Award-winning artist Emily Gillbanks is set to have her artwork displayed at the Royal Society of British Arts Annual Exhibition in the Mall Galleries in London.
The Royal Society of British Artists boasts just over 100 of the UK’s top painters, sculptors and printmakers as members, all possessing the highest level of skill in their chosen styles and media.
Along with the members of the society the exhibition also includes work selected from the society’s open call from which the former Thomas Gainsborough School student’s painting was selected.
Emily, who previously won the prestigious Global Design Graduate show Awards, in the Fine Art category last year. said: “I am excited that my painting will be exhibited at the Mall Galleries where I have previously been inspired by both respected and emerging figurative artists that have exhibited there.
“I have been going to the Mall Galleries for quite a few years to see the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Society of British Artists, and the Federation of British Arts Futures exhibitions they hold every year."
The 21-year-old - from Wormingford, near Colchester - has previously applied for her work to be showcased but was unsuccessful. Last year she had her work pre-selected for exhibition but it didn't make the final stage.
She added: "I am inspired by new figurative painters and the ways in which they’re redefining their own concepts of what Realism looks like today.
"All the way through studying art at Thomas Gainsborough School and Sixth Form in Sudbury, and the University of Suffolk I have always been interested in tracing a trajectory of Realism.
"Even now, I am currently thinking about how technology can disrupt Realism, depicting ways in which subjects are underpinned by technology."
Emily, who is now studying for a Masters Degree in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London, has been painting for as long as she can remember.
She said: " I have one term left of my first of two years studying Painting at the Royal College of Art and I haven’t even been on campus yet.
"It has been really tough for all art students throughout the pandemic who have not had access to studio spaces, workshops, or libraries, but have still been expected to pay full tuition fees and complete assignments in these times.
"I am lucky enough to have a studio space in my garden near Colchester, which was constructed in the first lockdown. If I didn’t have this space, I would not have been able to carry on painting and studying."
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