Wolfson College Cambridge Royal Academy Schools Graduate Prize: Enej Gala – After news before bed

A display of works by the winner of this year’s Wolfson College Royal Academy Schools Graduate Prize. Now in its fifth year, the prize gives an opportunity to a recent graduate of the RA Schools to create an exhibition in the College that also considers the special surroundings of the exhibition space.

The exhibition takes its name from an ongoing series of oil paintings started in 2022 and entitled ‘After news before bed’; it also includes smaller sculptures from the series ‘Repaired objects’ started in 2017.

The title originates from a time slot in my home country (Slovenia) that was usually designed for short cartoons or other children’s programmes. Peculiar enough, after the evening news, during which parents would gather (rather distressing) information about politics and different state affairs, children would get their turn to watch some short entertainment before going to sleep. I never understood if the aim was for children to be ‘encouraged’ to watch the news while waiting for their cartoons, or if parents were meant to get some gratifying relaxation with their children after all the more ‘serious affairs’. An interesting space opens up to be explored through imagery in between the two extremes, where serious business can get cartoonishly distorted, and cartoons at the end of the struggle of facts can produce some serious implications.