RCA, Conwy - 28 May - 9 July 2022
PAPER, Manchester - 5 November - 17 December 2022

Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester - 5 November - 20 November 2022


Iain Andrews (Saul Hay), Suzanne Bethell (Saul Hay), Jess Bugler (RCA), Christopher Cook (Saul Hay), Paul Croft (RCA), Lara Davies (PAPER), Lisa Denyer (PAPER), Heather Eastes (RCA), Tim Ellis (PAPER), Richard Gant (RCA), Mark Gibbs (Saul Hay), Noelle Griffiths (RCA), David Hancock (PAPER), John Hedley (RCA), Steven Heaton (Saul Hay), Diana Heeks (RCA), Liam Hopkins (Saul Hay), David Leapman (PAPER), David Lock (PAPER), Martyn Lucas (Saul Hay), Julia Midgley (Saul Hay), James Moore (PAPER), Darren Nixon (PAPER), Ondre Nowakowski (RCA), Anthony Ratcliffe (Saul Hay), Andrew Smith (RCA), Stephen Snoddy (Saul Hay), Ruth Thomas (RCA), Ruby Tingle (PAPER), Casper White (LLE), Hannah Wooll (PAPER)

Paper After All is a collaborative touring exhibition devised by Royal Cambrian Academy in Conwy, LLE in Cardiff, and PAPER and Saul Hay Gallery in Manchester. The exhibition brings together a group of artists associated with each organisation for a dialogue around paper. Each artist has been asked to respond to the idea of assemblage: art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially in order to create a new body of work for the exhibition.


Assemblage is a process that can be dated back to the Renaissance through the aristocratic practice of curating cabinets of curiosity brimming with oddities as evidence of intellect and cultural distinction. Over time, these practices filtered down to the commonplace use of the mantelpiece as a location of prized possessions. Objects of personal significance and status have appeared in art throughout history, from Dutch memento mori still lives evidencing wealth and status with the caveat of impermanence to Cornell’s Shadow Boxes that contain his voracious wanderlust. In the early part of the 20th Century, artists incorporated items and objects form popular culture into their actual work: Braque and Picasso used collage in their Cubist works, Dadaists Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann created political satire from manipulated newspaper cuttings, and Kurt Schwitters took this to a whole new level with his immersive Merz, a psychological collage of found fragments.

In the post-war years, artists incorporated pop culture images and objects into their world in order to question ideas of representation and reality in media saturated world. In developing an objectivist realism, Pop art took assemblage to new extremes of scale and complexity. Assemblage is a continual presence in our contemporary everyday lives. Social media provides an outlet to share assemblages of curated personal content, communicating taste and cultural capital to our followers. We appropriate continually in order to create our own unique identities. We are cultural magpies picking over and collecting the ephemera of our times in order to find connection and community.

Paper After All invites around 40 artists to create assemblages that scour the present day. The exhibition features collage, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, video/animation, and Multi-media, as each artist stretches the concept in order to bring assemblage into their diverse practices.

Artwork

Lara Davies
Study 2 to accompany Afterimage

Oil on Paper on Panel
30 x 21cm
2022

Lara Davies
Study 1 for Marmalade

Oil on Paper on Panel
30 x 21cm
2022

Lisa Denyer
Glitch

Acrylic, emulsion, collage, felt tip, filler and costume jewels on found plywood,
32x26cm,
2022

Tim Ellis
A Peaceful World

Copper, enamel and ink on paper and Victorian photograph card
34cm x 24cm x 4cm
2022

David Hancock
Perseus & Andromeda

Watercolour on Paper
42 x 30cm
2022

David Hancock
Laocoon & his Sons

Watercolour on Paper
30 x 42cm
2022

David Leapman
Doctor Cunning's Sufficient Time

Watercolour on paper
28.5x19cm
2022
David Leapman
Winged Pit Former Child

Diamond dust, blue glass and watercolour on handmade paper
19x28cm
2022
David Lock
Misfit (Model)

oil on paper
29.7 x 21cm
2022

James Moore
When you re-spawn inside your own face

Acrylic on Paper
20 x 30cm ( 24 x 34cm framed)
2021

Darren Nixon
Please Display Mingle

Mixed Media
42 x 30cm
2022

Darren Nixon
Mingle Display Please

Mixed Media
42 x 30cm
2022

Darren Nixon
Display Please Mingle

Mixed Media
42 x 30cm
2022

Ruby Tingle
Deep Swamp II

Paper collage on leather
28 x 16 cm
2022
Ruby Tingle
Deep Swamp I

Collage on specialist paper
20 x 35 cm
2022

Casper White
In the car talking to tiktok

Oil on paper (100% cotton oil paper) mounted on board with brass candle holder and candle
25 x 20cm
2022

Hannah Wooll
Play

Paper Clay on found figurine
32 x 20 x 15cm
2022

Hannah Wooll
Sing To Me Sweetly

acrylic ink on found book page
25 x 20cm
2022

Suzanne Bethell
Untitled Assemblage 2

Handpainted paper fragments
38 x 50cm
2022

Christopher Cook
Still Life with Pangolin (after Clara Peeters)

Graphite, resin and oil on coated paper
72 x 102cm
2022

Steven Heaton
History is Within Us (as your place in the world fades away)

Found antique papers on birch cradled panel, lime wood deep box frame 54cm x 44cm
2022

Mark Gibbs
Nightjar Drone

Paper, working security camera and QR codes about Drone warfare and surveillance
52 cm long x 19cm wide x 20cm high
2022

Liam Hopkins
Digital Nervous System

2022

Martyn Lucas
A Victorian View

Collage on found watercolour painting
21.5 x 26.5cm
2022

Martyn Lucas
Atomium Child 1987

Collage on paper
24.5 x 33.5cm
2022

Julia Midgley
Signs of the Time

Mixed media on hand pressed paper
23 x 36 cm (framed approx 31 x 44cm)
2022
 

Anthony Ratcliffe
LODE

Saunders Botanic 300gsm  text -  ink jet
2022

Stephen Snoddy
C2

Watercolour on Paper
136 x 87mm
2022

Stephen Snoddy
C1

Watercolour on Paper
136 x 87mm
2022

Paul Croft
Aber Ebb & Flow Variations II

Lithograph Monoprint with Chine Colle
36.5cm x 28cm (Bleed Print) 60cm x 50cm (framed)
2022

Diana Heeks
Sunbeam   

Wood, paper and acrylic.
183 x 6 x 4cm
2022

Richard Gant
Barbary Series - Rock Refugees

cast paper pulp with graphite and cretaceous red chalk powder
2022

Andrew Smith
Almagro No.3

Paper relief with acrylic
45 x 55 cm
2022

Jess Bulger
The Safety of Objects I

Takuhon
42 x 30cm
2022

Heather Eastes
Unearthing, Quarrying
(in progress)
Collage on Paper
2022

Heather Eastes
A Hole in Fairyland
(in progress)
Collage on Paper
2022

Noelle Griffiths

Installation Views @ RCA Conwy