Paper Works at the RWA, Bristol, 24th January - 27th April 2025
I am delighted to have my piece M in the upcoming Paper Works exhibition at the RWA. M is a hand made scroll made of paper and silk, containing 3 meters of typewritten letter M’s over 1404 lines, each line representing a week in time from the ages of 13 to 40, created in 2019.
Paper Works, the RWA’s Biennial exhibition opening in January, is all about paper. Selected from an open submission it celebrates paper as a surface for drawing and printmaking and as a sculptural material. Paper is the star of the show revealing itself in many different guises. Hand made paper, different types of Japanese tissue, papier maché, and paper pulp are just some of the materials being used to create drawings paintings sculpture and architectural models. It is manipulated, burnt, cast, folded, walked on and torn. It is used for collage and all types of printmaking from lino to collograph, lithography, etching and woodcut.
The work in the exhibition ranges from powerful visceral charcoal drawings to hangings so delicate as they move in the still air that it almost seems as if they do not exist. There are tiny intimate paintings, exquisite fine line drawings on costly cotton rag paper and expressive vibrant works on packaging cardboard and paper animal feed sacks. If you love paper you will love this show and if you don’t know anything about it come with the RWA on a voyage of discovery.
The selectors
The selection panel included RWA Academicians Fiona Robinson PRWA, Peter Ford RE RWA,Toni Davey RWA, Juliette Losq RWA and Ian Chamberlain RWA, as well as artist and master paper maker Elaine Cooper
Paper Works will run in the main galleries from 24 January - 27 April 2025, and as well as the selected entries will include work by invited artist Ian McKeever RA.
It is presented alongside the landmark exhibition Paule Vézelay: Living Lines, celebrating the pioneering abstract modernist artist Paule Vézelay who began her career studying printmaking in the early twentieth century at the school of art in the RWA building.