The Best Fine Art Contests and Prizes in 2016

A pencil drawing virtually "Refugees" by Agim Sulaj has won the £6,000 First prize in the Derwent Prize 2016, sponsored by Derwent Pencils.

Prizewinners received their prizes from Eileen Cooper RA, Keeper of the Regal Academy at the Awards Ceremony at the Mall Galleries tonight where the exhibition is being held all this calendar week.

Derwent Art Prizewinners 2016
Left to right: Tim Wright (3rd Prize), Lee Wagstaff (2nd Prize), Apple Wong Hiu Fung (Young Creative person Award), Angharad Pelling (UKCPS Award), Astri Thomas-Saunders (Marketing Manager, Derwent) Agim Sulaj (First Prize) and Eileen Cooper RA, Keeper of the Royal Academy - who awarded the prizes

Other prizewinners and their artwork tin can be found below together with more virtually Agim Sulaj.

The scope of the works in the Derwent Art Prize exhibition are determined by the terms and atmospheric condition and the judging console

The work entered must exist created in pencil (including water-soluble, pastel, graphite, charcoal or coloured pencils). The piece of work must not exceed 182cms in its greatest dimension. There is no minimum size limit. The Prize is open to both 2 dimensional and iii dimensional works. All entered piece of work must have been completed within the last three years.

Overall, in my opinion this is the all-time Derwent Art Prize exhibition yet - and I'll be writing more than about it later this week.

The about noticeable difference this yr is that all the main prizewinners are well established artists with a considerable torso of piece of work who work in pencil in addition to work in other media.

View of some of the work in the North Gallery

It's very definitely well worth a visit to the Mall Galleries this week where the exhibition tin be seen in the N Gallery until 24 September 2016. Not least because it's a fabulous week for exhibitions associated with art competitions - with

• the exhibition for the Sunday Times Watercolour Contest in the Main Gallery and
• a very potent and visually stunning solo exhibition by the Threadneedle Prize winner Lewis Hazelwood-Horner in the Threadneedle Space - which as well includes drawings and sketchbooks. (meet Lewis Hazelwood-Horner wins £20,000 Threadneedle Prize 2016)

Yous tin can also see all the shortlisted works beingness exhibited this calendar week online - although I can emphatically say you need to visit the gallery to really appreciate the work.

About the Derwent Art Prizewinners

First Prize (£6,000) - Agim Sulaj

The winning work has huge touch visually - fifty-fifty more then when seen in the gallery where it is large (and unframed).

Agim Sulaj with his pencil drawing "Refugees"
graphite, 170x150 cms

I was convinced this work was going to be among the prizewinners when I first saw it in the Gallery on the website when the selected works were appear - given both its topicality and the strength of the visual epitome.

The capsizing of the boat full of immigrants reminded me of Turner's The Wreck of a Transport Ship. It certainly seems to me to be a gimmicky reworking of a recurrent image in fine art across the centuries - relating to the potential vulnerability of those who take to the bounding main. Made more poignant past the fact no immigrant would cull the journeying if they had any other option.

Bitingly political, his piece of work has captured the imaginations and consciousness of audiences across Europe, Africa, South America and the Centre Due east.

b. 1960 in Tirana in Republic of albania; now lives in ItalyPedagogy: 1985 Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana (Albania)
Exercise: He creates paintings, cartoons and illustrations. Immigration has been a recurrent theme of his work.
Exhibitions: Widely exhibited throughout the world since 1979.
Prizes: an award-winning artist who was winning prizes earlier he graduated and has continued to exercise and then consistently ever since.

Agim Sulaj said about his work

"This piece of work is dedicated to the refugee drama; the people who are in search of a ameliorate life ofttimes notice a tragic ending. Their dreams drown in the big clearing vortex. Every bit the author of this work, I have experienced immigration when I moved to Italy many years ago, where I faced the harsh reality and the difficulty of adapting to the new "world", where your all-time friends are the drawing table and the painting brushes. "

Those of united states who attended the Awards Ceremony won't forget his reaction to winning the award in a hurry!

2d Prize (£3,500) - Lee Wagstaff

Second Prize: Evil past Lee Wagstaff
Graphite, 100 ten 100 cms

Lee Wagstaff won the Second Prize of £3,500 for Evil - a work in graphite on a fine canvas.  He previously exhibited in the Derwent art Prize 2013.

b. 1969 in London. Now based in Essex.
Education and studies: MA Royal College of Fine art, London, England (1998-2000); Kyoto City University of Art, Kyoto, Nihon (1999); Currently undertaking a Ph.D at the Purple College of Art, London (2013 - date)
Practice: Studied printmaking and sculpture since 1987. Besides uses free processes (photography, cartoon, tattooing, yoga and live art)
Co-founded the artists project infinite RISE berlin; Director and curator until 2013.
Exhibits his work at fine art and performance art venues worldwide.
Best known for a total torso adapt of tattoos and large format self portrait photographs of the same

My academic research compliments my physical do past exploring the artful and theological dimensions of digitally enabled artefacts.

I talked to Lee about this fascinating work and the process he used to develop information technology. He started with a pack of Derwent Pencils which he stripped of wood and so ground down to create graphite grit. The dust was then applied to a footing on very finely woven textile which has been fixed to a lath (so that it stays flat during the creation of the work). To exercise this he used his own unique process of screen press using graphite (you lot can see a video of this practise (on newspaper) developed during a research projection nigh inkless printing during a inquiry artist residency at the Frans Masereel Center in Kasterlee, Belgium on his website). The graphite is then manipulated on the canvass using a feather duster (higher up the piece of work - twirled to create air currents which move the graphite dust) and his own fingers. Periodically the graphite dust is stabilised on the canvas using a h2o spray.

All in all, not a conventional cartoon or a conventional process! It's certainly does not announced to be one that is easy to emulate!

3rd Prize (£i,000) - Tim Wright

3rd Prize: Helen Schone fourteen by Tim Wright
Watersoluble, 104 x 112,

The body, the observed world and their expression affirm themselves in Wright's work equally is evident in his winning piece "Helen Schone 14".

born in London, where he continues to live and piece of work
Pedagogy: mid-1980s he graduated in Fine Art from Middlesex University

Do:

• Lengthy experience of teaching and lecturing in fine art at nigh of the principal London art colleges, specially Chelsea School of Art and Middlesex Academy. Continues to teach courses in painting at his studio in London
• 2011 until 2013 - engaged every bit painting consultant on the Mike Leigh directed picture show 'Mr Turner'. Taught the actor Timothy Spall to pigment in preparation for his role in Mr Turner. (Note: This is an absolutely transcript of a talk he gave virtually the process - which included educational activity Spall to describe)

Exhibitions: exhibited extensively; number of solo exhibitions with Shine Artists in Albemarle Street London; his piece of work features in many collections, both in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and internationally

The Immature Artist Laurels (£500) - Apple Wong Hiu Fung

This award is given for the best artwork from an artist under the age of 25. It was won by Hong Kong based Apple Wong Hiu Fung for her piece entitled 'Hiding '.

Immature Artist Award: Hiding past Apple Wong Fiu Hung
Coloured pencil on wood board, 55 x 55cm

Apple Wong Fiu Hung with Eileen Cooper RA

Wong's commitment to experimenting with a diversity of media is clear in her winning piece 'Hiding', a captivating coloured pencil cartoon on woods board. The delicately rendered image of a human crouching in a forest explores abstract concepts such as isolation and separation.

Born and lives and works in Hong Kong
Education: University of Visual Arts of the Hong Kong Baptist Academy

Exhibitions: exhibited widely beyond Asia

Prizes: awarded the Hong Kong Clifton's Art Prize in 2011.

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Source: https://makingamark.blogspot.com/2016/09/derwent-art-prize-2016-prizewinners.html

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