Ramona Zoladek has been awarded 1st prize at the Woon Foundation Painting and Sculpture Art Prize during a ceremony at Northumbria University’s Gallery North, which hosts the exhibition of selected final-year students.
The Woon Foundation prize – a collaboration between the university’s BxNU Institute for Contemporary Art and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art – offers a total fund of £40,000 spread across three main awards. It is sponsored by Northumbria University law graduate Mr Wee Teng Woon.
The £20,000 1st prize – the Woon Tai Jee Fellowship – includes a studio space at the BxNU Institute campus within the Baltic 39 building in Newcastle, as well critical and professional development support from mentor and BALTIC Professor Christine Borland. The winner also receives a bursary for materials.
A dream for any artist
Accepting the prize, Zoladek, who will graduate from the BA (Hons) Fine Art at course Anglia Ruskin University next month, said: “I can now fully dedicate my time to working in the studio and not worrying about funding for materials. This is a dream for any artist.
“It will be a great start to my artistic career. Hopefully I will develop my practice and build a professional portfolio and profile. I want to focus more than ever on my practice, keep developing, and get the most out of this opportunity.”
The winning work, which is composed of a number of concrete and plaster planks from which living plants break out and grow, revolves around the idea of growth and ruin and how man-made objects interact with nature. Polish-born Zoladek was also the recipient of the £2000 Dr Supanee Gazeley Fine Art Prize at the Anglia Ruskin University degree show earlier this year.
The Woon Foundation 2nd prize, worth £9000, was awarded to Emilie Atkinson of Slade School of Fine Art, while the £6000 3rd prize went to Kingston University graduate Sam Baker. The competition judges split an additional consolation prize of £5000 between two artists: Catherine Ross (Gray’s School of Art) and Eleni Odysseos (University of Leeds).
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