MAKING A MARK: Call for Entries - Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2022

Monday, October 11, 2021

Call for Entries - Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2022

Next March, The Royal Society of British Artists will be having their Annual Exhibition - and they'd like you to enter your art!

This post is about their Call for Entries

Entries opened today Monday 11th October 2021
The deadline for entries is Friday 10 December 2021 - by 12 noon
For full terms and conditions, click here.

and covers

the exhibition in 2022
cash prizes and awards
who can enter
what you can enter
how to enter

The Royal Society of British Artists invites painters, sculptors and printmakers to submit their work for consideration to be shown in the Society’s Annual Exhibition 2022. As well as skill and draughtsmanship, they will be looking for originality and creativity.

RBA Annual Exhibition 2022

The exhibition is being held at the Mall Galleries - between Buckingham Palace an Trafalgar Square - and

opens on Thursday 3 March, 10am to 5pm before
closing on Saturday 12 March, 5pm

It's a large exhibition which is normally held over all three galleries.

I very much recommend aspiring artists have a go at this one.

If an artist's artwork is good, he or she has have a decent chance of getting selected compared to some other open exhibitions and art competitions.
There's a tremendous variety of artwork on display in terms of subject matter, style and media used.

Note that in 2020, I commented that the exhibition was worth visiting because....

the fine art prints - which are simply STUNNING. This exhibition is worth visiting just for the prints alone!
the 3d work and sculpture which is numerous and very varied. The range of media and diversity of approaches is amazing.
The diversity of styles and media used for drawings and paintings. While some is still traditional, the diversity of styles mean that this exhibition has well and truly lost the air of "fuddy duddy" which it had in 2012.
the hang which is excellent - a huge exhibition remains accessible (apart from the labels - see the end). I very much appreciated the theming of different works - the still life at the entrance, the trees in two different places within the exhibition etc.
the size of the exhibition. They've selected 500 works in total - of which 20 relate to their RBA Star Students. Some of the paintings are hung in 3 rows - but they can cope with it as all remain accessible

Some of the prints in the RBA Annual Exhibition 2021

Cash Prizes & Other Awards

This year's exhibition had some extremely impressive artworks which won prizes. This a link to the artworks which won prizes and awards at the Annual Exhibition in 2021.

A variety of Prizes and Awards are on offer. The total prize pot is worth over £5,000

These include (subject to final confirmation):

Cash Prizes

The de Laszlo Foundation Prize: The de Laszlo Medal for Excellence and £1,500 will be awarded for the best artwork from life by an artist aged 35 or under
The John Lynn Commemorative Award for a Young Artist: £500
The Surgeon's Prize: £500
The Peter Kelly Commemorative Prize: £300
The Ronald Morgan Memorial Award: £250
The Gordon Hulson Memorial Prize: £250 for draughtsmanship, variety & exploration
The Stuart Southall Print Prize: £250
Nathan David Award for Sculpture: £150
The Geoffrey Vivis Memorial Award: £100

Publication Awards

The Artist Magazine Award: The winner will be interviewed in The Artist magazine, print and digital editions
The Dry Red Press Award: The winning work will be published as a greeting card in the Dry Red Press 'Prize Winners' range, with royalties from the sale of the cards going to the artist

Art Materials & Other Awards

The Winsor & Newton Painting Award: Art materials to the value of £500
The Michael Harding Awards: Two awards of

£500 worth of Michael Harding art materials, and
10 painting starter sets

Hahnemuhle Fine Art UK Award: A prize of artist paper, worth £250
Frinton Frames Award: £200 of picture framing at Frinton Frames bespoke handfinished picture frame makers

Submitting an Entry

Artists are invited to submit entries via the open entry to this juried exhibition of work by members of the Royal Society of British Artists.

RECOMMENDED: This is an OPEN exhibition worth entering.

In the main exhibition, the split between members and open entries is respectable.
316 works (65%) are by Members of the RBA
169 artworks (35%) were selected from the Open Entry - out of c.1800 submissions - which is an increase from the 127 selected in 2017. Numbers are going in the right direction.
Which means around 9.3% of the artwork submitted via the Open Entry was selected for the Annual Exhibition. Review - Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

Who can submit

Any artist over 18 may submit - including artists who do not live or work in the UK.

What can you submit?

Acceptable media: Any medium including sculpture and original prints.
Age of artwork: no requirement
No. of artworks: up to six - of which up to four will be selected
Previous exhibitions: Work must not have been exhibited previously. I'm a big fan of art societies who refuse to allow people to exhibit work they have previously exhibited elsewhere - it makes for a better exhibition of work which is fresh to the eye.
Dry: Paintings should be completely dry at the time of delivery (or they won't be hung)
Size: Works should not be larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.
For Sale: All work must be for sale
Price: The minimum price is £300 (framed prints: £180, unframed prints: £120).

The Society welcomes works in any medium including painting, sculpture and original prints.

You can see the range of artwork submitted in my reviews of previous exhibitions - listed at the end of this blog post.

TIP: Do NOT be silly or over ambitious about prices - especially if you are unfamiliar with sales at this venue.

small works priced between £300 and £500 typically sell well (i.e. a much high percentage in this price bracket will sell compared to others - because they are more affordable)
most works sell below £1,000
members sell well between £500 and £1,500
if you are pricing above £2,000 you are

either a well known artist with some years experience and a credible track record of sales above this price point
or you have a very big ego and/or opinion of your own work and/or lack experience in exhibiting/selling your work

never ever price just above the big price point breaks (£500, £1000, £1,500) - always just below!

I don't think I can make it plainer than that!

Some small and smaller artworks in RBA Annual Exhibition this year

How to Submit

How to enter

Digital Entries ONLY: All entries are online - using digital images.

Digital image of an artwork must be in JPEG format and under 5MB (i.e. You cannot bring your artwork to London to enter)
Upload images of work at mallgalleries.oess1.uk between Monday 11th October and 12 noon on Friday 10 December 2021.

Physical Submission: Artists whose work passed digital preselection will be told about the Receiving Day and how to submit the artwork for the second stage (final) selection via the Pre-selection notification.
Entry fee per artwork: payable at the time of submitting / includes free entry for the artist to the exhibition (normally £4).

Artists aged over 35: £20
Younger Artists aged 35 or under: £14

For full terms and conditions, click here

Timeline - submission to exhibition

Submission closes: Friday 10 December 2021, 12 noon
Pre-selection notification: Friday 17th December 2021, from 12 noon
Receiving Day (Final Selection): Saturday 22nd January 2022, 10am to 5pm (Deliver artwork to Mall Galleries, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD)
Acceptance notification: Tuesday 25 January 2022, from 12 noon
Collection of unaccepted work: Thursday 27 January 2022, 10am to 5pm
Exhibition open: 3rd - 12th March 2022

Part of West Gallery in RBA Annual Exhibition 2021

International Artists - Information about VAT and delivery/storage

HMRC define you as an overseas seller if you sell goods stored in the UK to UK consumers and do not have a business establishment in the UK.

In this instance the Mall Galleries acts as your agent.
Those submitting from outside the UK must decide

whether they need to register for VAT in advance (see Overseas business and VAT)
engage an art carrier to deliver their work
do they know about the Customs processes and paperwork required to get their artwork into the UK - and then back again if it does not sell - without incurring additional costs.

See my page about International Art Shipping - How to ship/export art to other countries - which I do not guarantee is 100% up to date - but it gives you a sense of the issues and what you need to check.

Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibitions

These are my previous reviews of the annual exhibition

The online catalogue of the Annual Exhibition 2020 of the Royal Society of British Artists promises that it might be a good exhibition. I viewed it today and the actual exhibition more than lives up to what's online

MAKING A MARK

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