This Saturday, the Graduate Art Show at Oxford Brookes University opens its doors to the people of Oxford for you to see what has engaged the minds and hearts of the 31 leavers. I was curious to see if Brit art still holds sway or whether there is a wind of change blowing through the minds of young people who yearn for a career in art.

What I saw, was a pleasing mixture. Yes, some interesting conceptual and performance art but also a return to skill-based creations. There were students who really wanted to paint and draw but to do it in their own way.

James Lucas, for example, loves to sketch and draw and has a large portfolio but for the show he wants to present his drawing in a particular way.

Covering a large mirror with a surface of fine, flat plaster he has created an appropriate surface resonant of bone for his anatomical drawing. I asked him if he was also interested in science.

“Yes, but I used to see them as completely separate. Now I realise they overlap. They both observe nature and one can inform the other. My contribution to the show is a triptych using three large plaster-based sheets. I hope it will have echoes of an altar piece.”

Alex Braun began the course as an enthusiastic film-maker. He drove from New York to LA exploring the social climate in the run up to the Obama election. He wanted to produce spectacular imagery but creating it in film, with every process done single-handed, he found dispiriting.

He said: “For the show I have made my own frames which have a sculptural simplicity and depth to contain the images I have created on a flat bed scanner to a quality that surpasses modern photographic equipment. My triptych contrasts the natural and mechanical world. The mystery lies in the technical means of producing my images.”

I can testify that his ivy is of a more intense green than anything I have seen in real life.

Olivia Franklin has worked 14-hour days for three months to produce four seconds of animation. She explained: “I love painting and I have created 109 portraits. At first glance you will see three separate images, but I hope you will be startled by a sudden disturbance which leads to the figures moving, disappearing and re-emerging in a surprising way.”

Olivia is a talented painter but wishes to work in animation. She obviously has the dedication and patience it takes to do this well.

Colleen Watts would like to work behind the scenes in a museum or gallery as well as pursuing her own art.

For her conceptual piece, you enter an apparently empty white room until you look carefully. She etched delicate pieces off the walls and ceiling. These little holes represent dementia eating into the brain. She is concerned about memory loss and how it affects people around the sufferer.

She says: “Routine and repetition are important for people with dementia. Things must stay in the same place. Objects have great significance in prompting memory. I wanted my piece to be like a hankie with the fabric scrapped away and have the tactile quality of Braille.”

Matt Reeves is inspired by urban art. He learned bricklaying to produce his exhibit and says: “I have made stencilled images, like Lego men with faces, to create a comic art. I hope to link the street and the gallery by using the pictures on small brick walls but mounting them on plinths.”

Matt’s ambition is to become an art teacher.

Lauren O’Day is less sure of her direction. The aim of her performance art is to ask what makes an artist. She is working on her fitness because she will be pacing the gallery to generate ideas on the blackboard.

Sebastian Thomas embarked on an ambitious project using 15 triangles, two metres on each edge, to create a large dome-like structure. It is placed in a dark room surrounded by sculptural trees and inside is a diorama of a 300-year-old Native American.

Sebastian says: “The trees are dead but the birds are living. The dome has an open flap for the visitor to look inside and see the figure apparently kept alive by a mysterious machine. I hope the light patterns on the wall in this dark room give a sense of mystery to a post-apocalyptic vision.’ Sebastian and James hope to go on to study for an MA in art.

I hope readers will be encouraged to visit the show and talk to the artists. At the weekend and on Bank Holiday Monday the show is open from 10am to 4pm and at other times from 10am to 6pm. It is in the Richard Hamilton Building, which is on the Pullens Lane side of London Road near Headington Hall, the former residence of Robert Maxwell.

If you take a walk around the back of Headington Hall there are fine views of the dreaming spires.

Inside the Graduate Art Show you will discover visions of the 21st century.

If you can’t make this show or are interested in comparing it with the work of colleges of art and university courses, 22 of the Oxford Brookes students will have work on display at the exciting, Free Range 2009, Europe’s largest graduate art and design show at The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane from May 29 to July 20.

lThe Graduate Art Show at Oxford Brookes University is on between May 23 and 28. Visit brookesfineart.com