The artists Beatrice Gibson, Siobhán Hapaska, Jimmy Merris and Roger Palmer have been shortlisted for the inaugural MK Community Foundation New City Art Prize for the Visual Arts.
Selected by nomination, the £10,000 prize aims to raise the national profile of the arts within Milton Keynes by highlighting some of the best examples of new art from across the UK. MK Gallery will present an exhibition of the four shortlisted artists from 5 December 2014 – 4 January 2015. The winner will be announced on 4 December.
The shortlist was selected by a jury comprising Penelope Curtis, Director of Tate Britain; Candida Gertler, Outset; Roger Hiorns, artist; Adrian Searle, chief art critic, the Guardian; Anthony Spira, (chair), director of MK Gallery; and Julia Upton, chief executive MK Community Foundation.
Speaking about the aims of the prize, Upton said: “Art and culture has always been an important element that contributes to the success of Milton Keynes’ development, and today we are recognised as one of the world’s most innovative new cities.
“Creating the Community Foundation’s New City Art Prize will bring a new focus on arts excellence that will contribute to MK’s reputation of fostering arts and culture which is important for the overall quality of life.”
The shortlisted artists
Beatrice Gibson is an experimental and process-led filmmaker whose works explore the relationship between music-making and film, particularly experimental notation. Earlier this year she received a Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network development award for her work Crippled Symmetries.
Sculptor Siobhán Hapaska creates multi-layered works that combine disparate images, forms and narrative styles. Her works often use a diverse range materials including olive trees, fake animal fur and industrial metals.
Jimmy Merris uses video collage and performance to create tragi-comic vignettes of everyday life. His recent Bloomberg SPACE commissioned work, LONDON, documented a ten-day road trip around the city in a hired motorhome.
Photographer Roger Palmer creates austere, poetic and pared down black and white works with a strong political backbone and sense of history. Palmer is Professor of Fine Art at the University of Leeds.
2014 New City Art Prize for the Visual Arts, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, 5 December 2014 – 4 January 2015. www.mkgallery.org
