Review: 163rd Annual Exhibition of Society of Women Artists (2024)

The 163rd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists opened at the Mall Galleries on Wednesday.

The Red Wall in the West Gallery

[UPDATE: This blog post has been updated since first published as the online exhibition is now online - see below for links.]

It's listed as the "163rd Annual Open Exhibition" because the Society

• started as the Society of Female Artists in 1855
• started holding Annual Exhibitions in London since 1857
• became the Society of Lady Artists in 1869
• became the Society of Women Artists in 1899

Their annual exhibition is an International Open Exhibition and invites submissions from women artists around the world. An annual exhibition has been held every year except for 1941 to 1946 - due to the Second World war and 2020-2021 when Online Exhibitions were held due to the global pandemic.

There's a very interesting page about its history on their website

The society has had many notable artists among its members. Dame Laura Knight, the first woman Royal Academician, was elected president in 1932 and retained that office until she retired in 1968 to become a Patron.[9] Illustrator Mabel Lucie Atwell and Suzanne Lucas,[10] past President of the Society of Botanical Artists and the first woman president of Royal Miniature Society (now known as Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers), were also members. Current members include Daphne Todd, the first female President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1994–2000 and winner of the BP Portrait Award 2010, portraitist June Mendoza, and Philomena Davidson, first woman President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (now known as Royal Society of Sculptors).

SWA Annual Exhibition 2024

View of the West Gallery

I arrived late to the exhibition as it was an extremely hot day and there was a lot of walking involved in travelling from the Bankside Gallery where I had been to the Opening Day of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers to the Mall Galleries where the SWA Exhibition is being held until 29th June

If travelling to London to see either exhibition, I recommend you take the time to see both exhibitions - but you've only got until Saturday 29th June to see the SWA. 

There are demonstrations every day. On tomorrow and Saturday these are:

• Tessa Jane - Exploring Fragments of Time | Friday 28th June AM
• Kristine Nason - Narratives in oil and cold wax | Friday 28th June PM
• Elizabeth Nast - Depicting the ordinary in the urban landscape | Saturday 29th June AM
• Cathy Read - Dynamic cityscapes | Saturday 29th June PM

Main observations on the exhibition

This is an exhibition which:

• attracts over 3,000 entries via the open entry
• selects a large number of works for hanging or display in the exhibition - across all three galleries of the Mall Galleries
• aims to achieve a 50:50 ratio in relation to
• artwork exhibited by members
• artwork selected from the open entry
• AND in the way the artwork is exhibited

All the above is admirable and has resulted in some impressive exhibitions in the past - but less so this year.

As always with my helpful critique hat on and plainspeaking mode switched on, this is what I found

• they had over 3,000 entries to this open exhibition
• [UPDATE: they selected 239 artworks from non-members - which is way more than most art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries select]
• they hung/show some 490 artworks in total - which to my mind is far too many for the space
• there was no catalogue available yesterday when they attracted hordes to the opening - which is a very great pity because 
• the exhibition is not online on either the Mall Galleries website or the SWA website and that means no scope for online sales. 

[UPDATE: The exhibition is now available online - if you look at the thumbnail view you can see the artworks which have sold online (but not what price they sold for). You can also see

• artworks by SWA Members
• artworks by non-members]

You can however also see what it looks like in my photographs of the exhibition on my MaM Facebook Page. However I cannot say who did what because I have had no reference when I wrote this post!

• SWA Annual Exhibition 2024 | West Gallery
• SWA Annual Exhibition 2024 | East and North Galleries

This is the list of ALL artists selected for the exhibition (both members and open entry artists). However unlike last year you cannot click their names to see their work online. I'm not sure why not - but think this change is a mistake.  [UPDATE: The selection on the call for entries site is on a different URL to that for the online exhibition]

Two excellent botanical artworks hung in the wrong space.
The one at the bottom is by Toni Dade who has just won her second RHS Gold Medal
and is currently exhibiting at the Saatchi Gallery

I have to say while I liked some of the artwork - and there's a lot which is good, I did not love the exhibition. 

• I think because this year there were just too many works which I'd have edited out (and they weren't just from the open entry). 
• I like the RA approach of "selected but not hung". By all means give yourself scope to hang as many as you need - but do not lose the big picture by hanging too many - including those which really should have been left out at the digital stage.

One benefit of the SWA approach to hanging is that they're not obliged to hang all submissions by members - which does give them some latitude. However I think they maybe need to be reviewing whether the notion that "a member's work should always be better than open entries" is a yardstick which might need to be exercised more in relation to selection.

I also observed

• lots of small artworks - which to me looked too crowded in the walls around where the tables and chairs are normally located. They were also hung much too high and much too low. If you cannot read the label easily, then you've got the hang wrong. When you select this many, you also need to very mindful of the space they need and allocate more space to allow people to READ THE LABELS EASILY! This was an issue which could have been neatly resolved by just taking more space for small artworks in the West Gallery.

one of the small works walls

• A very impactful red wall at the end of the West Gallery. However congregating all the artworks with red in one place did leave some of the other walls looking a tad  anaemic in places. Plus too much red in one space is quite hard on the eyes. Red draws the eye - but having lots of red has your eyes not knowing where to look next. I certainly didn't want to look at it for too long.

One of the walls featuring portraits and people in the North Gallery

I liked the fact paintings of groups were included
- there are far too few artists who can paint convincing groups
and these paintings by Anne Blankson Hemans were a great cultural statement

• the portrait / people section of the North Gallery impressed - a LOT. I particularly liked the diversity of styles and the imagination demonstrated by some artists in terms of how portraits and people can be painted. Hanging all the portraits together lends a coherence to the presentation and the impact of the artwork hung overall. I also saw  one very flowery wall and an animal corner. It's maybe worth thinking about whether the same approach might work for some landscapes and still lifes. If it was it was less evident.

One of the sculpture stands in the West Gallery

• as always, the exhibition includes a rich choice of scupture and 3D work done in various media. Some included subject matter on a female theme. However I was very impressed by some amazing bronze work by Jane Morgan ASWA

Strawberry Sunday by Jane Morgan
Bronze, painted in oils, lacquered

My recommendations for the next exhibition

I think my overall conclusion this year is that this exhibition "could do better" and indeed has in the past.

So I'm optimistic that, given I've delivered some critical comments in the past which led to an significant improvement, the following comments will be taken in a constructive way.

• don't have such a very SHORT exhibition - open for four days only is simply not worth the effort. This is not a "pop-up"! Exhibit every other year if you want to save money (as some now do) or find another venue for a smaller members only exhibition in the inbetween years if you want to maintain the "exhibits in London on an annual basis" record.
• do NOT omit the online version - most art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries are making sales before their exhibitions even open these days. 
• change your printer (and I'd very much suggest you do NOT pay the invoice for this year's catalogue - because non-delivery for a timed event is a major ****** and fails to fulfil the terms of the contract)
• focus on quality and curation. Try and be more discriminating and select fewer artworks - aim to hang/show no more than c. 400
• be much more discriminating about entries by members - some were very definitely not up to snuff - and it's not a nice task but sometimes members need to be told this. 
• stop hanging artwork too high or too low - it cannot be seen by visitors and the latter MUST BE ABLE TO READ THE LABELS or they will not sell
• nothing wrong with lots of small artworks - they tend to sell well if priced right - so allow these to have more space - at a reasonable eye level - to be seen and attract buyers
• consider having spaces clearly for landscapes or still life and see if you can achieve the same impact as is achieved for the area of portraits in the North Gallery
• if you want to hold annual exhibitions - particularly at the Mall Galleries which is not cheap - you MUST focus on the financials.
• Do encourage artwork in the affordable price ranges
• Provide guidance to artists about sale prices (I preach about this on a regular basis)
• Check high prices by size and calibre/background of the artist - you have some very good artists exhibiting - but not all are.
• Do NOT accept artwork with silly prices and no evidence that this had been achieved by this artist in the past
• ALWAYS hang quality artwork in quality places - so it gets noticed!
• be aware of the walls which are NOT normally used for hanging!!