Emerging Artist’s Work Selected for Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

Local artist, Sarah Lorrimer-Riley has had work accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition less than six months after she started her painting career. The Summer exhibition has taken place every year since 1769 and has featured many iconic artists (including Turner, Constable and Tracey Emin amongst many others). The theme for the exhibition this year is Climate.

Sarah’s selected piece entitled ‘Zeus’ was created against the backdrop of a global pandemic, and explores the idea of the impossibility of trying to tame the forces of nature. It is displayed in the Lecture Room, curated by Sculptor Conrad Shawcross and is hung alongside works by Grayson Perry, Tim Shaw and Bill Jacklin. The Summer Exhibition runs until 21st August 2022.

Sarah said, “I like to think of my work as a conversation. I apply lots of layers to each canvas using a variety of techniques, each layer reflecting different thoughts, places and time. My work explores and reflects those hidden spaces (both mental and physical). In every piece and layer I make marks (with ink, pencil, oil pastels and other things that I have to hand) I like to think of these as a ‘mark map’, taking the observer on a journey.”

Sarah is the current Artist in Residence at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley, the exhibition in the foyer will run until the 4 August and Sarah also has a couple of pieces in the ‘Community Gallery’ upstairs, which will be on display until September. All work on display is for sale and a percentage of sales will go directly to the River and Rowing Museum to help fund their work. More of Sarah’s work can be found on her website www.sarahlorrimerriley.com and on Instagram @slorrimerrileyart