First Glance at New Work from Artists Shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize
Northern Art Prize is a prestigious art prize for contemporary artists of any age, working in any media and living in the North of England (North West, North East and Yorkshire regions). It is supported by Leeds City Council, design and communication agency Logistik and business and design consultant Arup.
Four artists – Clare Charnley, Richard Forster, Paul Rooney and Imogen Stidworthy, who were whittled down from a long list of 23 earlier this year will show examples of their recent work, some for the first time in the UK, at a new exhibition opening to the public at Leeds Art Gallery on 21 November 2008 and running until 1 February 2009. The winner will be announced at a prize giving event at Leeds Art Gallery on 15 January 2009.
Each artist, originally nominated by a leading curator in the North of England and shortlisted by a panel of expert judges, will show work that they have completed within the last two years, including film, audio, intricate pencil drawings, sculpture and photography.
Clare Charnley, who is based in Leeds, showed at infamous London gallery ‘City Racing’ in 1993. Since then she has been working almost entirely outside the UK as much of her work deals with issues relating to the English language and requires a non British audience. Most recently she has worked with Brazilian photographer Patricia Azevedo on ‘The Conversation of things’ which will be on show alongside video installation ‘Misunderstandings’ in this exhibition. The video piece portrays personal anecdotes of ‘misunderstandings’. One interviewee tells of his dreams dashed when for ten minutes he believed that he had won thousands of pounds on a scratch card. Another tells the tale of a Brazilian travelling in Europe for the first time who, on encountering garden sheds, concludes that Europe has favellas, just like her home country. Clare also will be making new recordings with gallery visitors at selected times during the exhibition and is actively seeking people with misunderstandings of their own.
Richard Forster makes incredibly detailed photo realist drawings and sculptures based on his own photographs and images from twentieth century photographic journals. Born in Saltburn, Richard returned to live and work in his home town after studying and spending a number of years in London. Both environments continue to inform his work fusing his interests in social architecture and raw nature. Working in series he returns often to subjects such as brutalist high-rise tower blocks, industrial environments, pastoral figures and seascapes, some of which will be presented in this show. Richard’s work is displayed internationally, in 2006 he was awarded a Jerwood Artists’ Platform and in 2007 completed a commission for MAP magazine. This year he has had solo exhibitions at MOT International, London; Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh and at Open Space, Art Cologne.
Paul Rooney was born in Liverpool and studied in Edinburgh before moving back to his home city in 1993. His audio work, produced on vinyl, has been played on BBC Radio 1 and his solo and group art projects feature in galleries all over the world. His recent work has focused on the ‘voices’ of semi-fictional personas which are presented as written, sung or spoken monologues. Showing in this exhibition is ‘La Décision Doypack’, a film piece commissioned earlier this year by Matt’s Gallery, London and Radar, Loughborough University. ‘La Décision Doypack’ uses a narrative from a packaging company manager’s trip to Paris in May 1968 when he unwittingly found himself in the middle of a massive student protest which brought the French government to the point of collapse. Unperturbed, the narrative voiceover continues to extol the advantages of Doypack packaging, interspersed with brief outbreaks of songs on subjects such as the wonder of cling film, played over a film of straight faced students acting out various scenes from his trip.
Imogen Stidworthy moved to Liverpool, which has become a source of inspiration in her work, after working abroad for eight years. Imogen will be showing, for the first time in the UK, a piece of work which was commissioned for Documenta 12 (2007), in which she was the only living British artist. A sound installation, ‘I Hate’ looks at the construction, communication and meaning of language and draws parallels with the built environment. The work explores how meaning is constructed and communicated, looking at the building up and breaking down of forms in the context of spoken language. The sound piece is supported by photographs of the demolition and restructuring of buildings. The central figure in ‘I Hate’ is Edward Woodman, a retired professional photographer with a partial inability to produce and understand speech as a result of an accident. In the piece, the viewer witnesses speech therapy sessions in which speech formation is broken down and reformed. Alongside this are photographs taken by Woodman since his accident, of the demolition, building and rebuilding of the new Eurostar terminal at Kings Cross Station, London.
The panel of judges, chaired by Tanja Pirsig-Marshall, Curator of Exhibitions at Leeds Art Gallery, will select an overall winner to be revealed at a prizegiving event on 15 January, 2009 at Leeds Art Gallery. The judges are:
- Iwona Blazwick, Director Whitechapel Art Gallery
- Louisa Buck, writer and contemporary art critic
- Georgina Starr, artist
- Anita Zabludowicz, art collector
The prize money has, for the second year, been donated by Logistik and Arup. The prize-winner will receive £16,500 and each of the three runners up will receive £1,500. Logistik originally founded the Northern Art Prize in partnership with Leeds City Council.
Director of the Northern Art Prize Pippa Hale commented:
We’re thrilled once again with the high standard of nominations for 2008 and the increasing momentum of the prize. This year’s exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery includes a wide range of work in different media by some great artists of international repute who have chosen to live in the North of England, suggesting it is possible to sustain a creative practice in the regions whilst engaging with a global art world.
Cllr John Procter, Executive Board Member for Leisure, Leeds City Council added:
It is once again an honour to host the Northern Art Prize here in Leeds. The Northern Art Prize is a celebration of artists working in the North today and it is exciting to welcome them to Leeds Art Gallery in anticipation of the winner’s announcement in January which has fast become one of the must-see dates in the cultural calendar.
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