Entry £4/£2 concessions. Children 12-16 £1/under 12s free
Season Ticket £7/£5 concession
21st Century Salon.
Celebrating 180 years of the RSA Annual Exhibition.
Over the years, this exhibition has presented the cream of contemporary art in Scotland and has been the place to see what is happening in Scottish art. Featuring Members of the Academy with open submission and high profile invited artists, this exhibition is a definite highlight of the exhibiting year!
Spanning all 12 RSA Galleries, the diversity of Academy members who live in different communities throughout Scotland represent a broad cross-section of ages and styles. John Mackechnie, Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, James Morrison, Philip Reeves, Calum Colvin, Frances Walker, Adrian Wiszniewski, and Eddie Summerton are to name but a few Academicians exhibiting. This year’s invited artists are Eva Merz and David Blyth.
David studied at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. He was selected to take part in Zenomap, Scotland in Venice 2003 and has recently completed a residency at Glenfiddich Distillery. His work deals with the local culture of the North East of Scotland and he will show three works from The Bridle Suite. He is currently Artist-In-Residence with Deveron Arts in Huntly. The Bridle Suite exhibition is a dreamy vision filled with soft fabrics, forms and textures. The customised vault horses are constructed from solid hard woods and incorporate fine textiles such as brocade and silk in a beautiful, upholstered finish. The Bridle Suite developed from a period of research into the phenomenon known as The Horseman’s Word – a secret society of Horsemen and Ploughboys active up until the late 1900’s in Scotland, England and Breton regions.
Eva Merz will show SPACE/RETAIL/MAGIC in full in the gallery. Originally from Denmark, Eva now lives and works in the North East of Scotland where she is a founder of New Social Art School. SPACE / RETAIL / MAGIC is a large-scale photographic installation, responding to the changing face of retailing particularly as it affects rural communities in the Northeast of Scotland, in this case Inverurie, Elgin and Huntly. The work, commissioned by Deveron Arts, focuses on the sustainability of large-scale retail outlets and the visual impact they have on our communities, not only through the buildings they create and leave behind but also the opportunities and spaces they can destroy. Three massive photographic collages (200x400cm), each containing around 1000 single images, depict three sites in different stages relating to supermarket developments.
For the first time since the Royal Scottish Academy’s foundation in 1826, amendments to the Supplementary Charter introduced in 2005 signify ground breaking changes to the Academy’s constitution and Membership body, relaxing the limitations between the disciplines of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking and making provision for new media, installation, performance and photography.
The RSA would also like to thank the following for their support of the Annual Exhibition Catalogue:
Alastair Salvesen
Albemarle Gallery
Artlink Transport
Atticsalt
Constantine Ltd
Cyril Gerber Fine Art
Danish Cultural Institute
Exhibiting Society of Scottish Artists
Flying Colours Gallery
Framework
Friends of the Royal Scottish Academy
Glasgow Art Fair
Hanover Fine Arts
Imrie Fine Art
John Green Fine Art
Lyon & Turnbull
