This exhibition was mounted in 1991 to celebrate the achievements of a new generation of British fine artists who began to use photography as a medium of expression during the late 1980s. Work by senior artists, such as Boyd Webb, Tim Head and Keith Arnatt was shown alongside artists from a slightly younger generation including Helen Sear, Ron O’Donnell, Lea Andrews, Mari Mahr, Hannah Collins and Helen Chadwick. As suggested by the exhibition title, themes of environmental destruction linked much of the work along with the exploration of issues concerned with the history of pictorial expression. From the confident use of computer programming to the large cibachromes of Boyd Webb to the exquisite silver gelatin printings on a colossal scale employed by Hannah Collins, these works demonstrated that technological innovations married to the fundamentals of picture-making created a wholly original format in which to formulate meaning.

A card featuring one work by each artist and an introductory text card by Andrea Rose.

 A Polish catalogue was published by Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, with a foreword by Nawojka Cieślińska and essays by Urzsula Czartoryska and Brett Rogers.  ISBN 83-906130-4-2

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Medium

    Refers to either the material used to create a work of art, craft or design, i.e. oil, bronze, earthenware, silk; or the technique employed i.e. collage, etching, carving. In painting the medium refers to the binder for the pigment, e.g. oil, egg, acrylic dispersion. The plural form is media.