RBSA

RBSA Candidates Exhibition
2024-04-11 - 2024-04-28 | Galleries 1 & 2
As a member organisation, the RBSA is always seeking to induct new artists into the Society. To facilitate this, the Gallery hosts the RBSA Candidates Exhibition every April.
Artists can apply to become an RBSA Associate or, for those who have been an Associate for three or more years, there is the option to apply for full RBSA Membership.
On display are six works from each candidate, all representing their current artistic practice. Throughout the exhibition, existing Members and Associates will be voting on who they would like to see join the RBSA; the be successful, candidates must receive 50% +1 of the votes.
Representing the future of the RBSA Membership, the exhibition features both traditional and contemporary work resulting in an exciting and diverse show.
Candidate artists for Associate membership are:
ANDI
Guy Chapman
Adam De Ville
Jacqui Dodds
Paul Gittins
Nicholas Moore
Patrick O’Donohue
Lindsay Pritchard
Michael Pritchard
Gabriel Rivero Romano
Rita Rodner
Philip Singleton
Jonnie Turpie
Candidate artists for full Membership are:
Saranjit Birdi ARBSA
Kate Egawa ARBSA
Eric Gaskell ARBSA
Glenn Ibbitson ARBSA
Fred Jones ARBSA
Michael Riddle ARBSA
Elena Thomas ARBSA
Charles Weston ARBSA
Featured image: Candidates 2024

RBSA Print Prize
2024-02-29 - 2024-04-07 | Gallery 2
The RBSA Print Prize is a biennale exhibition, which celebrates all forms of print making and supports artists from across the UK and further afield. With a significant number of print works held in the RBSA Collection, print making is firmly intertwined with the history of the RBSA and many current Members and Associates work primarily in this media.
With both contemporary and traditional techniques and approaches on display, including screen printing, linocut, monoprint, etching, woodcut, lithography, and dry point, the exhibition is a wonderfully diverse show championing a medium that is often overshadowed by others.
This year’s exhibition was selected by:

Ros Ford – painter and printmaker, member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers, London, RWA Academician
Jenny Mason-Gunning – specialist printmaker at Ironbridge Printmakers
Laura J. Onions – lecturer in Fine Art at Wolverhampton School of Art, specialising in printmaking

The following prizes will be awarded:

First prize £1000 sponsored by GMC
Second prize £500 sponsored by GMC
Third prize £250 sponsored by Judd Medical
Student prize £250 donated by an RBSA Member
Editorial prize from Printmaking Today
Up to six highly commended certificates will also be awarded

Private View: Thursday 29 February 6.00 – 8.00pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday 9 March 2.00 – 3.00pm
Featured image: Luke Reidy, Sunrise
Purchase your copy of the catalogue via our online shop.

Drawing on the RBSA Collection - Dry Media Works 1822-2022
2024-02-29 - 2024-04-07 | Gallery 1
Drawing with dry media is as old as mankind. Ochre and charcoal dust were blown through straws onto cave walls by the first artists. In more recent times, the dry media of pencil, pastel, and charcoal were favoured by travelling artists as ideal for drawing with minimum of fuss on site in sketchbooks or portfolios. Drawing was the means through which European artists recorded, prepared, studied, and imagined, and it was often a prelude to painting or engraving. Dry media were also central to art training and versatile both en plein air and in the studio.
Fine drawings are valued not just for their subtle qualities, but also or the insights they offer into the artist’s creative imagination. Works shown cover the whole range of expression from the bold and strident Hippopotamus Amphibius by David Walton RBSA, to the delicately drawn Dovecote in pastel by James Jelley RBSA.
The pencil has been used in the UK since the late 16th century when pure graphite deposits were discovered in Cumbria, corresponding with the establishment of paper mills in England able to satisfy the increasing demand from artists. Good examples of Victorian pencil drawing are seen in the exquisite landscapes of the Lines family who developed a trademark style of lively, accurate observational drawing. Pastels, made of coloured pigment bound with gum, give the artist the whole range of colours available to the watercolourist and oil painter. Two contrasting examples are the magical Wild Beauty of Clee by Claire Spencer RBSA, and the radiant, Vitalism 2 by Janette Summerfield RBSA.
Private View: Thursday 29 February 6.00 – 8.00pm
Artists in Conversation: Saturday 23 March 2.00 – 3.00pm
Featured image: Ann Wilkinson RBSA, Sliced Oranges c.1998

The Black Country 1970s - 90s: Photographs by Phil Loach
2024-02-13 - 2024-02-24 | Gallery 2
Phil Loach (1949-2023), was born in Dudley and studied art and photography at Stourbridge College of Art and Leicester Polytechnic.
He became a press cameraman and worked for three newspaper groups, holding the post of chief photographer at two of them. During his 50-year career, he photographed a wide range of people and occasions in the West Midlands and beyond.
In addition to his press work, Phil created a large private archive of documentary photographs. His personal pictures, represented in this exhibition, reflect an incisive view of places, situations, and events, particularly in his home region of the Black Country. They demonstrate a rare observational candour and Phil’s ability to see the unusual, and sometimes bizarre, aspects of everyday life within urban and industrial landscapes.
Private View: Tuesday 13 February 6.00 – 8.00pm
Featured image: Phil Loach, Canal Girls

RBSA Friends Exhibition 2024
2024-01-11 - 2024-02-10 | Galleries 1 & 2
The annual RBSA Friends Exhibition gives artists starting their membership journey with the RBSA the opportunity to exhibit work in the Gallery.
With the Friends scheme having been in existence since the 1900s, the RBSA was one of the first art societies to offer subscribers the opportunity to exhibit in a dedicated exhibition and the number of submissions has grown year on year. A significant number of Friends progress up the RBSA membership ladder to become Associates and, later, full Members, and many have also helped shape the future of the Society by becoming Council members.
The number of Friends currently stands at approximately 250 meaning that an enormously diverse range of artistic practices are represented in the exhibition. The work on display also demonstrates the wealth of talent within the Friends community.
Anyone can sign up as an RBSA Friend and we welcome artists and art lovers as well as those who simply want to keep up to date with news from the Gallery into the scheme. Full details of how to join can be found here.
This year’s exhibition will be held across both floors of the Gallery meaning that more works than ever before will be exhibited.
Private View: Thursday 11 January 6.00 – 8.00pm
Meet the Artists: Saturday 20 January 2.00 – 3.00pm
Featured image: Andrew McNeile Jones, There Were Times

RBSA Annual Exhibition 2023
2023-11-16 - 2024-01-06 | All Floors
Taking place over all three floors of the Gallery, the RBSA Annual Exhibition can be traced back throughout the 200 year history of the RBSA.
All Members and Associates of the Society are given the opportunity to exhibit which results in an enormously diverse exhibition celebrating the variety of artistic practices associated with the RBSA.
Artworks include paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photography and many more, exploring a variety of contemporary and traditional approaches.
With over 150 pieces on display, there is plenty to see as well as artists’ talks throughout the show.
The fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition is available from the Gallery Shop.
Open Day and Private View: Thursday 16 November 6.00 – 8.00pm
Meet the Artists’: Every Saturday throughout the exhibition
Featured image: Chris Tkacz RBSA, The Distance Between Blues
