Review: Re Opened Upwardly - Contemporary Printmaking At The Bankside Gallery

I'm extremely impressed yesteryear the lineament of operate inwards the construct novel Printmaking Open Exhibition of the The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) - the RE Open which continues at the Bankside Gallery in London until Dominicus 2d September.

RE Open at the Bankside Gallery - a multifariousness of 2d too 3D work

I've constitute that printmaking - every bit goodness yesteryear the RE - is an fine art cast which both stays inwards affect alongside its yesteryear too at the same fourth dimension embraces conception alongside opened upwards arms.  I holler upwards seeing digital prints beingness exhibited inwards an RE exhbition a few years agone - when it was really clearly demonstrated that digital fine art was able to create an only novel cast of printmaking which also demonstrated excellence.

To this cease the aim of this exhibition - too its associated opened upwards fine art contest - is to provide:

• a showcase for excellence inwards printmaking
• a fascinating forum for consideration of electrical flow trends too novel directions

It would seem that those submitting operate to this contest are fifty-fifty more contemporary than peradventure the RE!

RE Open at the Bankside Gallery 

The exhibition has an interesting approach - reminiscent of the ING Discerning Eye - where a panel of prestigious too 'heavyweight' people inwards the printmaking world, convey selected operate too curated mini-exhibitions which together construct upwards the exhibition every bit a whole.  In other words they haven't gone for a consensus - too the effect is a fascinating exhibition alongside an awful lot of actually fantabulous work.

There's likewise a huge multifariousness of forms of print-making inwards both 2D too 3D formats.  There are likewise simply about really large prints too simply about really modest ones.  I intend I was in all probability most struck yesteryear the odd formats too the interesting mixture of printmaking techniques.

This exhibition likewise has a huge seat out of printmakers who are likewise fantabulous draughtspeople - irrespective of whether the means is graphic, realism, abstract, expressionism or simply patently painterly.  I did yet missy the give-and-take collage from 1 or ii of the plant where this was clearly an chemical subdivision which merited a holler inside the description of the work.

RE Open Prizewinners 

The panel of selectors were:

• Professor David Ferry, Artist too Head of Printmaking at Cardiff School of Art too Design
• Mark Hampson - Head of Material processes at the Royal Academy Schools
• Elizabeth Harvey Lee - a prominent impress dealer who used to run the impress subdivision at Phillips the Auctioneers
• Colin Harrison - Senior Curator of European Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
• John Purcell - Proprietor of John Purcell Paper
• Deborah Roslond - Creator of the "Originals" Contemporary Printmaking Show'
• Dr Bren Unwin - President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers

The RE Open Prizewinners are listed below.  Click the link inwards their names to run across their websites or related gallery sites.

Winner of Curwen Studio Prize
Great North Fen yesteryear Iona Howard
carborundem (£276 framed / £156 unframed)

© Iona Howard

• Iona Howard Curwen Studio Prize - Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 solar daytime at the Curwen Studio
• Theresa Gadsby-Bourner Intaglio Printmaker Prize - Materials to the value of £150
• Maria Bowers Printmaking Today Prize - An editorial characteristic inwards Printmaking Today
• Jane Sampson John Purcell Paper Award - £150 of materials
• Igor Chebotov T due north Lawrence Printmaking Award - Materials to the value of £150

Winner of T due north Lawrence Printmaking Award
Promised Land yesteryear Igor Chebotov
Etching (framed £350 / unframed £300)
© Igor Chebotov 

Winner of Brangwyn Memorial Prize
one 1000 Pieces of Flesh too Bone yesteryear Florence Walkey
monoprint £10,000
© Florence Walkey

• Florence Walkey Brangwyn Memorial Prize - Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 prize of £1000
• Sarah Simmonds R K Burt Exhibition Award - Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 solo demo inwards the RKB Gallery
• Martin Langford RIS Purchase Prize - Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 buy prize of £500
• Ellen Karin Maehlum RE Guest Membership Award

End wall of Gallery.
Work at summit row centre is the Winner of the RE Guest Membership Award
Picnic inwards the Desert I yesteryear Ellen Karin Maehlumcarborundem too dry out point
© Ellen Karin Maehlum

and finally......

It may last that the priority for the RE is to exhibit the fine art rather than to sell it.  However it's a compassion that neither the RE nor the Bankside Gallery convey a website on which images tin last sold to those unable to catch the exhibition.  Talking to people almost a operate is non quite the same every bit seeing it for yourself.

I idea at that topographic point were a lot of fantabulous prints inwards this exhibition.  In my opinion, if these had been online they would convey generated a lot of sales for the artists involved - too likewise creating income for the gallery which shows them via the committee process.  

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