New exhibition run for - and by - UEL students

Three University of East London students will curate a new exhibition in East London later this month. Justine Hounam, Anne Isaksson and Jacqueline Rana, who are all studying for doctorates in fine art, will be showing work by a range of UEL PhD and MA students.  

The In Out exhibition will be held at a unit in Gerry Raffles Square in Stratford from 27 January to 25 February. The team behind In Out say it will examine the interplay between internal contemplation and external manifestation, inviting viewers to explore the dual nature of obscured, overlooked, and concealed aspects of the human experience, unearthing narratives often side-lined or buried within conventional historical accounts.  

The exhibition is co-curated with Hive, a group of artists, curators and cultural programmers who have organised a series of arts events across London since the organisation was founded in 2019. Alice Walters, the group’s arts and culture programmer welcomed the opportunity to work with artists from UEL and stressed that the show would benefit the community. She said, 

The social value work we hope to gain during this exhibition includes a cross-pollination of art through mentorship, the creation of new jobs and the promotion of both up-and-coming, and established artists in the borough."

Jacqueline Rana, one of the UEL doctoral students who will curate the exhibition, said working on the show had helped her think more broadly about her own creative practice. She praised the help she’d received from the University’s staff, “I’ve benefitted from the support of my supervisors Gary Doherty and Jill Daniels and our course leader, Karen Raney, who’ve helped progress my research through curatorial experience and the development of creative proposals which I consider important to my practice.”  

Justine Hounam, another of the student curators, echoed those words, saying her studies at UEL had helped her develop her creative vision. She said, “The course has been critical to my creative development, providing me with new opportunities, including this project working alongside Jac, Anne and Hive.”

The final student curating the show, Anne Isaksson, is a Swedish visual artist living and working in London whose filmmaking practice is primarily autobiographical. She sees the project with Hive as an opportunity to explore and develop her work on identity and bodily trauma. She said, “I am excited to be working with Jac and Justine, to build on work we have set out together in the past and grateful to my UEL supervisors, Jill Daniels and Claudia Brazzale for their support, as well as Hive.”