Gray’s Degree Show Hits Close to Home
Final year art students share thoughtful, humorous and powerful work across many disciplines.
Gray’s Degree Show 2025 marks the end of years of hard, often very personal work. Each space has been shaped by a person who pushed themselves to figure out what matters to them, and how to express it. What you see isn’t simply the final result; it’s everything they’ve wrestled with to get there.
The show turns Gray’s School of Art into a huge pop-up gallery. There’s painting, photography, textiles, sculpture, sound, video, design and everything in between. And what stands out isn’t just the variety, but the emotion. Some work is joyful, some is angry, some is quietly sad. Most of it is a mix. It’s not about chasing perfection. It’s about pushing ideas, testing limits and producing work that’s thoughtful, skilled and often surprising.
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I’m not an art expert, I’m just a fan. I know what I like when I feel it. These are some pieces I enjoyed on the opening night. I’m drawn to photography, sculpture and fine art. You might be drawn to different work, and that’s part of what makes the show so cool.
Memory and care
Much of this year’s show feels like it’s about memory, connection and care. That might not be the plan, but walking through the spaces, you notice how often people are thinking about home, family, or small personal rituals.
Sarah Bremner’s printed fabrics draw on her grandfather’s Doric poetry, bringing local language and memory into the room through stitched and printed lines. Miguel Dizon layers lace, piña fibre and photographs to reflect on Filipino heritage and family identity. Lara Stewart’s hand-drawn tartans act like a visual diary, each square capturing a memory, feeling or moment from her past year. Keira Cormack’s illuminated sculptures, shaped like oversized matryoshka dolls, suggest stories and meaning nested within each layer.
There’s a similar mood in Arabella Joy Sciallo’s clay forms, each shaped through breath and voice. Her work invites a kind of listening, a quiet awareness of time passing. Evie Gray’s life-sized banners show subtle gestures that feel like fragments of a moment, stretched out for us to notice. Mairi Blair’s paintings of figures in motion reflect on vulnerability, strength and the in-between spaces we live through. And Alix McFadyean’s small, carefully painted magpies sit in neat rows, each one a study in pause and attention, almost like stills from a longer story.
Bold voices
After all that quiet reflection, some works hit you differently. They grab you straight away. Erin McKay’s space juxtaposes cartoonish paintings against harsh, bloody photos. Megan Thompson turns fruit into something more provocative, but with a wink and a grin. Jodie Barr reworks familiar signage into urgent messages about domestic abuse. Hollie Stitt paints a cigarette with such precision that it becomes strange and almost comic.
These pieces aren’t trying to be polite. They challenge you. But they also show humour, honesty and a strong point of view.
Work that connects
A few projects stretch beyond the gallery. Innes Gregory shares the story of a public mural trail celebrating Denis Law, made with the community in Printfield. Jacob Adair blends fashion photography, music visuals and sports branding in a way that feels confident yet personal.
Maryanne Chapman’s black and white portraits are made in collaboration with people who are exploring their experiences of mental health. These works remind you that art isn’t always made alone. Sometimes it’s shared, shaped by others. By real-life conversations.
Past, future and imagined spaces
Some artists seem to be imagining what’s lost or what might still be possible. Lisa Caddell’s installation brings together natural materials and delicate forms to reflect on loss, possibly environmental. Kiera Walsh’s sculpture mixes bold colours and textures that suggest coral, fungi or even something stranger. Saffron Cunningham paints haunting staircases swallowed by plants and shadow, like memories of places that never fully existed.
Even the smaller pieces have a sense of story. Nicole Mackintosh paints strange family scenes with glowing light. Matthew Urquhart’s tiny model houses are like stage sets from a mysterious drama. Ellie-Jane Ritchie’s sea-inspired installation hangs with translucent images and strings of beads, gently shifting with the air. The effect is quiet and meditative, encouraging you to slow down and get closer.
Worth slowing down for
This year’s show doesn’t shout at you. It earns your attention. That might be what makes it so compelling. The work doesn’t feel overproduced or distant. Much of it resists easy summary. But if you give it time, you begin to sense the care behind it. There’s no single message or manifesto, just a shared commitment to noticing things and finding ways to share them.
Gray’s School of Art Degree Show 2025 runs until 15 June, open weekdays 10am to 8pm and weekends 10am to 5pm. It’s free, it’s local, and a lot of the work is for sale.
It’s worth going because it offers a glimpse into the ideas and stories young artists in Aberdeen are choosing to share. Even if you don’t usually go to art shows, there’s likely something here that will catch your interest and stay with you.
