Rebecca Elves


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I am a multidisciplinary artist based along the chalky Kentish coastline. In my practice, I knit together stories, cultivating emergent bonds lurking within and beyond things, creating animated encounters between gestural ceramics and drawn and painted surfacts. A sense of movement is central to this intuitive making practice, (re-)introducing fluidity to dislodge stuck memories and turn towards the meeting-place of touch and embodiment churning within clay’s earthy, fleshy, body, extending these sensations into space. The bodily and botanical forms that emerge from working intuitively with clay in this way begin to reconnect interior and external worlds, creating space for collective contemplation of growth, decay and repair.

Currently preparing for A Siren’s Call, commissioned as part of 2023’s Art in Romney Marsh trail, recent exhibitions include In and Beyond Things at Limbo Arts, Margate (solo; 2023), Supple Octopus with Coral Brookes at The Tub, Hackney (2022), What I See I’ll Never Tell at Wilder Gallery, London (2021), and The Studio at 4 a.m. at Hastings Contemporary (2020), curated by Anne Ryan. I have spoken about my practice at venues including Drawing Room’s Drawing Research Forum (2023). In 2016 I graduated from the Royal College of Art, where I received the Gordon Peter Pickard Award to make drawings in Montréal. I have recently completed my fully funded practice-led PhD, during which I was awarded a 2021 British Council Venice Research Fellowship.

CV


Forthcoming Exhibitions
Heat, Rupturexibit, Hampton Wick, August 2023
A Siren’s Call, Art in Romney Marsh, St Clement’s Church, September 2023
Lido Open 2023, Lido Stores, Margate, September 2023 (curated by Charles Williams)

Selected Exhibitions
In and Beyond Things (solo), Limbo Arts, Margate, 2023
Lido Open 2022, Lido Stores, Margate (curated by Anne Ryan), 2022
Supple Octopus (duo), 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, 2021 (curated by Kristian Day; with Joana Galego & James Owens)
Ghosts That Live Amongst Us, 155a Gallery, London (curated by Robyn Graham; catalogue), 2020
The Studio at 4 a.m., Hastings Contemporary (curated by Anne Ryan), 2020
Lines of Thought, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (catalogue), 2019
Plus One (duo), Limbo Arts, Margate (with Catherine Anyango Grünewald; Arts Council England supported), 2019
Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, 2018
What is Drawing?, Temple Church Triforium, London, 2018 Nothing from Nothing, Limbo Arts, Margate, 2017
Femfest, Ugly Duck, London, 2016
Show ’16, Royal College of Art, London, 2016
Different Strokes, Hockney Gallery, London (co-curator), 2015 Over the Line, Poetry Café, London, 2015
Offprint London, Tate Modern, London, 2014 
Not for Rental, 71a Gallery, London, 2013






Selected Lectures, Presentations & Workshops
‘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
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


© Rebecca Elves 2023