Free Range at Old Truman Brewery

Anyone who has tried to break into the creative arts sector will be more than happy – perhaps not happy – to tell you how difficult it can be for even the most talented of creative minds to get themselves noticed and establish themselves in what is quite possibly one of the most cut-throat industries out there.

Thankfully, for the last 11 years, Tamsin O’Hanlon has been providing new creative graduates with a unique opportunity to showcase their work to an international level through Free Range, a celebration of the best in graduate art talent.

Located at the Old Truman Brewery, in the centre of east London’s ever burgeoning art scene, Free Range has become a one stop shop for industry bosses, art lovers and curators alike to be amongst the first to spot emerging creative talent and the latest trends.

In an eight-week free showcase of new British art and design talent, open until 25 July, Free Range is the UK’s largest art and design graduate talent exhibition, exhibiting work from over 45 universities and has earned its reputation as the authoritative identifier of tomorrow’s talent.

Forget the stuffy art fair, populated by drones of people filing around sterile white partitions – with Free Range, you find an encouraging and frankly exciting experience, as you find yourself surrounded by eager young talent who could soon rival some of the greats. The annual exhibitions covering everything from fashion design and art to photography and interior design boast thousands of art works from British graduates brought together in a show which would make even the most established of artists sweat at the competition.

Until 27 June, Free Range focuses on the best of photographic talent with exhibitions including Barefaced from Roehampton University, XV from Nottingham Trent and Nine Lives from students at New College, Swindon. With such a diverse range of styles from fashion and advertising to the more conceptual, the photography strand is most certainly a highlight of this years’ show.

For the second year, Free Range are collaborating with D&AD in their annual ‘New Blood’ exhibition (Friday 1 to Monday 4 July) selecting the best graduates in graphic design, visual communication, advertising, digital media, illustration, photography and other commercial creative arts.

Following the success of last year’s addition of a new category ‘Fashion & Design’, Free Range has once again adapted and expanded to accommodate the spreading talent of our creative youths and this year introduce their ‘Moving Image’ exhibition with Prime Cuts. Taking place from July 21 to 25, Prime Cuts is a non-profit organisation working to propel the UK’s moving image graduates into the industry by celebrating the work of over 100 students across various disciplines including production, costume design, animation, short films and documentaries.

Don’t miss your chance to say you saw them first – see the full exhibition list and view portfolios from across the sectors on the Free Range website.

Free Range Art & Design 2011 is open until July 25 at:

The Old Truman Brewery
91 – 95 Brick Lane
Shoreditch
E1 6QL

Image by Gill Food