Press release
Dundee graduates selected for RSA New Contemporaries
Fourteen University of Dundee graduates are among those chosen to exhibit at Scotland’s most prestigious showcase for young creative talent.
Published on 24 March 2026
Drew Rumgay
Thirteen artists and one architect from Dundee will be among those competing for prizes with a total value of more than £25,000 at the 17th annual Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries exhibition. The show will take place at the RSA Galleries in Edinburgh and opens to the public on Saturday 28 March.
The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see some of the best emerging talent in Scotland under one roof, including those whose work was shown at the University’s annual Art & Design Undergraduate Degree Show last year.
Showcasing 64 graduates selected from the 2025 Degree Shows from art colleges across Scotland, the exhibition will feature a diverse array of painting, sculpture, filmmaking, photography, printmaking, installation, performance and architecture.
Drew Rumgay, who graduated with a Masters in Architecture in 2025, is one Dundee graduate chosen to exhibit at RSA New Contemporaries. Having gone on to work with Global Hospital, which designs and deploys clinical infrastructure in low-resource locations, it is fitting that he is showcasing his CareKit exhibit, a modular building system to improve healthcare provision.
Originally from Dundee, the former Morgan Academy pupil, said, “My architectural education has been shaped by a sustained interest in social justice, environmental responsibility and humanitarian design. This culminated in me studying within the Design for Displacement unit during my final year.
“During my final year I also worked with Global Hospital on a part-time basis alongside my studies. It allowed me to engage directly with medical professionals and logistics specialists, helping to ensure the research was grounded in practical application rather than something which was purely speculative.
“It’s a massive honour to be included in RSA New Contemporaries 2026, and it’s encouraging to see work focused on humanitarian and socially driven design being given this kind of platform.”
Exhibition Convenor Michael Visocchi RSA said, “The Royal Scottish Academy’s 2026 New Contemporaries exhibition presents an extraordinary breadth of work, capturing a new generation of artists and architects as they begin their professional journeys.
“In an increasingly complex and visually oversaturated world, finding a unique perspective is a significant challenge. Yet these practitioners have captured an essence here that makes the complex feel elementary.”