Haus-a-rest are running a summer exhibition as a nod to the Royal Academy summer show!!
For the last few years I have submitted work to the RA Summer show and was not accepted. Every year I attend the show and while I amaze at the work, I have no idea why my work was not accepted as it would sit quite happily amongst those chosen. But. with my curator’s hat firmly wedged onto my head, I do appreciate that it’s about building an exhibition that’s gestalt is about the collective and how all the work fits together. Since so many pieces are not selected we thought it would be wonderful to hold our own Summer show and select from work that was not selected by RA. It’s been a wonderful experience as the work that was not selected by RA is fabulous.
We also added some or our favourite submission from previous editions of Haus-a-rest from over 3500 submissions to the zine. This is a celebration of all the artists that get up, love what they do and make, make, make!!!
Artist name: Catherine Palfreyman
From: Issue 25 - Deconstruction
Instagram: @catherinepalfreymann
Title: ‘Why do I keep finding your hair everywhere’ Expanding foam, repurposed chair, hair extension, crocheted pillow, pears soap, gloss
I have just handed in my final work for my degree in BA Hons Contemporary Art. ‘a light is on but nobody’s home’ is a contemporary installation I have created that focuses heavily on the themes of vulnerability, distortion, sensory overload, humour, femininity and flesh. My aim, to create a space which plays on the juxtaposition of comfort and confusion. A space we all know, a dressing room, filled with items created using textures, sights, colours, materials etc that then make the space then feel unusual, yet uncanny. As an artist, I intend for my art to be consumed personally by the audience, however I hope my rejection of stereotypical femininity shines through the work.
Selected from Issue 26 - The Surrealism and Dada Issue
Artist name: Kathy Bruce
Instagram: @kat2bruce
Description: Kathy’s collages explore archetypal female and mythological forms within the context of poetry, Surrealism and the natural environment. She is especially interested in how the poetic aspects of animal "nature" are interchangeable with psychological traits of humans; the surreal moment of hybridization in which animal and human nature merge.
Selected from Issue 26 - The Surrealism and Dada issue
Artist: Alexey Adonin
Website: https://www.alexeyadoninart.com/
Instagram: @otherworldlydream
Description: These artworks explore the inner universe of humans, somewhere at the point of convergence between abstraction and surrealism. I was inspired by the sea and the people on the beach. I made sketches and found it would be a great idea to transport my vision of different human states on canvas. The most important thing in my work is establishing deep involvement in the emotional and intellectual aspect.
Artist: Nicky Ruddick
Instagram: @nickyruddickart
Description: This collage piece explores our relationship with food. When you delve into food memories from your childhood you realise how complex food can be. It is about more than just survival but is a form of reward or punishment, pride and shame, indulgence and obligation. I wanted to capture this in the piece called Binge which I submitted to the RA Summer Exhibition this year.
Selected from Issue 27 - The Tiny issue
Artist: Caren Garfen
Instagram: @carengarfen
Description: Worst Case Scenario has been created to illustrate the precarious lives of Jewish families in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The use of one-twelfth scale draws in the viewer to a miniature world. There are many clues including the packed suitcase, handbag and shoes by the door, and the passports and tickets sitting on the writing bureau….
Measurement: 54cm x 32cm x 30cm
Materials: Box room, miniature accessories, textiles, silk thread, paper, paint.
Artist: Dave Farnham
Instagram : @davefarnham
Description: There’s always a painting of a bird in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition – I felt the exhibition needed a 3D print of a bird. I 3D scanned this gift from my cat and its 3D printed in full colour plaster powder.
'Look What The Cat Dragged In'
3.5cm x 13cm x 4.3cm
Artist: Jan Lee Johnson
Instagram: @Jan_leejohnson
Description: I made this image in response to the theme of ‘only connect’ set by the Royal Academy this year. In response I drew a pair of Ukranian folk shoes, girls dancing shoes, hand made in leather, found in a destroyed museum, and placed them on an old and joyful vintage illustrated map of Ukraine. I added drops of blood to accentuate the humanitarian loss and also strength of connection through history and culture. I entered it this year 2023. I spent many hours and created several versions before finishing it.
Artist: Line Nilsen
Instagram: @linenilsentextiles
Website: www.linenilsen.com
Description: Line Nilsen's work is an abstract depiction of arctic winter landscapes, inspired by her native Norway. Line makes work that connects her with her past and creates a sense of place for the onlooker. I entered the RA open call in 2023.
From: // Issue 27 - The Tiny Issue //
Artist: David Riley
Instagram: @davidrileymodelmaking
Description: Modelled at 1:12 scale, this miniature sculpture reflecting the modern workplace is totally handmade using a variety of materials. The sculpture incorporates electronics to illuminate the computer screen and the desk light. It captures the confusion and distraction that can often emerge in a 21st Century office space.
Artist: Nigel Goldsmith
Instagram: @nigelgoldsmith
Description: This work was submitted to the RWA open in 2022. Terminal uses a modern container terminal to explore the mesmerising movement of goods and machinery that supports the linear (throwaway) economic system. Terminal is a video art work - watch the video in the link below.
Artist: PJ Woolfall
Instagram : @artfuldodgerlondon
I entered 'The Tears of Emanuel Radnitsky' into the RA in 2023 as the fourth piece in a series of six action paintings the first of which were made when my son was incarcerated on remand, later to be transferred to a forensic hospital. During that time the facility would not allow contact between us, would not allow him the money I sent and locked him in his cell for the vast majority of the time (4 months) and I this was my outpouring of emotional suffering. I wanted to see this particular work in the RA as a tribute to the lack of understanding, justice and care for people with severe mental illness.
Artist: Andrew Medlock
Instagram: @AMsoulcreative1
Description: Man Woman A3[Digital] plate No :aw0159 2022
How will we deal with our society of discrimination. As a thought, colour, creed and breed must no longer be considered. Human is what we are. We seem obsessed with badges. The feminine versus the masculine, the naked versus the clothed, and the white colour palette versus the dark colour palette. Acceptance of each other is paramount.
Artist: Amarajyoti
Instagram: @amarajyoti
Description: Solomon. Acrylic/mixed media on paper 20/29.5cm
I have been diagnosed various health issues over the past year and this is part of a series looking at balance, within myself and trying to find some balance within the challenges of illness. This was submitted for the summer exhibition in 2023. As I'm still not mobile it would have been challenging to deliver it!
Artist: Francesca Alaimo
Instagram : @francescaalaimoartist
Description: This piece is about reconciliation. Throughout our life we often lose ourselves in the meanders of our mind or distracted by people and activities and now we are finally reconciled with who we are. The mirror is the stage of recognition and acceptance. We reconcile our many selves when we accept that in order to be whole we cannot be one.
I sumbitted this piece to the RA show in 2023 but was not selected.
Artist: Kath Holland
Instagram: @Katrick Art
Description: Spiritual Leader of the Huni Kuin- I entered this painting to the RA show in January 2023. I am inspired by the sense of peace and spirituality that the indigenous spiritual leader conveys whilst meditating with the spirits of nature. The geometric patterns of his dress are made by the Huni Kuin women and reflect the patterns in nature and their surroundings. Everything in nature is connected and related to one another from the patterns of the feathers of his headdress to the leaves of the trees, to the falling and decaying leaves that surround him on the forest floor. I find the RA show very expensive to enter, with the anticipated and expected outcome of rejection.
Artist: Craig Robertson
Instagram: @craigsculpture
Description: The piece is part of a series of works about identity and memory, how we celebrate ourselves and our history by using portraits mainly of heads on plinths, also about how memories play an important part of these portraits and how they are presented. I personally struggle with a very poor memory and subsequently have a fairly patchy idea of myself and my history. This was entered and rejected this year. It is called ‘one head’.
Artist: Lizzie Shannon-Little
Instagram: @eshannonlittle
Description: My works are explorations in connection and identity. In this piece - Botley - I use a vintage map as the work's canvas, with my creative process directly responding to the cartography to explore a sense of belonging to a place. The costs for framing and applying to RA were significant for me, so this was the main obstacle! I applied this year, 2023, as part of the Only Connect theme.
Artist: Wen-Hsi Harman
Instagram : @wenhsiharmanporcelainart
Description: Using the tips of my thumbs and forefingers I created tiny and careful actions to represent my own small voice, Each small individual porcelain fingerprint is a deconstruction of my cultural identity between my homeland Taiwan and my second home Britain. Any obstacles you had to overcome : How to create a conversation between myself and material (Limoges Porcelain) , how to show the characters of the Limoges Porcelain Royal Academy of Arts - Summer Exhibition (Gold Finger-Rose)
