knowing how much we have learnt from and with each other.”
Shayna Fonseka, a student on the MFA programme, said: “This year has brought together a group of artists with a wide range of backgrounds and practices. It has been a fruitful period of learning and exchange, with the Ruskin, with undergraduates and DPhil students, and with one another. The pace of development has been intense, and we’re proud of how much we’ve grown in a short time. We’re now looking forward to sharing the results in a final show that promises to be an ambitious and thoughtful presentation of contemporary art.”
The Degree Show is free to attend and open to all at the Ruskin’s studios on Bullingdon Road in Oxford. No booking required.
Opening times:
Saturday 21 June - Sunday 22 June, 12-6pm
Monday 23 June - Wednesday 25 June, 12-5pm
Location
128 Bullingdon Road
Oxford
OX4 1QP
Accessibility information can be found here.
For more information, visit the Ruskin School of Art website.
