Platform Graduate Award 2022

Discover some of the most exciting emerging artists in the South East with this year’s Platform Graduate Award exhibitions.

The Platform Graduate Award celebrates new artistic talent from across the South East, with exhibitions across six regional galleries, including Modern Art Oxford. Over three consecutive solo exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford, explore work by graduate artists Lydia Freeman (University of Reading), Kyra-Sky Foster (Oxford Brookes University) and Liz Davies (Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford). Find out more about the artists below.

Lydia Freeman: Whambots (University of Reading) | 22 September – 2 October

Lydia Freeman’s sculptures take the form of ambiguous, bulbous plaster shapes, balanced by and fused with metal frames and discarded objects. As they move, these non-human forms have the potential to be perceived as alive, as strange pseudo-bodies. The juxtaposition of hard and soft bodies recall childhood memories of workshops and hospitals: the metal components of cars splayed out around their empty shells; the image of green stomach bile in a flaccid, clear bag, and the delicate sag of skin pinned together with giant staples. The intention of Whambots (2022) is to stimulate an emotional or physical reaction, a tingling under the skin.

Kyra-Sky Foster: Black Hole as Metaphor (Oxford Brookes University) | 6 – 16 October

Kyra-Sky is a multidisciplinary artist currently investigating the connections between the astronomical phenomenon of the black hole and the black experience. Kyra’s work hinges on ideas of displacement, ancestral threads, and metaphor, through the use of poetry, film, installation and digital space. The work is intimate, drawing on the artist’s own history, and using personal objects to express the gravity of the concept. Through the thinking, making and sharing of this work Kyra is able to revisit and explore the familial stories and connections that are woven into the larger narrative, allowing space for some kind of metaphysical and aesthetic release.

Liz Davies: Every day I put on my silly little outfits and do my silly little tasks (Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford) | 20-30 October

Liz Davies is a spore. She scavenges hordes of objects and materials from the woods, from skips, unwilling housemates, and the discount bins in charity shops. She combines the bucolic and the industrial, un-carefully considering the flux between object and story. Finding joy in disappointment, she celebrates uselessness over utility, and silliness over substance. Her work considers crappy makeovers, y2k, Yassification and excess. She is the opposite of Marie Kondo. She disperses objects/artworks slowly and steadily, resulting in at least 5 yearly emails regarding blocked fire exits and mouldy bread.