RAW: The Visceral and Vulnerable

This exhibition presents works by a group of second year fine art students from the University of Leeds.

RAW is a collective of three Leeds-based artists brought together by a shared fascination with decay and the visceral.

Our work examines the boundary between life and death, and the overlooked beauty that is within deterioration. Drawing on the material and the emotive, our collective challenges convention of what is deemed attractive and comfortable to observe.

Our exhibition presents a body of work that deliberately sits in the uncomfortable.

Rather than presenting decay as purely negative, our works reframe it as a natural and poetic process; one that reveals vulnerability and raw emotion. The beauty shown in our exhibition is not softened or romanticised, but unsettling.

RAW Collective invites viewers to confront the taboo and the unusual. Our exhibition asks the audience to consider why certain subjects provoke discomfort, and what it means to find beauty in spaces, whether physical, social or theoretical, that we are conditioned to avoid. By embracing what is raw and imperfect, we create space for dialogue around mortality, the body and the complex aesthetics of existence.

Artists

Livvy Palmer
Lucy Byrne
Rachel Clarke

Follow RAW Collective on Instagram @rawcollectiveleeds

Venue

Chapel Forty Nine
49 Chapel Lane
Headingley
Leeds LS6 3BW

More information

RAW: The Visceral and Vulnerable is one of a number of level 2 student exhibitions and projects taking place across Leeds this May as part of pitch: Fine Art Festival of Art 2026. 

See the full programme of projects and exhibitions.

The pitch: Fine Art Festival of Art 2026 is also part of Situation Leeds Festival, happening across May and June 2026, celebrating contemporary art in the public realm. Situation Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Visual Arts Network and Hyde Park Book Club.

Image

Artwork by Lucy Byrne.