Rebecca Byrne, Wild Land

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carol

SCHOOL is pleased to present Wild Land, an exhibition by Rebecca Byrne. Working with a mix of oil and acrylic paint, coloured pastels and pencil, Byrne’s paintings of the natural, but almost imaginary landscape, are loaded with childhood memories, acts of resilience and growth. Her trees, acting a representation of time, are full of life, their organic forms feeling like they’re moving through the landscape rather than deeply rooted within it. Her use of pastels, which began in a residency in Orquevaux, France in 2022, offered both a freedom with her mark- making and also a liberating feminist approach to making art. She explains: “Pastels have a reputation as a gendered and marginalised material, arguably viewed as low brow and a material for woman and children…Paula Rego talks of this, and how she viewed moving exclusively into this medium as a most feminist thing to do – a rebellion in pastel.” Wild Land consists of a series of pastel paintings of trees alongside a new large scale wall drawing made specifically for this exhibition.

Opening Times:
Friday 11am to 5pm
Saturday 11am to 5pm
Sunday 11am to 4pm