Our exhibition title refered to the data-storing computer memory operating system, and how this technology now drives our economy, in both direct and indirect ways. The exhibition pointed to the pivotal moment of invention that led to the transformation to our digitally dependent society, where the benefits of technology are intertwined with its problems. While looking back and tracing its growth, we wanted to celebrate the present potentials that this technology has allowed us to do, and anticipate how it may change and be implemented in the future.

Cache Money celebrated innovation and alternative ways of thinking, in an area that married the visual with the traditionally ‘scientific’, through various mediums.

Technology has allowed artists to break down the borders between generative and traditional art forms even further, which turns against old schools of thought. Nam June Paik’s “prepared televisions,” are famous examples of artworks that directly respond to technological innovations in the 20th century, in the same way that digital illustrations are a new artistic medium enabled by technological progression.

INhibition celebrated the reaction of the audience with as much importance as the artwork itself. By selecting artwork that answered the question “How does ‘Art’ speak to you?”, our committee and members curated the exhibition through their personal takes and attitudes towards art.

We wanted to celebrate the irrationality of feeling and creating, and so this exhibition disregarded sense and reason in favour of authenticity and presence. While doing so, we aim to fully immerse our audience in the artworks by using a range of sensory interactions, which took the form of multiple media and an array of visual themes. Their connection to one another is through their shared quality of appealing to the individuals who curated INhibition.

This exhibition, at its core, celebrateed queer diversity, empowerment, and joy. The society we live in, even in York, continues to present hate, challenge, and pain to the queer community - and so we therefore believed it important to challenge this by instead spotlighting the positive, euphoric, and exuberant aspects of LGBTQ+ experiences and expression. Given that this was Norman Rea Gallery’s first exhibition wholly devoted to this topic, queer! will embraced a broad concept of queerness, sexuality, and gender as a way of reflecting the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and queer spaces generally.

queer! explored sexuality in all its forms and the world beyond a gender binary. In this exhibition, we framed the concept of queer love and expression itself as a positive act of defiance and societal liberation. It is indeed important for galleries to challenge heteronormative and cisgender conceptions of society in this way, because of the historic omissions that have existed (and continue to exist) within these public spaces.

Body-Architect created an environment that traced the human body in different physical spaces. The exhibition title utilised contemporary artist Lucy McRea’s claim as a “body-architect”, drawing on her construction of environments beginning with the human body as her epicentre. This exhibition acted as an artistic focus on work that is inspired by the evolution of the body in relation to scientific, technological and aesthetic developments, as well as present-day understandings. A visual overview of the interaction between bodies and their environments.

Body-Architect was an exhibition centered around the artistic depictions of the human body, aiming to highlight the manifestation of the self and how we oscilliate between our spatial environments society has created. The Norman Rea Gallery aimed to flex this discourse to exhibit alternative portrayals of the body art such as dance, design and abstraction to provide the audience a more nuanced understanding of the self as a transformative act and participation with the arts. Our bodies arent singular, objectifying entities, but a transitory experience.

Body-Archtiect marked the final exhibition of the 22/23 Committee. Since the gallery’s conception in the 1976, Norman Rea intended to foster an artistic hub within the University of York, creating a space where young artists could exhibit their work in a student environment. In 2023, Norman Rea Gallery has kept the tradition to give young creatives a platform for their artistic practises, to enable a stronger connection between the self and the current social, cultural and political enviroments. Therefore, Body-Architect encapsulated Norman Rea’s philosophy through an intersectional lens, to mediate our idea of the creative self within our dynamic enviroments.