Rebecca Elves is a multidisciplinary artist making ceramic, drawn and painted beings which work to quietly repair the fabric between worlds. Based in Thanet, she knits together stories, cultivating the 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, before 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.
Selected recent exhibitions include A Siren’s Call, commissioned as part of Art in Romney Marsh (2023); Lido Open, Lido Stores, Margate (2023, selected by Charles Williams); 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. She has spoken about her practice at venues including Drawing Room’s Drawing Research Forum (2023) and the University of Gloucestershire’s Home Symposium (2022). In 2016 she graduated from the Royal College of Art, where she received the Gordon Peter Pickard Award to make drawings in Montréal. She has recently completed her fully funded practice-led PhD, during which she was awarded a 2021 British Council Venice Research Fellowship.
Selected recent exhibitions include A Siren’s Call, commissioned as part of Art in Romney Marsh (2023); Lido Open, Lido Stores, Margate (2023, selected by Charles Williams); 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. She has spoken about her practice at venues including Drawing Room’s Drawing Research Forum (2023) and the University of Gloucestershire’s Home Symposium (2022). In 2016 she graduated from the Royal College of Art, where she received the Gordon Peter Pickard Award to make drawings in Montréal. She has recently completed her fully funded practice-led PhD, during which she was awarded a 2021 British Council Venice Research Fellowship.
CV
Selected Exhibitions
Art in Romney Marsh: A Siren’s Call, St Clement’s Church, Old Romney, 2023
Lido Open 2023, Lido Stores, Margate, 2023 (curated 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 (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 (curated by Robyn Graham), London, 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
‘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