Press Release
Challenging the value of art
Media invited to: 'Bringing it All Back Home' installation event, this Saturday 11am-5pm, by painter Sebastian Smith
Images from www.flickr.com/photos/rwapress/sets/
Bringing it All Back Home exhibition details
New Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX. 0117 973 5129 www.rwa.org.uk
(Media invited to Private View Sunday 6 February 2011 2-5pm)
Public opening: 6 February - 2 March 2011
Monday – Saturday 10am-5.30pm, Sunday 2-5pm (last entry 30 mins before close)
Admission: free
More information
Painter Sebastian Smith will create a painting in the space of a few hours in Bristol's Royal West of England Academy's New Gallery, this Saturday 11am-5pm.
As part of his 'Bringing it All Back Home' exhibition, Sebastian wanted to "include a visual rant against the increasing commercialisation and degradation of fine art, by executing a large painting, for the sake of painting. I would have a time limit of six hours to put myself under pressure just to see what happens."
Sebastian aims to create a piece of work which will not be sold. How will he make his 7.5 by 2.5 metre painting unsellable? "Should I burn it on the forecourt at the end of the exhibition to create a pyrotechnic ‘performance’, or donate it to a hospital? Will Health and Safety intervene? Can art be a tart with a heart?" he wonders.
See Sebastian under pressure to create a work of art - then find out how he disposes of it with no money changing hands.
Ex-Bristol artist Sebastian Smith, now based in Provençe in France, is back after fourteen years. The exhibition, Bringing it All Back Home is a new series of abstractions that continue to deal with his exploration of the horizon as a necessary hinge between reality and spirituality.
This ‘installation’ takes place on Saturday 5thFebruary in the New Gallery at the RWA, Bristol between 11am and 5pm. The exhibition runs from Sunday 6 February until Tuesday 2 March 2011.
For more details call 0117 973 5129 or visit www.rwa.org.uk.
Editor's Notes
High resolution downloadable images of a selection of the paintings are available at www.flickr.com/photos/rwapress/sets/ - see New Gallery set - solely for use with media reports of this exhibition. To download high res pictures, please click on the image you require, then click ‘All sizes’ then click on ‘Original’, then ‘Download’.
This press release copyright of RWA and used solely to promote this exhibition. For more information or to interview artists, please contact Louisa Davison on 0117 973 5129 (or 01672 811 515) press.office@rwa.org.uk. Contact Sebastian Smith via the RWA on 0117 973 5129.
The RWA has seven galleries within the 19thcentury building. The five upstairs galleries – Sharples, Winterstoke, Stancomb-Wills, Methuen and Milner - host the main exhibition/s. Artists can apply to hire the downstairs New Gallery for their own exhibitions (which forms the New Gallery programme). In the basement are the RWA Friends’ Room (with occasional Friends’ exhibitions), and also the newly refurbished Fedden Gallery which often exhibits some pieces from the RWA’s permanent collection and is available to hire as a conference and meeting space. All gallery spaces are available for private hire for special events, such as weddings and parties. If members of the media would like a tour, please contact Louisa as above.
RWA also hires out pieces from its permanent collection as part of the ‘Art in Your Workplace’ scheme, see www.rwa.org.uk/workfrm.htm.
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is one of only five Royal academies of art in the UK. It is a registered charity which has been self-supporting for over 150 years and possesses an outstanding Grade II* listed building, galleries and permanent fine art collection. The RWA has HM Queen Elizabeth II as its patron. The RWA is an established venue for the fine arts and embraces an artistic awareness of the widest nature. The exhibition programme provides a showcase for one-person and mixed exhibitions in a variety of media, which attract large numbers of visitors nation-wide. The Academy is situated in the academic heart of Bristol at the Clifton Triangle, where Queens Road meets Whiteladies Road, next to Habitat and opposite the Victoria Rooms. |
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