John Moores Painting Prize 2018: 60 artists chosen for 60th anniversary exhibition

The longlist for the John Moores Painting Prize 2018 has been announced with 60 paintings chosen for what is the 60th anniversary of the biennial prize and exhibition. The works will be exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool from 14 July to 18 November, as part of Liverpool Biennial 2018.

More than 2,700 entries were received for this year’s prize and the paintings were selected anonymously by a panel of jurors consisting of the artists Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Lubaina Himid MBE, Bruce McLean and Liu Xiaodong, and curator Jenni Lomax.

Commenting on the selection of the works, Lomax said: “After the nerve-wracking process of making the first cut from hundreds of digital images comes the surprise of seeing the paintings in their reality. Scale, texture, mark and material, all elusive on screen, become evident in the next stage of selection.

“Our lively and sometimes heated discussions while judging led to a final group of works that show dexterity, humour, passion and a strong physical sense of having been made.”

The works that will be exhibited feature subject matter ranging from Amazon parcel collection lockers to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, and while they share paint as a medium a variety of materials have also been utilised in place of canvas. These include aluminium, silk, cardboard and compostable food recycling bags, while found objects, coins and felt pen have also been used in addition to paint.

A final shortlist of five paintings will be chosen by the jury with the winner receiving £25,000 in prize money. Four additional prizes of £2,500 will also be awarded and a £2,018 Visitors’ Choice Award, sponsored by Rathbones, will also be awarded.

To mark the Prize’s 60th anniversary year, the first prize winner will receive an additional award of a three-month fellowship at Liverpool John Moores University together with solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2019.

Sandra Penketh, director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, said: “The 2018 exhibition will be a particularly significant one. For 60 years, the Prize has enabled the Walker to showcase and acquire work by a truly remarkable selection of contemporary artists, and this year will be no exception.

“Self-taught artists, art tutors, recent graduates and established artists are all represented, together providing a fascinating insight into what’s inspiring artists in the UK right now.”

Longlisted artists and paintings

Ahmed, Miraj   Smile

Bailey, Liz   No Ball Games

Baker, Richard   Cupboard 2

Bakst, Marta   I Still See You on the Horizon

Barker, Andy   Nowhere to Go

Bingham, James   Shere

Blane, Frances Aviva   Mother

Bruton, Jo   Tassel Talk

Busuttil, Carla   Trophy for a Dull Man

Cadwallader, Gareth   Milk

Clark, Jake   Circus

Clarke, Pete   doubt and distance…of lost content

Crosby, Billy   Quilt

Davies, Lara   Me Reading ‘Philip Guston Retrospective’ in the Studio

Down, Tom   ‘hollow’

Elton, Liz   One Hundred Harvests

Fears, Alan   My Favourite Chair

Fineman, Emma   Questions of Silence

Franklin, Charlie   Flatland

Gasson, Clare   Note-taking September 2016

Gerrard, Jahan   Aerial

Hain, Alex   #consumer

Hallum, Jacqui   King and Queen of Wands

Hogarth, Delphine   French Summer

Holloway, Leo   Untitled

Homerston, Ian   Untitled

Howse, Tom   The Thunderous Silence of Your Presence

Jeong, Seungjo   Interface L3

Johnson, Ben   The Space Between Revisited

Johnson, Nicholas William   The Intolerable Strangeness of Vegetable Consciousness (Sunspilt II)

Kiki, John   Bud Girl

Krishanu, Matthew   Mission School

Kulkarni, Nicholas   Misdirection

Lancaster, Laura   Untitled

Lawrence, Gary   Kos Town Paradise Hotel Front Terrace

Lock, David   El Muniria

Maple, Kathryn   Alone in the Desert

Martin, Graham   Red Road

Matsuzaki, Tomoya   Untitled (Willow)

Matthews, Peter   Suspended Aura

Nahaul, Cara   Inches of Dust

Ní Mhaonaigh, Sinéad   Monument

Noga, Laurence   Deep Blue Filtered Silver

Norris, Olivia   Loose sugar, fade to black, bread makes you fat

O’Rourke, Joseph   GIANTS

Osborne, Mark   Untitled Pink

Oshilaja, Damilola   Landscape Redux; No-nVOID/26: IDARIKA, The Land & The Sky

Panchal, Shanti   The Divide, Beyond Reasoning

Payne, Alistair   (D)welling

Payne, Steve   Unnamable

Pearce, David   Greenhouse

Rejmer-Canovas, Gracjana   Electric Landscape

Robertson, Joanne   Raining on Shoebox Cove

Soni, Lucy   Untitled Bunting

Talbot, Emma   Intense and Remote Connectivity

Stewart, Bill   TreeAirplaneTrap

Thatcher, Clare   Feature of Landscape

Verran, Virginia   Black Star

Whittle, Joanna   Rain Tent

Wills, Morgan   Leadlight Silhouette

Images:
1. Seungjo Jeong, Interface L3, 2017. Courtesy: the artist and John Moores Painting Prize 2018
2. Matthew Krishanu, Mission School, 2017. Courtesy: the artist and John Moores Painting Prize 2018
3. Kathryn Maple, Alone in the Desert, 2017. Courtesy: the artist and John Moores Painting Prize 2018
4. Jo Bruton, Tassel Talk, 2016. Courtesy: the artist and John Moores Painting Prize 2018Courtesy: the artist and John Moores Painting Prize 2018

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