Four award winners for the Cheltenham-based Open West 2014 have been announced. The annual international submission competition’s exhibition was launched at the town’s recently re-opened gallery and museum The Wilson on Friday 2 May.
The Wilson Award was presented to Somerset-based Chris Dunseath for his laminated paper sculpture, Interference and Stars. Dunseath’s current practice makes reference to theoretical physics through sculptural concerns as a means to “investigate the nature of space, mass and time.” His prize is a solo exhibition at the gallery in September.
The £500 University of Gloucestershire Award went to Helen Sturgess for her scrunched paper construction Wrestling with the Angel, which demonstrates an alternative side to her usually careful and intense, drawing-based practice. Sturgess lives and works in London and Sydney, Australia.
This year’s Curators’ Award of £500 was shared by two artists – London-based Tom Ormond for his large-scale painting Inside Out, and Lian Zhang, who lives and works between London and Hangzhou, China, for her work Indigo (the ghost has no home).
The Open West 2014 exhibition features works by 44 artists selected by a panel that included Open West curators Lyn Cluer Coleman and Sarah Goodwin and guest selectors Anita Taylor and Virgile Ittah.
The Open West 2014 continues at The Wilson, Cheltenham, until 1 June. theopenwest.org.uk
