Rua Red Young Curators Project 2016 • Sofya Mikhaylova| Nessa Finnegan | Sophie Carroll Hunt | Nicola Horner • Curated by: Chiara Pizza | Edana Gorham | Ellen Redmond | Karl Graham | Orla Mcgovern | Roisin White | Shauna Blanchfield • Facilitated by: Andy Parsons

The Young Curators Project takes place every year in RUA RED aimed at giving individuals with an interest in art an opportunity to develop curatorial skills. Over the course of 4 months, RUA RED have given Young Curators complete creative freedom to curate their own exhibition.

The Young Curators Group of 2016 began working together in March with a meeting in RUA RED between the selected fledgling curators and their facilitator, Andy Parsons.

The group spent a number of sessions visiting various exhibitions and collections; discussing the artworks, and exploring the curatorial decisions. The Young Curators organised studio visits with artists, selected the artwork to exhibit and designed the exhibition.

This proved to be an invaluable process as they sought for a cohesive context and direction for their own project. With this honing of ideas (and a healthy dose of brainstorming) the curator group began to focus their vision on emerging artists, with a fresh and current voice, who have not gained much exposure yet.

The artworks selected share both a tactile quality; and a questioning of the impression that social media, illusive beauty standards, and collective societal thinking are having on young people.

The title Not Necessarily Naughty comes from an informal discussion among the curators, about the audience’s possible reactions to the work. The works in the exhibition are all provocative, but the artists provocations are designed to reveal realities we would often rather avoid.

The exhibit will be accompanied by a unique limited edition hand sewn zine designed by the curators themselves.

Sofya Mikhaylova: www.gumcollective.com
Nessa Finnegan: www.nessafinnegan.com
Sophie Carroll Hunt: www.instagram.com/lolanthe
Nicola Horner: www.nicolahorner.wix.com
Andy Parsons: www.andyparsonsartist.com