This year’s Northern Art Prize exhibition will feature new work by all four shortlisted artists when it opens at Leeds Art Gallery on March 28, organisers have announced. The artists competing for the £16,500 prize are Margaret Harrison, Rosalind Nashashibi, Emily Speed and Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan.
Describing the work for the show, Sarah Brown, Curator of Exhibitions at the gallery and chair of the judging panel, said: “Each artist has responded to the main ground floor galleries where the exhibition takes place and produced work that interacts with the doorways, walls and corners, making the exhibition distinctive to Leeds and the Northern Art Prize.”
Carlisle-based artist Margaret Harrison will exhibit Reflect, a new body of work that incorporates sculpture, painting and drawings. She will also show Common Reflections – a development of her 2012 Berlin solo show Fear Forgetting, shown at Silberkuppe Gallery – and the painting, The Last Gaze.
Rosalind Nashashibi, who is based in Liverpool, will show Shelter for a New Youth, a new piece comprised of three trees, each displaying a photograph of a denim-clad man’s crotch, and a large cartoon illustration of Mickey Mouse’s hands in an easily recognisable Buddha gesture, painted directly onto the gallery wall. Nashashibi will also present a 13 minute film installation, Lovely Young People (Beautiful Supple Bodies), which debuted at last year’s Glasgow International, and a reconfiguration of her 2011 installation Shelter for a New Youth, originally created for Sharjah Biennnial 10.
New work from Liverpool artist Emily Speed includes wooden structures, cast plaster blocks and smaller assemblages that constitute two pieces of architectural furniture, one that can be inhabited by visitors and an other that will be animated by performers during the exhibition. Some of Speed’s drawings and watercolours, inspired by Italian frescos, will also be on display.
Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan, who are based in Newcastle, have constructed two new temporary structures that will frame the entrances to two interior gallery spaces, home to some of Leeds Art Gallery’s collection of Victorian art. The artists will also be including ten framed photographs documenting past projects in the various stages of production.
The winner of the 2013 Northern Art Prize will be announced at Leeds Art Gallery on 23 May.
For more information visit northernartprize.org.uk
More on a-n.co.uk:
Northern Art Prize – Knowledge bank profile
Curating the prize – based on interviews with curators Sarah Brown and Laurence Sillars, Lara Eggleton uncovers the nature of their relationships with exhibiting artists and the processes they use in curating two high profile exhibitions with cash prizes and media attention attached.
Artists’ stories: Emily Speed – Andrew Bryant talks to artist Emily Speed about her blog ‘Getting paid’.
