Rye Society of Artists (RSA) is running a special Spring selling show at the Rye Art Gallery on the High Street, showing works from 38 of its 47 members, Artists working in two dimensions, for example painters, have two pieces in the show, those who work in 3D such as ceramicists have up to four.
RSA members live within a 15 mile radius of Rye. New members since the last exhibition include Katherine Reekie, Leah Fusco, Nick Archer and Karen Birchwood. All of the newly elected members are exhibiting in the show. There is a wide range of work on display, with Matt Hardman’s thought-provoking The Fall of Leasam House and Kate Schuricht’s wall mounted vases being particular favourites of mine. Steve Duffy was showing some beautiful ceramic bowls and for a mere £24 you can take away one of his lovely hand-thrown mugs.
Although individual RSA members have exhibited at Rye Art Gallery on many occasions, this is the first time that there has been a dedicated group show for the society, which takes place in the upper galleries and runs alongside the Richard Adams exhibition, who is also a member of the RSA. It was while looking around for a new venue for the summer exhibition, that Davida Smith, the chair of RSA came up with the idea of a spring show, after discussions with Gallery director Jane Fenn. “Rye Art Gallery isn’t big enough for our regular annual exhibition where artists submit up to six works each, but the space offered a nice possibility for a spring show” Smith told us.
We will have to wait to see whether the spring show becomes a regular fixture, but on my three visits, the galleries were busy, with people buying as well as just looking, While I was there, several exhibits were sold to people outside Rye who wanted to take them away immediately, but fortunately the RSA had allowed for this and there were replacements in reserve to hang and fill the gaps.
The usual RSA summer exhibition, now in its 64th year, will take place in its new venue, the Dance Hall at the Rye Community Centre on August 1 -31. This replaces the former venue, the Boys Club on Mermaid Street, which is being redeveloped. The Dance Hall offers a much bigger space and will allow the show to grow. Last year saw the exhibition had more than 2000 visitors and a record 150 works were sold.
The spring exhibition runs until May 10 and is open from 10:30 am until 5:30 pm every day except Sunday when the gallery closes earlier.