The annual showcase for students completing their degree studies in Art and Design and Fine Art at the University of Leeds, the Friends of University Art and Music Graduate Art Prize Exhibition, returns to The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery from Wednesday 16 September.
While each of the four selected artists works in diverse practices across a variety of media, they share an interest in how our relationships with the world around us are mediated by technology or human intervention.
Laura Gooch’s innovative practice focuses on “collaborating” with living materials, most recently growing mycelium in denim fibres to produce sculptures.
With an installation in the form of a hybrid bird hide inspired by the nests of the weaver bird, Marcus Hills explores how AI might enable the translation of birdsong into music.
Inspired by her urban surroundings, Izzy Cheyne Jones incorporates reclaimed windows or meticulous constructions in glass, steel and other industrial materials in her installations.
And with a striking sensitivity towards the unusual materials and processes that she uses, Melissa Nesbitt works with personal family archives, photographs and written records to reflect on loss, grief and memory.
Main image: Melissa Nesbitt’s I hope you fall through 2026 © The artist Photograph by Jules Lister.
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/events/event/1900/galleries/1067/exhibition-opening-fuam-2026
The Friends of University Art and Music Graduate Art Prize 2026
Wednesday 16 September – 19 December 2026
The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds Exhibition
Laura Gooch (BA Art and Design)
Marcus Hills (BA Art and Design)
Izzy Cheyne Jones (BA Fine Art and Cultural Studies)
Melissa Nesbitt (BA Fine Art)
