Exhibitions

The Real Food cafe in Exeter supports local artists and provides a welcoming space for art exhibitions. Find out about: our current exhibition, future exhibitions, previous exhibitions, exhibition statement/info for artists.

CURRENT EXHIBITION

A Transition of Artists 30 October - 24 November 2012

The show opens at the Real Food Store cafe gallery on Tuesday 30 October and runs until Saturday 24 November with an Open Evening on Thursday 8 November 6-8pm. Everyone is welcome. Grab a drink at the bar and meet the artists.

12 EVA artists are involved, showing 2-3 pieces each: Jane Cope (painter), Naomi Hart (painter), Jeremy Speck (printmaker), Hugo Lines (painter), Sylvia Llecha (ceramic artist and maker), Jenny Campbell (painter),  Jess Davies (painter and printmaker), Kenson Low (painter and illustrator), Diana Wackerbarth (artist photographer), Rebecca Turk-Richards (painter), Ulrika-Igraine Muñoz-Alarcón (ceramicist and graphic artist), Adam Bunce (painter).

The exhibition aims to be as diverse as EVA studios, with both established artists and recent graduates, presenting a wide variety of work, ranging from photography to printmaking, ceramics to painting, figurative to abstract. All work focuses on the transition between autumn and winter, some of the artists have worked primarily with one season, and some have taken a very tangible and direct approach to the theme, while others have used abstract or very subtle notes in their creative process.

The studios are currently the working space for nearly 40 studio holders, one of the largest studio providers in the South-West region, working across a range of disciplines, such as jewellery, painting and sculpture, ceramics, installation art, photography, textiles and more.  

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Information about the artist & their work is made available in the café. We also put information & images of the artist's work on this website & usually on 'ning' the interactive community part of the website where you can view a short video of some of the artists talking about their work, in the café gallery.

Price Lists

All artworks are for sale unless marked otherwise and a list of works with prices will be available in the café. Please see a member of staff if you would like to buy a painting. Please make a cheque out to the artist. Alternatively you can pay cash. Unfortunately we cannot accept credit card payments for artworks. (There are a number of cash points nearby).

Local art

The Real Food Store is a community owned business, committed to growing a vibrant local food economy. We believe in the power & relevance of art & we are pleased that our café provides a gallery space ideal for the exhibition of wall-mounted art works. We are particularly keen to exhibit the work of artists who explore the relationships between people, animals, plants & landscape- & of course food. High quality work by local artists- (Exeter, Devon & surrounding counties). Our approach is inclusive & we are open to submissions from solo artists, artist collectives & community art organisations- working in a range of different media. We want to uphold a high standard & a level of craftsmanship that reflects the skill & beauty inherent in growing, producing & transforming food. 

Exhibition programme

Exhibitions are coordinated by Sarah Collier, a founder member of Real Food. The time available  & resources for putting on exhibitions is limited. We are receiving an increasing number of expressions of interest from artists. The exhibitions we host will therefore be the ones that we think best relate to our ethos & best suit our café environment. We already have a great track record of exhibitions featuring the work of a number of accomplished artists based in the South West. Our aim is to run an excellent exhibitions programme despite limited resources. All the artists who contact Real Food will hear back from us as soon as possible. Please in the first instance write to [email protected].

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS

Escape, 2 - 27 October 2012

Three local artists escape into landscape, townscape and interiorscape painting. Showcasing the work of three Dartmoor based artists - Russell Scott, Lynne Ong & Kari McGowan, this superb show explored the theme of 'escape' and working with oil, watercolours & pastels.

'The Birds', by the Double Elephant Print Workshop, 3 - 29 September 2012

An exhibition by members of Double Elephant Print Workshop. An array of collectable prints and original cards will be for sale, all on the theme of birds. There will be many English birds featured including blackbirds, swallows, thrushes and finches, inspired by bird life in Devon. Created by hand on traditional presses these are not to be confused with digital printing. Catherine Cartwright, a director of Double Elephant explains,

“I really like printmaking because there’s always things to learn. It’s a processes based medium which means you’re not always in complete control of what’s going to happen at the end. It’s always exciting when you put a print through the press for the first time and then take if off the plate because you never know exactly what’s going to come out. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not, but you learn through experience."

The Bird Song exhibition can be viewed in the upstairs cafe during opening times between 10am to 5pm, from Tuesday to Sunday. All the art works are framed and are for sale, ranging from £30 to £200.

From linocuts to drypoints, screenprints and etchings, don't miss what is sure to be a very popular exhibition.

Graveyard of the Atlantic, by Dave Green 10 July - 1 September

Thanks also for enthusiasm and financial support, from North Devon’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Sustainable Development Fund.

Dave Green is a photographic artist based in Bideford, North Devon. His latest work, Graveyard of the Atlantic, was seen at the Real Food Store for the first time in England, previously it was shown earlier in the year at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island USA. These images were grown out of seven years exploration, study and immersion in the coast of North Devon. It is a hidden coast found only through a vertiginous climb down a cliff path or by leaving the sandy beach and trekking over seaweed strewn boulders at low tide. It is a wild coast, unpopulated by holiday-makers, the domain of seagulls that can make you feel quite unwelcome. It is also an historic coast where the rhythms and cycles of millions of years can be seen in the layers of strata of an eroded cliff face and the more recent past can be found in smooth rusting ship parts, in memorial of hundreds of wrecks, littering the rocky shore.

www.greengallery.co.uk

Magic Carpet 'Midsummer Magic' 12 June - 7 July 2012

Magic Carpet is one of Exeter's leading arts for health charities. It was established in 1981 and works at several locations in Devon, covering all areas of the arts including painting, sculpture, ceramics, printing, photography, animation and film, music, drama, dance and movement and environmental arts. Created by participants at Magic Carpet workshops, the artworks displayed included linocuts, watercolours, ceramics & textiles with a wide range of subjects drawn from nature. The Magic Carpet Choir performed at the open eve which was fantastic.

www.magiccarpet-arts.org.uk

Mary Sumner & Rachel Sumner 'Paper, Print & Stitch' 8 May - 2 June 2012

Lino prints, works on paper and stitched textiles exploring the artists shared enthusiasms for the Devon landscape and the subject of food.

www.marysumner.com

www.rachelsumner.org

Janet Sainsbury 'My family & other people' 12 March - 14 April 2012

Janet Sainsbury is an Exeter based contemporary visual artist working in collage, paint & other media forms. This exhibition looked at the ambiguous relationships we have with animals as pets & nature, through idiosyncratic pictures that are humorous, colourful & accessible. Janet works from her home in Exeter. Originally from Sussex, Janet trained and worked in Brighton before embarking on a successful career here in the South West, where she’s well connected to the regional arts scene and community. www.janetsainsbury.co.uk

Festive Exhibition 28 November 2011 - 16 January 2012

Featuring the work of 2 contrasting local artists

Elizabeth Rashley, linocuts & Amy McCarthy, stained glass & mixed media

Rashley’s bold linocuts depict animals, birds and the feminine form in an expressive and imaginative pictorial style. A member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Elizabeth, orginally born in Exeter, now has a studio in Newton Abbot where she produces her own colour reduction prints with a Victorian Albion printing press.

McCarthy, from Heavitree, produces a wide range of stained glass, from individual Christmas tree decorations to bright window panels, using a variety of methods, including acid etching and traditional kiln fired painting. Amy’s work celebrates the nature and landscape of the south west and she loves using sea washed glass found on Devon’s beaches or recycled glass where she can.

Katya Romankevich, Unique monoprints 24 Oct - 26 Nov 2011

My prints are influenced by natural forms and shapes and are all forms of monoprinting rather than editions of work making each piece unique. I like the way printing can be used as a medium to produce complex layers of texture and ink and each print evolves organically as it progresses. Colour is very important in the layering process and profoundly affects the finished piece.

Annabel Hanson, 'Colourful Nature' 13 Sept 2011 – 22 October

With a background in printing, Annabel uses vibrant colours and a bold technique to paint the landscape and farm animals in and around Whitestone (near Exeter) where she lives.

Alison Jacobs, 'Livestock 2011' 16 June – 27 July 2011

Original acrylic paintings by Somerset based painter, winner of the People's Choice at The Bath and West Show Open Exhibition in May 2011 for 'Herd on the Hill', featuring a trademark subject- cows, explored in brilliant colour and detail. www.alisonjacobs.com

Jane Cope 25 April - 14 June 2011

Original oils on canvas and prints by Exeter based illustrator and painter Jane Cope featuring animals & exploring life & landscape often with vibrancy and humour. www.janecope.com