The Future is Today Prints and the University of Warwick, 1965 to now
16th January, 2025 – 9th March, 2025
Mead Gallery
Warwick Arts Centre
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
The University of Warwick celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of its founding with The Future Is Today – a major survey exhibition staged in the University’s Mead Gallery dedicated to the enduring power of print printmaking, The Future Is Today finds inspiration in Joesph Beuys’ statement which reflects the founding aspirations of the university, “prints are ideas in circulation”.
The artists presented in The Future Is Today are: The Atlas Group, Polly Apfelbaum, Fiona Banner, Peter Blake, Sonia Boyce, Leonie Bradley, Christian Noelle Charles, Tracey Emin, Ruth Ewan, Ellen Gallagher, Richard Hamilton, Lubaina Himid, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Yinka Ilori, R.B Kitaj, Lakwena, Liliane Lijn, Julian Opie, Ciara Phillips, Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, Robert Rauschenberg, Eric Ravilious, Paula Rego, Larry Rivers, Dieter Roth, Ed Ruscha, Ben Sanderson, Khadije Saye, Shanzhai Lyric, Yinka Shonibare, George Shaw, Sin Wai Kin, Emma Stibbon, Graham Sutherland, Joe Tilson, Mark Wallinger, Andy Warhol, Jeremy Wood and Lu Williams.
Image courtesy of University of Warwick
The University of Warwick was founded during a time of confidence in further education in the UK which saw the establishment of seven new campus universities. It was intended that this new, socially diverse generation of students would not simply acquire knowledge but would create new ideas for a modern world. All seven universities founded collections of modern art to reinforce this idea and prints were an ideal way to acquire works by both young and established artists – a commitment Warwick maintains to this day. Almost half of Warwick’s collection are prints and many of the works in this exhibitionare from that collection, as well as loans from public and privately held collections.
Image courtesy of University of Warwick
The Future is Today demonstratesthe power and immense versatility of print as a medium, exploring themes including identity, social justice and the environment – and how the practice of print making has radically evolved; from traditional techniques like woodcut and lithography to newer innovations including silkscreen and digital reproduction.
Printmaking now can combine a spectrum of materials and even 3-dimensional techniques; Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe (2004-2005) is a grid of 60 prints which include etching, screenprint and lithograph and materials including plasticine, velvet and toy eyeballs, whilst Sin Wai Kin’s The Universe’s being dreaming (2023)is created from makeup on a facial wipe. The exhibition includes work from artists working at the Centre for Print Research at the University of the West of England.
Image courtesy of University of Warwick
Prints and posters are also one of the most democratic of art forms, often used by artists as vehicles for protest or bold expressions of societal change. Here, this can be seen in works including David Hockney’s Cavafy Suite (1966), which celebrates gay love, during a time when open homosexuality was still illegal in the UK – or Lu Williams series, Grrrl zine (2015) which explores the artist’s life as a working-class, queer and neurodivergent artist. Ruth Ewan’s work, Protest, uses installation, writing and performance in combination with printmaking to address ideas of power, rebellion and repression.
The Future is Today Prints and the University of Warwick, 1965 to now opens on the 16th of January, 2025 until the 9th of March, 2025 at Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre
©2024 University of Warwick
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