Mostyn gallery in Llandudno, Wales has announced the names of the selected artists for the 20th edition of its open exhibition.
Following over 800 submissions, 27 artists have been selected from countries including Belgium, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, China, Australia, USA and the UK.
The winner of the main prize will receive £10,000, with a separate Audience Award offering £1,000 in prize money.
Australian artist Catherine Large is a jeweller and metalsmith. Based in Brisbane, Queensland, she works with predominantly recycled and reused materials, prefering to use objects and materials that have had a former life.
Swiss artist David Berweger‘s work splices together elements of abstract expressionism, surrealism, and conceptual art.
British artist and curator Joe Fletcher Orr makes sculptures, installations and performances that use humour as a means to undermine the authority of the art object. He has his own gallery, Cactus, at the Royal Standard in Liverpool.
Berlin-based artist Gernot Wieland‘s film Thievery and Songs is a tragicomic and humerous work, framed by the story of a dancer, Hilde Holger, who had to flee from Austria into exile in Bombay in 1938 because she was Jewish.
British artist John Bourne is a figurative painter who gave up scientific research and teaching to paint full-time. His pictures are inspired by imagination and memories, including his childhood in Northern Ireland.
US-born artist Mitchell Kehe is now based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He works with performance and has exhibited widely, including in New York, Boston, Portland, Dublin and Amsterdam.
Mostyn Open 20 was selected by Lydia Yee (chief curator, Whitechapel Gallery), Chus Martínez (curator and head of the Institute of Art, FHNW Academy of Arts and Design, Basel), Alfredo Cramerotti (director, Mostyn), and Adam Carr (visual arts programme curator, Mostyn).
The full list of selected artists is: Sarah Bernhardt, David Berweger, Rudi Bogaerts, John Bourne, Manuel Caldeira, Alex Edwards, Matteo Fato, Joe Fletcher Orr, David Garner, Mitchell Kehe, Eli Keszler, Ilona Kiss, Jadranka Kosorcic, Catherine Large, Alyona Larionova, Sophie Lee, Gal Leshem, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, Laura Malacart, Oliver McConnie, Tom Milnes, Yelena Popova, Louise Short, Andrew Stooke, Tom Verity, Gernot Wieland and Driant Zeneli.
Mostyn Open 20 exhibition runs 8 July – 5 November 2017. www.mostyn.org
Images:
1. Alyona Larionova, Across Lips, Still Frame, 2016, Video (colour, sound), 11 mins. Courtesy: the artist
2. Catherine Large, Strange Things Collection, 2013-2015. Sterling silver, various metals, plastic, glass. Photograph by Michelle Bowden
3. David Berweger, Patiently I Expect the Other Day to Cut Things Short, 2014, Pigment, plaster powder, 180 x 110cm x 1cm
4. Joe Fletcher Orr, A friendly name for a fool, 2016, Neon, 130cm x 50cm. Courtesy: Ryan Gander
5. Gernot Wieland, Thievery and Songs, Still Frame, 2016. Courtesy: the artist
6. John Bourne, The Philosophy of the Dream, 2017, Oil on gesso on plywood, 22cm x 19cm
7. Mitchell Kehe, Hat, 2015, Found fabric and masking tape on shaped MDF and cardboard, 60cm x 60cm x 13cm. Courtesy: the artist