This snapshot exhibition is artist-led, with Slade students reflecting on how their art school’s past and its present could inform its future. Students on programmes from BA to PhD level, across all artistic disciplines, explore ideas of tradition and heritage, and ask how new generations can challenge and disrupt these.

Many of the featured artists have taken inspiration from the Slade’s relationship with UCL, London and beyond. The exhibition showcases the Slade’s distinctive methods of teaching and researching, with students developing their own practice in dialogue with histories and theories of art, UCL’s teaching collections, its architecture, and each other’s practice.

The exhibition features work by Slade students: Lícia Santos; Moza Al Mazrouei and Hampus Hoh; Egidija Čiricaitė; Yīfán Hé and Murtaza Zaidi; Sophie Lourdes Knight; Emily Mannion; Robert Mead; Katie Mess and Niki Kohandel; Abi Ola; Korallia Stergides; and Latifah A. Stranack.

It is part of a programme of events marking the Slade’s 150th birthday, including a parallel exhibition Testing Ground at the UCL Art Museum.

Slade 150: Past, Present, Future has been created through collaboration between students and staff at the Slade School of Fine Art, museum curators and significant contributions from many others at UCL.

Exhibition team

Slade core curatorial team: Rebecca Loweth, Sharon Morris, Jayne Parker, Kieren Reed, Joy Sleeman, Estelle Thompson, Jo Volley

Exhibition curator: Nina Pearlman, Head of UCL Art Collections

Project team (external): Veronica Dominiak, project manager; Victoria Kingston, interpretation consultant

With production and financial support from UCL Culture curatorial, collections and exhibitions teams and the Slade School of Fine Art.

Private View Video

Curators, Staff and Students from the Slade offered a virtual Private View for the Knowledge Quarter on 9 March 2022, showcasing their current artist-led exhibition SLADE 150: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE. Students on programmes from BA to PhD level, across all artistic disciplines, explore ideas of tradition and heritage, and ask how new generations can challenge and disrupt these.

The Private View also showcased the Testing Ground exhibition at the UCL Art Museum, and Print Pals: Then and Now – a print collaboration between the Slade and the National College of the Arts (NCA) in Lahore, Pakistan.

See the video of the Private View on YouTube.