Northern Art Prize 2011 (Until 19 February 2012)
Leo Fitzmaurice is the winner of the fifth annual Northern Art Prize. Judge Simon Wallis presented Fitzmaurice with a cheque for £16,500 at a prize-giving ceremony at Leeds Art Gallery attended by over 500 people from the arts, business, public and voluntary sectors on Thursday 19 January 2012. The remaining three short listed artists; Liadin Cooke, James Hugonin and Richard Rigg each walked away with £1,500.
Initially selecting the short-list and ultimately deciding the winner, this year’s judges are Caroline Douglas, Head of the Arts Council Collection; Tim Marlow, Writer, Broadcaster, Art Historian and Director of Exhibitions at White Cube; Simon Starling, Turner Prize winning Artist; Simon Wallis, Director at The Hepworth Wakefield with Sarah Brown, Curator of Exhibitions at Leeds Art Gallery as Chair.
In choosing Fitzmaurice as the winner, the judges commented: “The strength of this year’s exhibition and the Prize are testament to the generosity and commitment of all the artists. However, Leo’s work for the Northern Art Prize exhibition in particular is ambitious, risky and compelling. Drawing upon historic resources and current mobile phone technology, he provides a fresh perspective on the traditional subject of landscape, whilst at the same time pushing the boundaries of his own practice.”
Each year visitors to the Northern Art Prize exhibition are encouraged to pick their winner through an online poll. Although it has no direct bearing on the judges’ decision, the winner of this year’s public vote is Richard Rigg who collected 44% of the votes. The exhibition of work from all four artists will remain on show at Leeds Art Gallery until 19 February 2012, over 50,000 visitors have already visited the show since doors opened on 25 November 2011.
The Northern Art Prize was founded in 2006 by Prize Director and Founder and Co-Director of PSL [Project Space Leeds] Pippa Hale in collaboration with design and communications agency Logistik Ltd and Leeds City Council. The Prize is supported by Marketing Leeds for the first time this year and continues to be backed by business and design consultant Arup and Doubletree by Hilton Leeds City Centre, previously Mint Hotel Leeds.
The Northern Art Prize is a partner of All Points North, an initiative set up to profile major contemporary art spaces, events and festivals happening across the North of England this autumn.
Gary Hume: Flashback (From the Arts Council Collection)
3rd February to 15th April 2012
‘The best thing that’s happened in 20 years is what I’ve learnt - that I absolutely love moving paint about. That’s all I care about. All I want to do.’ - Gary Hume, Flashback catalogue 2012
Gary Hume is one of Britain’s most important contemporary artists. He first gained international recognition in the early 1990s for his series of bold, abstract ‘door paintings’ which were based on the actual doors of St Bartholomew’s hospital in London. He was a key figure in the new YBA generation of British artists, and was included in the renowned Freeze exhibition in London’s docklands in 1988. His reputation grew throughout the following decade, as he was selected to represent Britain at the Bienal de São Paulo (1996) and the Venice Biennale (1999), as well as being shortlisted for the Turner Prize (1996). Since then, he has continually reinvented himself, producing new and innovative series of paintings and sculptures. His subjects have included flowers, birds, snowmen and nudes, all painted in household gloss paint. As Dave Hickey states in the exhibition catalogue, Hume paints ‘the suburban sublime’. However, the paintings’ beautiful surfaces and colours often belie a lingering melancholy, and his recent American Tan series, based on cheerleaders, reveals an acute awareness of the pervasive power of America culture.
Flashback is a major series of monographic touring exhibitions from the Arts Council Collection. Taking as its starting point the Collection’s founding principle of supporting emerging artists through the purchase of their work, the series showcases British artists of world renown whose works were acquired early on by the Collection. The Arts Council Collection was formed in 1946 and is managed by the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre in London. It is the largest loan collection of modern and contemporary British art.
For more information about the Arts Council Collection, please visit www.artcouncilcollection.org
