The six-strong shortlist for this year’s Threadneedle Prize for Painting and Sculpture ranges from a sculptor who has never exhibited in public before, to a painter who was featured in New Contemporaries in 1984 and exhibited alongside Tracey Emin in 1987.
Ben Greener, whose sculpture ‘My Feet’ (wood, canvas, glue, tea and coffee) has made the list, failed to finish his degree and has been working in photography and conservation; painter Elaine Brown completed her MA in Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art in 2012 and is shortlisted for ‘Hair Triptych’ (oil paint on gesso board).
Joining Greener and Brown in the running for the prize, which this year has been increased to £30,000, are: David Firmstone for ‘Dreaming 2 (Diptych)’, oil on canvas; Ben Hendy for ‘Self Portrait’, linocut on paper; Chloe Le Tissier for ‘Silken Needles’, oil on canvas; and Sophie Levi for ‘Sheer Shirt David’, oil on canvas.
As well as the top prize, each of the 153 pieces exhibited is eligible for the £10,000 Visitors’ Choice Award. The winners of both prizes will be announced on Wednesday 10 October.
Selectors on this year’s panel included artist and sculptor Peter Randall-Page, National Gallery curator Christopher Riopelle and writer and curator Nicholas Usherwood.
The Threadneedle Prize runs until 13 October at Mall Galleries, The Mall, London. www.threadneedleprize.com
