Rebecca Elves (b. 1990, UK) is a multidisciplinary artist who works between the marshlands of north Kent and her studio in Margate. Interested in how we inhabit our internal landscapes and the world around us, she uses the interplay between drawing, ceramics and painting to listen for voices lurking within and beyond things. Cultivating space for chance and the accidental by using the hand-building process to draw clay to the point of imminent collapse, she invites organic structures to unfold. In turn, fleeting encounters with shoreline, cliff-face and dreamscape, captured through drawing, coalesce into strange beings which invite contemplation of growth, decay and repair.
In 2016 she graduated from the Royal College of Art, where she received the Gordon Peter Pickard Award to make drawings in Canada. In 2021, she was awarded a British Council Venice Research Fellowship, and she has gone on to speak about her practice at venues including Drawing Room, London (2023). Selected recent exhibitions include VESSEL, curated by OHSH Projects, The Bottle Factory, London (2024), Situational, Safehouse 2, Peckham (2024); Multitasking, Lido Stores, Margate (2024); Art in Romney Marsh: A Siren’s Call, St Clement’s Church, Old Romney (2023), Lido Open, Lido Stores, Margate (2023, 2022); Supple Octopus, The Tub, Hackney (2022); What I See I’ll Never Tell, Wilder Gallery, London (2021) and The Studio at 4 a.m., Hastings Contemporary (2020).
In 2016 she graduated from the Royal College of Art, where she received the Gordon Peter Pickard Award to make drawings in Canada. In 2021, she was awarded a British Council Venice Research Fellowship, and she has gone on to speak about her practice at venues including Drawing Room, London (2023). Selected recent exhibitions include VESSEL, curated by OHSH Projects, The Bottle Factory, London (2024), Situational, Safehouse 2, Peckham (2024); Multitasking, Lido Stores, Margate (2024); Art in Romney Marsh: A Siren’s Call, St Clement’s Church, Old Romney (2023), Lido Open, Lido Stores, Margate (2023, 2022); Supple Octopus, The Tub, Hackney (2022); What I See I’ll Never Tell, Wilder Gallery, London (2021) and The Studio at 4 a.m., Hastings Contemporary (2020).
CV
Selected Exhibitions
VESSEL, curated by OHSH Projects, The Bottle Factory, London, 2024
Situational, Safehouse 2, Peckham, 2024
Multitasking, Lido Stores, Margate, 2024
Art in Romney Marsh: A Siren’s Call, St Clement’s Church, Old Romney, 2023
Lido Open 2023, Lido Stores, Margate, 2023 (selected by Charles Williams)
In and Beyond Things (solo), Limbo Arts, Margate, 2023
Lido Open 2022, Lido Stores, Margate (curated by Anne Ryan), 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, 2021
Ghosts That Live Amongst Us, 155a Gallery, London, 2020
The Studio at 4 a.m., Hastings Contemporary, 2020
Lines of Thought, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2019
Plus One, 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
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
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