Dirty Birds – Evie Cervine
Fourth-year costume design student Evie Cervine’s bedroom exhibition is as intimate as an exhibition can get.
Dirty birds (February 6, 2026) was an emotive exposition focused on intimacy, sexuality and, centrally, birds. Drawing from archaic symbology of birds, Cervine builds an immersive landscape of feminine intimacy.
Cervine’s practice within textiles lends her with the impressive practice of working in both fabric, through physical materialisations of birds in the form of soft toys, as well as oil, and acrylic paintings that are reflective of her loose-handed, nostalgic style.
The curatorial choice of presenting the exhibition in Cervine’s bedroom is a choice that builds upon the strong, and powerful narrative of vulnerable feminine experience, highlighting the narrative prowess Cervine shares in her intentional, and beautiful work.
Band Members Wanted – Finley Yates
In a toilet cubicle in Dublin, Finley Yates found unlikely inspiration on a poster that read Band Members Wanted (February 2-5, 2026).
A fourth-year painting student at the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), Yates’ eclectic and varied Band Members Wanted was an exhibition guided by a desire to uplift local artists’ work, create a mark on Edinburgh’s cultural scene, and raise money for medical relief for Palestine.
The exhibition – strange, playful, and ambiguous – was meant to be accessible, but not for everyone.
While a visitor to this exhibition may have been expectant of musical themes, and motifs, the exhibition captured the title in a more undercurrent nature – a selection of artists who are likened to a cohesive band. Similarly, the exhibition is to be engaged with like music, through feeling, and emotive pulses. Likened to his personal practice, Yates stresses a removal of chronic intellectualism in art that was materialised in Band Members Wanted. From Yates’ perspective, morality, and politics are two intersectional areas in both making, and consuming art. Hence, the exhibition – strange, playful, and ambiguous – was meant to be accessible, but not for everyone.
Band Members Wanted set an exciting precedent for aspiring student artists highlighting the cultural impacts that can be made through passion, and tenacity. Yates advises aspiring artists not to make excuses and to do it in any way you can.
Image from Dirty Birds provided by Dayne Inglis and Kat Jeffrey for The Student