Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

“Changing Times” (Theme)

The theme for this year’s exhibition was “Changing Times” which wasn’t a
requirement but provided scope for a thematic wall, except that…..

The end wall of the West Gallery was devoted to “Changing Times”

….The interpretation of the topic was so very wide that in some ways the wall
lacked a unity normally associated with a theme. 

I liked some of the artwork on the “Changing Times” theme – but I
do remember thinking that it was quite remarkable how many paintings were not
associated with what I’d have thought were some of the very changing times
we’ve just been through in the last two years. While at the same time there
was a lot about children being born and growing up…..

I guess the challenge is to find a theme which is stimulating enough to get
artists to produce work for the theme and, at the same time, to not make it so
wide as to lose a sense of purpose.

Young Artists

Some of the Young Artists in the East Gallery

I liked a lot of the work in the Young Artists section in the East
Gallery. I was a bit surprised the fact that work by Young Artists was grouped
was 

• not more clearly signalled on the walls of the Gallery – near to the artwork
• not highlighted as being particularly relevant to the Young Artist Prizes
  sponsored by Winsor & Newton
• not listed separately in the catalogue

The label ‘Young Artist’ was on every naming label for the artwork on the
wall – but it was very easy to miss it
– as I did for quite a few minutes until I realised what I was looking at. I
think a Young Artist wall or section needs an explanatory text very close by
e.g. how young is young and who is eligible

I’m guessing the high turnover of staff at the Mall Galleries in recent times
means that some of the ingrained experience about how things have been done in
the past has diminished to the point of close to non-existence.

Small = Affordable?

The North Gallery seemed to be very sparsely hung compared to most
exhibitions.  It made me think that maybe the selectors were expecting
more larger paintings – and were possibly somewhat flummoxed when they found
they’d got a lot more smaller / small medium ones. 

Part of North Gallery

Artists from the last major (banking crash) recession will remember that
the affordability of art becomes ever more critical if you want to generate
a sale
from buyers who are not impervious to the cost of living – and one of the ways
of doing that is to reduce the size of your paintings to make them more
affordable.

It may have been a deliberate decision for another reason – but I was struck
by how the ratio on size had shifted since the last ROI exhibition I visited

Personally, I’d have given more space to the larger paintings hung in the West
and East Galleries and
made (and marketed) the North Gallery as “The Small Works / Affordable Art Gallery”
– and made it a ‘destination’ people want to visit.

The small works wall in the West Gallery

Framing

More and more artwork is in neutral wooden frames. I particularly liked what
Linda Alexander ROI had done with her group of paintings – using neutral but
different colours/tones which suited the subject matter with
every frame different but relating well to its neighbour