RWA Press Releases
RWA Press Releases
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Fiona Swadling, Marketing Officer at the RWA.
e-mail: info@rwa.org.uk
Tel: 0117 973 5129
Open Print 2004
The 6th RWA Contemporary Print Exhibition
2 May - 18 June 2004
Four larger-than-life-size standing human figures seem to float in front of the white wall at the end of the main gallery space in Bristol’s Royal West of England Academy (RWA). Marilene Oliver, the youngest of five artists invited to show their work within this otherwise selected exhibition, has created these sculptural print-works from her recognition that the medical process of MRI* scanning has aesthetic potential. Screen print versions of the multiple body scans were produced of herself, her sister and parents and these were the starting points for this mesmerising work. Previously shown only in London and Berlin this most innovative of family portraits merges the latest technology with sculpture and printmaking. If you like art that is surprising you must see this.
The visitor to this exhibition may find other items that question expectations set up by the word 'print'. Peter Ford is showing a minimal abstract piece in his own handmade paper, which is indented with the impressions of fish backbones. More an imprint than a print in the usual sense maybe, and it is unusual also because it is the work of two artists in creative collaboration, Yutaka Yoshinaga in Japan and Peter Ford in Bristol.
The contribution from István Orosz (Budapest) includes etchings that can be recognised only through the reflective cylinder placed on them. One of Hungary’s best-known artist designers, István’s intriguing images have gained him many awards. Other invited artists include Mikael Kihlman, from Stockholm, whose dry-points depict Craców, Poland. The fourth invited artist is Masuhiro Kasai (Tokyo) who was influenced by his student days in Paris. Finally, the strange etchings by Kunito Nagaoka, also from Japan, come from the years he spent in Berlin during the Cold War era.
This focus on travel and artists from outside Britain in the 6th Open Print show at the RWA, links with the theme for Museums and Galleries month, May 2004, Travel and the art of Travelling.
The 200 works that complete the exhibition have been selected from the open submission in mid-April. The exhibition includes some of the finest examples of traditional and experimental printmaking in Britain and abroad at the present time. Most of the work will be for sale.
*MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging
For further information please contact Fiona Swadling at the RWA : fiona.swadling@rwa.org.uk