Rebecca Elves (b. 1990, UK) is a visual artist using painting and ceramics to build fictional worlds. Using hand coiling to emphasise traces of touch, she invites clay to take on a life of its own. As vessels emerge, they become characters. Once fired, their innards become unreachable. A pressure builds: unknown things inside pushing against the pressure of the world beyond their ceramic walls. By painting directly from these vessels, the stories simmering inside them begin to spill.
Solo exhibitions include Multistorey, Liminal Gallery, Margate (forthcoming), In and Beyond Things, LIMBO, Margate (2023), and The House Was Like Her, Daphne Oram Gallery, Canterbury (2022). Group exhibitions include Slip, Oceans Apart Gallery (2026), Necrology, Haarlem Art Space (2025), VESSEL, OHSH Projects (2024), Multitasking, Lido Stores (2024), What I See I’ll Never Tell, Wilder Gallery (2021) and The Studio at 4am, Hastings Contemporary (2020).
Rebecca has spoken about her practice at venues including Drawing Conversations 5, UCA (2024) & Drawing Research Forum, Drawing Room (2023). In 2023 she was commissioned to create site-specific ceramic listening vessels in Romney Marsh; in 2021, she was awarded a British Council Research Venice Research Fellowship. She completed her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2016, where she was awarded the Gordon Peter Pickard travel bursary.
Solo exhibitions include Multistorey, Liminal Gallery, Margate (forthcoming), In and Beyond Things, LIMBO, Margate (2023), and The House Was Like Her, Daphne Oram Gallery, Canterbury (2022). Group exhibitions include Slip, Oceans Apart Gallery (2026), Necrology, Haarlem Art Space (2025), VESSEL, OHSH Projects (2024), Multitasking, Lido Stores (2024), What I See I’ll Never Tell, Wilder Gallery (2021) and The Studio at 4am, Hastings Contemporary (2020).
Rebecca has spoken about her practice at venues including Drawing Conversations 5, UCA (2024) & Drawing Research Forum, Drawing Room (2023). In 2023 she was commissioned to create site-specific ceramic listening vessels in Romney Marsh; in 2021, she was awarded a British Council Research Venice Research Fellowship. She completed her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2016, where she was awarded the Gordon Peter Pickard travel bursary.
CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 Multistorey, Liminal Gallery, Margate
2023 In and Beyond Things, LIMBO, Margate
2022 The House Was Like Her, Daphne Oram Gallery, Canterbury
Selected Group Exhibitions
2027 Works On Paper, Lido Stores, Margate
2026 Turps Margate Show, The Romantic, Margate
2026 Slip, Oceans Apart Gallery, Salford
2026 Human Remains, Salon, Margate
2026 Feast of Fools, Limbo, Margate
2025 Necrology, Haarlem Art Space, Derbyshire
2025 Forces of Nature, Oare Gunpowder Works, Faversham (supported by Cement Fields)
2024 VESSEL, curated by OHSH Projects, The Bottle Factory, London
2024 Situational, Safehouse 2, Peckham
2024 Multitasking, Lido Stores, Margate
2023 Art in Romney Marsh: A Siren’s Call, St Clement’s Church, Old Romney
2023 Lido Open 2023, Lido Stores, Margate
2022 Lido Open 2022, Lido Stores, Margate
2022 Supple Octopus, The Tub, Hackney
2022 The House Was Like Her (solo), Daphne Oram Gallery, Canterbury
2021 What I See I’ll Never Tell, Wilder Gallery, London
2020 Ghosts That Live Amongst Us, 155a Gallery, London
2020 The Studio at 4 a.m., Hastings Contemporary
Selected Lectures, Presentations & Workshops
Presentation and panel discussion, Drawing Conversations 5, UCA Farnham, 2024
‘Sanctuary Vessels’, presentation and panel discussion, Drawing Research Forum, Drawing Room, 2023
‘The House Was Like Her’, presentation and panel discussion, Home Symposium, University of Gloucestershire, 2022
‘Digital Mediators’, panel discussion, British Council Venice Research Fellowship, Arts University Bournemouth, 2021
Awards, Grants, Residencies & Fellowships
Art in Romney Marsh commission, 2023
British Council Venice Research Fellowship, 2021
Shortlisted, BEERS London Summer Marathon, 2020
Faculty PhD Scholarship, Canterbury Christ Church University, 2019-2022
Threads Micro-Residency, Ideas Test, Sittingbourne, 2018
Finalist, Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, 2018
Nothing from Nothing residency, Limbo Arts, Margate, 2018
Gordon Peter Pickard Travel Bursary, Royal College of Art, 2015
Fees bursary, Royal College of Art, 2014-2016
Highly Commended, Cheltenham Illustration Awards, 2013
Semifinalist, Adobe Design Achievement Awards, 2012
Narrative Prize, Kingston School of Art, 2012
Education
2025-26 Turps Margate
2019-2023 PhD (practice-led, fully funded): ‘The House Was Like Her: Rebuilding the Post-Traumatic Home Through Art Practice’, School of Creative Arts and Industries, Canterbury Christ Church University
2014-16 MA Visual Communication, Royal College of Art
2009-12 BA (Hons) Illustration & Animation, Kingston University