Two award-winning UWTSD graduates open joint exhibition at Elysium Gallery
For the past year, Luke Cotter and Hollie Wilkins have been sharing a studio space at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea as proud winners of the 2005 Graduate Award Residency, a collaboration between the gallery and Swansea College of Art. Now, they are preparing to open their first joint exhibition entitled, Tailing Amok.
Both Luke and Hollie are graduates of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s BA Fine Art: Site and Studio Context. Their collaboration within the studio space has provided new challenges for them and a space where objects, processes and humour flow together resulting in the creation of two distinct, but supportive bodies of work. The exhibition is open to the public between 13 November to 23 December.
Lecture Alex Duncan said: “Collaboratively, they have used waste materials, scale and humour that comes with sharing a space, and where ideas and found objects have naturally cross-pollinated. Both artists have playfully explored the ‘thing-ness’ of making - the farcical levels of relentless human production and subsequent discarding”.
Luke Cotter
For several years, Luke Cotter, who is from Llwydcoed, Aberdare, has developed a way of working underpinned by a unique approach to found materials, combing the streets for abandoned wooden furniture to create spaces and sculpture that question what we need and desire through a complex relationship between people and labour. Utilising familiar, yet overlooked spaces like chapels, pubs and houses he explores the intersection between personal and collective experience. Within this there is a rare focus and continuation of the Welsh storytelling tradition, presented in this exhibition through the creation of ‘Dyn’. The observer is presented with tools made by a failed gold-prospector, relying on his luck but ultimately failing. This “throwaway name” has allowed Luke to channel an alternative logic to making things that ‘Dyn’ “thinks will work but they never quite get there”.
Hollie Wilkins
Burry Port’s Hollie Wilkins creates sculptures that defy easy classification, working to an uncanny level of detail, often at odds with the throwaway materials they are made from. Discarded industrial plastic sheeting, pipe and rope have all been given intimate attention, where she has employed post-use waste management, including wire stripping to create objects that play with tension, density and torsion. By meticulous deconstruction, an onion net can, in turn, encourage us to ask questions about the physical manifestation of information. In this body of work, the artist turns her attention to the aquatic world, exposing the often-hidden consequences of industrial systems. Through the use of discarded plastics, bycatch and references to whale fall ecosystems, her sculptures reflect environmental realities that are impossible to ignore. The way marine life sustains itself from a fallen whale finds echoes in Wilkins’ own creative process, where reclaimed materials are transformed into intricate forms that appear almost organically constructed, as though woven by an unknown species that resists easy classification.
Lecture Alex Duncan commented: “This studio collaboration offers a rich source of inspiration to both Luke Cotter and Hollie Wilkins’ artistic practices, both exhibiting new and previously unseen bodies of work. And none of this would be possible without the support of Elysium who have championed early career artists since its foundation in 2007”.
Note to Editor
Wales’s largest provider of artist studios, Elysium fosters a thriving community of artists and creatives that contribute to the development of Swansea’s wider cultural landscape.
Since 2025, the Elysium Gallery Graduate Award has been presented to outstanding 3-D artists graduating from Swansea College of Art. The award supports emerging artists during the crucial first year after graduation, when the loss of the university support structure and increased financial pressures can have a significant impact on an artist’s practice. Each recipient is offered a year-long residency at Elysium’s artist studios, alongside professional development opportunities, mentoring and support, culminating in an exhibition of their work.
The award recognises artists who demonstrate a distinctive and engaging approach to sculpture and 3-D practice, with a willingness to experiment with materials, ideas and processes, and a commitment to developing a sustainable life in the arts.
Graduate Award Recipients
Further Information
Eleri Beynon
Head
Corporate Communications and PR
Email: e.beynon@uwtsd.ac.uk
Phone: 01267 676790