Some wonderful news for Hotwalls Studios 1 artist Karen Gorman whose work ‘American Staple’ has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2026 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London.
For over 200 years the Summer Exhibition has been one of the most respected and contested open calls in the contemporary art world. Each year a theme is selected by the curator and for this year it is ‘Interconnectedness’. The message from the gallery was:
‘It (Interconnectedness) will aim to explore ideas of entanglement, as well as unexpected and fortuitous connections and associations between disparate things, no matter how abstract or illogical. Proof that, as humans, our outputs hold more commonality than separation, without us intentionally seeking it.’
Gorman’s work depicts her familiar and favourite sheep characters and places them within a reinterpretation of Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In her words:
“It’s such an honour to have had my work shortlisted from a group of around 16,000 entries. American Staple will be travelling to the Royal Academy at the beginning of May, for the final round of selection.”
We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that the piece makes the final selection and in the meantime are supremely proud of Karen for having this piece shortlisted.
