Postgraduate artists at Brighton explore memory, identity and healing in MA Show

The university’s annual MA Show is returning with a new generation of artists, photographers, designers and illustrators whose work tackles some of today's most personal and pressing questions through their creative practices. They are pushing the boundaries of contemporary practice while exploring issues ranging from cultural identity and recovery to memory, participation and human connection.

Running from 5–12 July, the exhibition at the university’s City campus, Grand Parade building, is the installation part of the annual Summer Shows programme where students completing master's degrees across Fine Art, Photography and Sequential Design/Illustration present their final projects.

Among this year’s exhibitors is Angus Greenhalgh, whose work took on new meaning following a cancer diagnosis during the first year of his MA studies, leading him to create deeply personal work examining illness, healing and the emotional impact of life's unexpected disruptions. His immersive installations combine sound, obsolete technologies and interactive sculpture to explore recovery, trauma and resilience.

Angus Greenhalgh

Ma Yiming

Angus who is studying MA Fine Art, said: “When I started the MA, I wanted to explore the relationship between sound, technology and installation, but a cancer diagnosis during my first year completely changed both my life and my practice. It forced me to confront experiences of vulnerability, recovery and uncertainty, and gradually my work became much more personal and emotionally honest.

“The course gave me the confidence to stop hiding behind ideas and instead use my own experiences as the starting point for creating work that invites reflection and conversation. Completing this degree feels especially meaningful because it has allowed me to finish something I first began more than two decades ago, while discovering a much deeper understanding of why I make art and what I hope it can offer other people.”

Also exhibiting is Ma Yiming, another MA Fine Art student whose large-scale abstract paintings draw on the traditions of Chinese bird-and-flower painting while reinterpreting them through a contemporary artistic language developed during her studies in Brighton. Originally trained in traditional Chinese painting, Ma combines expressive brushwork with found materials collected around the university to create richly layered works inspired by nature, experimentation and cultural exchange.

Ma Yiming said: “Coming to Brighton allowed me to challenge everything I knew about making art. While my practice remains rooted in traditional Chinese painting, studying here has given me the freedom to experiment, take risks and develop my own visual language. Working with found materials alongside paint has encouraged me to embrace uncertainty and discover new possibilities in the creative process.

“Living and studying in Brighton has also been a journey of personal growth. Being immersed in such a diverse and supportive artistic community has helped me become more independent, more confident and more open to different perspectives. I hope visitors to the exhibition will see how my work creates a dialogue between tradition and contemporary practice, and reflects the way different cultures, experiences and ways of seeing can come together through art.”

Professor Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Dean of the School of Art and Media, said: “The MA Show demonstrates the extraordinary role that postgraduate study can play in helping artists develop not only technical excellence but the confidence to ask difficult questions and create work with real cultural impact.

"Across the exhibition, our students explore themes that resonate far beyond the gallery, from identity, memory and cultural heritage to recovery, participation and belonging. Their work reflects the curiosity, courage and creativity that define Brighton's artistic community, and we're proud to celebrate the next stage of their creative journeys.”

The exhibition represents the culmination of intensive practice-led research undertaken across the university's postgraduate programmes. Visitors can expect installations, painting, photography, illustration, graphic design and multimedia works that demonstrate how contemporary art can challenge assumptions, spark conversation and offer new ways of understanding ourselves and the world around us.

The MA Show is free and open to the public from Saturday 5 July until Saturday 12 July at the university's Grand Parade building in the heart of Brighton.

Staff related to this story

Professor Tamar Jeffers McDonald

Dean – School of Art and Media

Centre for Design History, Material History Research Excellence Group