A'four Art Exhibition

From March 18th until 14th May 2023, four students who are currently studying in their third year BA Fine Art from UHI Shetland are exhibiting their most recent work at the Bonhoga Gallery.

This exhibition is undertaken as part of the Professional Practice module which gives students the valuable shared experience of curating an exhibition of their own artworks.

The exhibition title is a'four. It brings together the work of four fine art students whilst playing on the word ‘afore’ in preparation for their final Degree Show next year. The group have been working together over the last few weeks to create a variety of artworks including 3D installations, landscape watercolours and acrylics, figurative and abstract oil paintings, prints, and digital moving image performance.

The students are Yolanda Bruce, Katie Leask, Keith Massey and Lucy Wheeler.

Yolanda Bruce is a mixed media artist who is currently working on a self-portrait series inspired by life changing experiences. Yolanda came to Shetland to teach maths at Sandwick Junior High School, after twelve years working as a maths teacher she decided to finally take the plunge and pursue her childhood dream to study fine art full-time with UHI Shetland in 2020. 

Katie Leask’s work has a focus on ‘home’, She draws inspiration from the things, people and places that are closest to her. Katie works mostly in oil paint and she enjoys focussing on a moment or memory and preserving it, extending it’s time.

Katie commented “Whilst it is a slightly daunting experience, it is a privilege to be able to exhibit in the beautiful space at Bonhoga at this stage in the degree.

The current practice for Keith Massey’s work is focused on his return to Shetland and the impact of nostalgia combined with the desire to immerse himself into the environment through a performance piece. Keith works with different mediums including oil paints and clay as well as imagery.

Finally, Lucy Wheeler uses the Shetland Landscape at the heart of her creative practice. She takes inspiration from the coastal environment and the dramatic weather that we have here in Shetland. Lucy responds to the landscape through various mediums, predominantly painting and print. She uses mainly acrylic and watercolour for her paintings and copper plate etchings and screen-printing onto paper and fabric. 

Paul Bloomer, Site Leader of the BA (Hons) Fine Art at UHI Shetland said: “Third year on the BA (hons) Fine Art Programme at UHI Shetland is a period of intense reflection in a quest to find a personal creative voice. Experimentation is vital in exploring new avenues and ideas which are pulled together and refined in a public exhibition. The four students represented in this show are all forging individual artistic identities exploring themes such as cosmology, the timelessness of a moment, the mood of the Shetland landscape and an excavation of personal roots through the prism of memory. We are delighted to bring the work of these upcoming and unique artists into the public eye.”