53 Degrees North, the annual student showcase at the New School House Gallery, has grown bigger for 2011.

Indeed this competitive event for graduate art and applied art talent at the gallery in Peasholme Green, York, went national for the first time in its second year, receiving Arts Council funding to support the important role it plays in developing the professional status of emerging artists around the country.

This year’s call for entries attracted applications from more than 30 higher education institutions, from as far apart as Falmouth and Glasgow, and the resulting show incorporates work ranging from painting and photography to jewellery and glass in a rare opportunity for students to exhibit in a professional context outside their art school.

“Uninhibited ambition is clearly on display at 53 Degrees we know our audience will be bound to engage in discussion,” say gallery owners Paula Jackson and Robert Teed.

As visitors approach the gallery, they catch sight of University of Huddersfield Fine Art student Rebecca Gee’s Sanctuary installation standing outside the front entrance, defying the lashing rain.

It may look like a half-derelict shed but here comes the art bit, as indicated by the message We Do This Not To Free Her from Her Curse But To Make Her Too Afraid To Escape, spelled out in nails.

Rebecca, who describes herself as having been a secretive child, is examining the construct of the shed as a personal space bound with memories and the inevitability of decay.

The shed was originally made for her as a Wendy house by her grandfather, who has visited the New School House to see how she has reinterpreted it from the original parts.

Meanwhile, the local postman has offered a new twist on the age-old ‘I can do that’ debate by commenting “I’m building a shed at the moment and it’s better than that! It needs more felt.”

Once inside, visitors are confronted by Lee Gascoyne’s monumental Observation Without Manipulation, towering over them in the hallway, and the main gallery presents them with a striking 2.5 metre-high glass sculpture by Jiho Won.

Tracie Shaylor’s Evolution And Atrophy claustrophobic installation of rusting cages with specimen jars has provoked the familiar cries of “Is that art?”, but she says it is a new statement on feminism and sexuality, equality and oppression and highlights gender role reversal.

“I consider myself one of the new breed of sexually charged female artists who are no longer victims but the persons in control,” she says.

“With 53 artists represented in the exhibition, all equally deserving of attention, it is impossible to highlight them all,” says Robert. “The only way to appreciate this diverse and impressive show of talent is to visit and join the discussion.”

The show was judged by James Beighton, senior curator at Mima in Middlesbrough, Laura Turner, fine art curator at York Art Gallery, and York-born artist Jake Attree.

The overall winner was photographer Tamzin Plummer, from University College, Falmouth, while Joseph Hartley, winner of the applied arts section, will have a two-week residency next month , as well as holding a workshop on August 17.

53 Degrees North will run until August 27.