Highbury art students showcase work at Portsmouth gallery in ‘confidence boosting’ experience

Art & design students at Highbury College, part of City of Portsmouth College, have been exploring how humans live in the real and digital realms with an exhibition at the Aspex Gallery.

Their exhibition is their personal and creative responses to Keiken’s Player of Cosmic Realms. Artist collective Keiken’s interactive installation contemplates the future of gaming environments and human relationships through CGI film and hands-on experiences.

First-year art student Amy Dawe said: ‘This exhibition is very motivating and gives you a lot of confidence. It’s exciting because you get to see their reaction, and it’s nice to see a fresh set of eyes on your work.’

As well as the student exhibition, Aspex Gallery also supported the students with a masterclass on marketing and promoting their work before their exhibition.

Fellow student Harry Crump, who created two screen print non-fungible tokens (NFTs), said: ‘They’re NFTs but I wanted them to have a handheld feel to it.

‘It’s been a good experience overall. It gives you the opportunity to hang a piece in an art gallery, which you normally wouldn’t get the opportunity to do at our age.’

The students, based at Highbury Campus, created a range of pieces, including screen-printing, sculptures, video art and more.

Exhibiting three paintings side by side, Morgan Pople said: ‘I feel like this gets you out of your comfort zone, and it’s a good move to take if you’re shy about your artwork.

‘My work is about emotions and associated colour psychology. There are a lot of different colours because I wanted to show there are a lot of overwhelming emotions – whether positive or negative.’

Learning programme lead for Aspex Gallery Harriet Carr said: ‘The exhibition is a really impressive showcase of the wide range of creative skills that the students have and the hard work they have put into the unit.

‘It’s a great mixture of fun pieces that reflect the students' personalities and interests, but also delves into some really important and sensitive themes, which we are glad to be able to give a platform to.

The exhibition of the students’ work will run alongside the main exhibition until Sunday.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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