A group of “rejected” Merseyside artists have come together to put on their own exhibition in New Brighton in Wirral.
All of the artists who feature in the ‘Brilliant Rejects’ exhibition had their artwork rejected from The Williamson Art Gallery's Open Exhibition. Not wanting their hard work to go to waste, they decided to create their own.
Speaking to the ECHO, artist and organiser Alex May said: “The Williamson's Open Exhibition is great and it happens every year or so, but COVID stopped it. I had a painting selected just before the pandemic hit, so although it was chosen, I never got to see it in the gallery. I just had to go online and see it.
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“I entered two paintings this year and you just get an email to say if you’ve been successful or not. If there’s a ‘Y’ next to your painting, you’ve been chosen, if there’s an ‘N’, it’s a no. I had hopes for mine, but they both got an ‘N’. However, I didn’t let that get a grip of me.”
Alex took inspiration from a similar movement in the mid 19th Century. He explained: “Manet, Whistler and a group of other artists in Paris were rejected by the official Salon de Paris Academy year after year. They got fed up of doing it, so they set up their own alternative - Salon de Refuse, The Rejects Salon. Instead of the cushty old paintings and the classical scenes, they lay the basis for impressionism and the subsequent art movement.
“I still think The Williamson Open is a great exhibition and I would urge any local artists with a link to Wirral to have a go at it, because it’s a lovely gallery. What we’re doing isn’t any feelings of animosity or anything like that, but I just thought, why should my work not be seen? Why should these 100 or so other works not be seen?
“You don’t get feedback, you don’t get told why they weren’t selected. I don’t have any resources, but I had Dan’s [Davies, CEO of Rockpoint Leisure in New Brighton] card, so I rang him. He was immediately enthusiastic and I went away and drafted a press release, created a leaflet and now we’re doing it. We’re embracing the fact we were rejected - we’re ‘The Brilliant Rejects’.”
Dan Davies told the ECHO: “The irony is that more people will come to our exhibition than the Williamson’s. We will signpost people to The Williamson Art Gallery, but ours is more accessible, and I think people like the underdog!”
The Brilliant Rejects exhibition is available to see now in the old Natwest building on Victoria Road and Mersey Arts Zone in Vale Park. It runs for a month until May 10.
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