The Norman Rea Gallery is pleased to announce the final exhibition 2024/25 committee, ‘The Practice of Love: Radical Loving as Artistic Social Action’. The image-making of love has arguably been the most enduring subject of art for several millennia of life on earth, wherein love is as essential to human creativity as creativity is to the human experience. Emotion has always been the most personal anchor to how we understand art, from what the artist seeks to express, to what their art evokes in the viewer, but Renaissance artist Cennino Cennini declared love specifically to be “the first item of importance in the painter’s toolbox”. As such, we understand love to not only be a feeling but also an action, something an artist can demonstrate in not only devotion to their craft but in how they seek to connect with others through a social and emotional practice of making art. ‘The Practice of Love’ looks to engage with representations of affection, intimacy, attachment, and connection in spheres of the romantic, familial, and social to examine how cultures of love are expressed in contemporary society.

The opening night for ‘The Practice of Love’ will take place on Wednesday 19th of March from 18:30-21:00. In addition to the exhibition, the Norman Rea will run a rich programme of events and workshops, further drawing upon the themes raised within the artworks displayed. Read our full press release linked below for more information about the exhibition.

Derwent College, University Road, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom