The winners of The John Ruskin Prize 2015 have been announced at a public awards ceremony hosted by The Big Draw at The New Art Gallery Walsall.
The award totals £8,000, with this year’s winner Laura Oldfield Ford receiving £5,000, the runner-up Jessie Brennan £2,000, and Robin Sukatorn receiving the new £1,000 student prize.
The prize aims to uphold Ruskin’s belief that drawing helps us see the world more clearly. For its third edition, artists were invited to respond to the theme, Recording Britain Now: Society.
London-based artist and writer Oldfield Ford’s winning piece, Colliers Wood (pictured top), is an acrylic and oil painting on canvas that continues her ongoing explorations into the edges of society, capturing the exchanges that often go unnoticed.
Brennan’s prize was for A Fall of Ordinariness and Light (pictured bottom) series of pencil drawings depicting the collapse of Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, London.
From hundreds of entrants, 30 artists were selected for the shortlist exhibition, which continues at The New Art Gallery Walsall until 17 April 2016.
The members of The John Ruskin Prize 2015 jury were Adam Dant (artist), Gill Saunders (Senior Curator of Prints, Victoria & Albert Museum), Stephen Snoddy (director, The New Art Gallery Walsall), and Sue Grayson Ford (founder, The Big Draw).
The John Ruskin Prize is at The New Art Gallery Walsall until 17 April 2016, and then at The Electrician’s Shop Gallery, London, 6-22 May 2016.
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