19th and 20th November 2016, 10am – 4pm
Preview: Friday 18th November 2016, 6-9pm

Craig Coulthard / Peter Donaldson / David Maclean

Abolish Trout is a group show of new work by three Scottish artists, all living and working in London. Originally graduating together from Edinburgh College of Art in 2002, these three friends present new work consisting of sculpture, ceramics, textiles and painting. Taking its title from a doctored piece of anti-immigrant graffiti; (originally reading ‘Polish Out’) Abolish Trout is an opportunity for the artists to exhibit their similarly subtle, humorous and thoughtful creative interventions to a new audience.

Craig Coulthard (b. Rinteln, West Germany, 1981) lives and works in London. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, and was a co-founder of The Embassy gallery in Edinburgh in 2003. His work has been exhibited at Atelier Hoherweg Dusseldorf, Ingleby Gallery Edinburgh, Camden Arts Centre London and Collective Edinburgh. Recent shows in include The Drummer & The Drone as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival and Generation:TG on the Travelling Gallery. In 2009 Coulthard was awarded the £460,000 Scottish Commission for Artists’ Taking the Lead, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. His work, Forest Pitch, completed in 2012, saw the construction of a full-size football pitch in the middle of a spruce forest. He also writes and records music as Randan Discotheque.

Peter Donaldson (b. Edinburgh, 1980) lives and works in London. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, and the Royal Academy Schools, where he is currently a sculpture tutor. He was recently selected for the East London Painting Prize and the ArtWorks Open. His work has been shown at TAP Southend; the Royal Academy of Arts; Modern Art Oxford; the ICA; Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo; and Museo Civico di Rovereto, Trento, Italy. He was awarded the Deutsche Bank Award for Fine Art in 2010.

David Maclean (b. Perth, 1980) lives and works in London. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art and in 2003 co-founded the Edinburgh gallery The Embassy. He moved to London to study at Chelsea College of Arts where he formed the music group Django Django in 2007. The band have gone on to record two albums, tour internationally, and in 2012 were nominated for the Mercury Music Award. Maclean often directs music videos and designs record sleeves for Django Django. Recently he has recorded an album with Damon Albarn’s Africa Express in Mali and this year worked on KT Tunstall’s latest album ‘Kin’. In 2014 he founded his own record label, Kick and Clap. He has recently collaborated with artists such as Haroon Mirza and George Henry Longly, and has scored music for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Film Four feature, Slow West.

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Exhibition Dates: 4th – 13th March 2016
Open daily, 12-6pm
Preview: Friday 4th March, 6.30-9pm

ZOE ANSPACH | ROBERT CARTER | MELANIE COLES | MICHAEL CROWE | PENELOPE DIAZ | JACK FISHER |
VICTORIA FORNIELES | ROBERT FUNG | KYLE GALLOWAY | JAKE KENT | KATE MAHONY | PHILLIP REEVES |
ANASTASIA SHIN | REBECCA TOWNROW | MATT WELCH | MITT WHEELDON | ELISE WORTLEY

Class Of 2016 Manifesto:

The School of the Damned is a free postgraduate art course run by, and for, its students. It provides participants with the critical space to develop and reassess their art practice. We operate without money, without a bank account, without financial obligation. SOTD runs a labour exchange programme with a growing number of guest artists, spaces and lecturers. It exists to promote access to free education as a fundamental right and stand in opposition to the current system of higher education. The student body share roles and the responsibility to aid each other’s education as well as the development of the programme. As SOTD moves into its fourth year its students hope that this network of advocates will continue to grow, allowing the protest to continue into the future.

End of Year will host the work of this year’s 17 students, whose energetic and diverse practices have developed from their involvement in SOTD. Over the past year the class of 2016 have exhibited together extensively, End of Year is their final show and a culmination of their work on the course together. This “degree show” style exhibition echoes the institution in a way that demands SOTD is recognised as a working alternative and demonstrates that this collection of artists can work together to run a school, collectively organise exhibitions and programme events that are outward facing and inclusive. As in the above manifesto, this is something Class of 2016 will pass on to a new cohort of students/ artists.

Continuing the School of the Damned ethos, this year’s final degree show will be hosted by Lewisham Art House. Members of Lewisham Art House share their time, equipment and knowledge with wider communities on a non-profit basis. Besides renting space, each studio member commits at least 5 hours per month in support of the organisation’s wider programmes. There will be talk and discussion with SOTD and guests on Saturday 13th March at 7PM speakers to be confirmed check fbook/website for updates all are welcome to attend.

Click here to download Press Release as a pdf

For more information on School Of The Damned please visit:
schoolofthedamned.com or email schoolofthedamned15@gmail.com

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