Katsutoshi Yuasa, VR London Live Walk #1 2021, £1,800 unframed, Water-based woodcut on handmade Japanese paper

 

The 253rd Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition opens next week and we are incredibly proud to announce that five of our artists have been selected to exhibit their work in this joyful celebration of contemporary art. A huge congratulations to Katsutoshi Yuasa, Susan Aldworth, Emma Johnson, Yanko Tihov, Claire Brewster and all the artists selected for the prestigious Summer Exhibition. You can view more artworks by these artists and many more here.

The exhibition is a festival of colour, coordinated by Yinka Shonibare and a panel of artists under the theme 'Reclaiming Magic', celebrating the joy of creating art. It is held in the Main Galleries at The Royal Academy, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD | Tuesday - Sunday 10 am - 6 pm - 22 September 2021 - 2 January 2022.


You can register for tickets here. Friends and Members of the RA go for FREE but booking is essential.

 

Katsutoshi Yuasa, VR London Live Walk #3 2021, £1,800 unframed, Water-based woodcut on handmade Japanese paper

 

Katsutoshi Yuasa's latest creations are currently on show at the RA. Katsutoshi Yuasa makes woodcut prints from his own digital photographs. By combining two processes - the camera's 'snapshot' and the woodcut's lengthy reinterpretation of the same image - he hopes to crystallise the atmospheric and emotional character of his subjects. His pieces take weeks to complete, transforming his ephemeral subjects into haunting images, as beautiful up close as from a distance.

 

Susan Aldworth, Puff Of Smoke 1, Monotype, £1,200 unframed

 

Susan Aldworth is a visual artist who lives and works in London. She has a background in philosophy, and a strong interest in investigating the workings of the human mind, especially consciousness and our sense of self. Susan's work on the relationship between the physical brain and our sense of identity has linked her with the Art & Science movement in the UK since the late 1990s. The above large monotype "Puff Of Smoke" was selected for the RA Summer Exhibition.

 

Emma Johnson, St Paul's Cathedral And Millennium Bridge 2021, £2,000, Layered, hand-cut, vintage paper Ordnance Survey Maps

 

Emma Johnson explores the fragmented, multifaceted nature of memory, time and history. Her works are characterised by an almost compulsive use of collection, categorisation, deconstruction and the juxtaposition of objects, images and text. Johnson reconstructs maps into artworks, cutting paths and layers into each piece, obsessively transforming the original into something reconstituted, new and complex.

 

Yanko Tihov, London Passport Map 2021, £950 unframed, Screenprint and 24ct Gold on Paper

 

In Tihov's passport series of limited edition hand-finished prints, the design is determined by the colours and motifs of each country's passport, which the artist carefully matches and re-creates within the correct national borders. Tihov has hand-painted the texts, seals and coats of arms that adorn the covers with real 24-carat gold, successfully capturing their individual details. The paint adds a unique layer to each work which beautifully reflects the lights and enlivens the surface.