Slade 150: Testing Ground

This exhibition is now closed for the summer break and will reopen on 27 September 2022.

To mark the occasion of its 150th anniversary, the Slade School of Fine Art takes over UCL Art Museum.

Through the medium of printmaking, Slade 150: Testing Ground celebrates all the artists who have contributed to the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL over its 150-year history.

A feature-wall is dedicated to ‘ThanksToEveryoneForEverything’, a specially produced time map of the names, in chronological order, of those who have studied or worked at the Slade since 1871. It captures important events and initiatives, including developments to the art school’s building. It is a record in progress and will be added to as more names and dates come to light.

Slade 150: Testing Ground also hosts ceiling-high displays of experimental test prints and plates, collaboratively made by students and staff exploring print processes in the Slade’s printmaking workshops over recent years.

These interventions bring to life the Slade’s renowned archive of alumni works and its teaching collection of old masters that inhabit UCL Art Museum’s cabinets. Curated displays will showcase historic student work from the Slade Print Collections, alongside video works, sound pieces and examples of printmaking tools and paraphernalia.  

In a space where past and present are in dialogue to evoke ideas of process, teaching and learning via mark-making, Slade 150: Testing Ground conveys the challenge, unpredictability, and excitement of artists encountering new situations, as well as the coming together of different outlooks and approaches between students and staff.

Slade 150: Testing Ground is a collaborative exhibition curated by Slade staff, with UCL Culture, to reflect upon and celebrate the Slade’s unfolding collective narrative during and beyond this milestone year.

It is part of a programme of events marking the Slade’s 150th birthday, including a parallel exhibition Slade 150: Past, Present, Future in the Octagon Gallery.

Find out more at www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/slade-150