Happenstance Gallery & Framing

Following the tradition of the 19th century Parisian Salon des Refusés, when Napoleon let rejected works be exhibited alongside those accepted ones after artists protested the Salon jury’s

rejection of 3000 works, Happenstance Gallery organised an exhibition of paintings, graphic and mixed media works, photographs and prints rejected by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. 

Unlike our predecessors, we are not protesting, but helping. We respect the Royal Academicians’ judgement and understand that exhibiting at the RA Summer Exhibition is a great honour and privilege, and that the RA walls are limited and a lot of good artwork has to be rejected. We want those works to still be on show and let the public judge which ones they like most of all, independent from experts’ decision. Every visitor to the exhibition was asked to vote for three favourite pieces. See voting results

“Let’s think together about what art is, what its value is estimated by and whether it should be estimated at all. Let’s listen to what our deepest feelings are telling us, which artwork appeals to us and maybe we’ll discover new talents worthy of worldwide fame and appreciation, gems like Manet and Whistler, whose work would otherwise have vanished inside dusty attics or be lost to posterity.”

For this reason we’ve located the exhibition in Shoreditch - the home of contemporary emerging and established artists and the bravest art.