Announcing the Caroline Sassoon Emerging Artist Award

Falmouth School of Art is delighted to announce an award open to final year BA(Hons) Fine Art and BA(Hons) Drawing students, generously made by Nysha Concannon-Brook in memory of her Grandmother, Caroline Sassoon. The launch of the Caroline Sassoon Emerging Artist award coincides with what would have been the artist’s 100th birthday.

Caroline Sassoon was born Daphne Elsie Dawn Taylor on the 11^th October 1918. Her discipline and drive were clear from an early age, when she won the regional ice-skating championship at just ten years old. She had lost both of her parents by the age of nineteen, their deaths falling within three years of each other. She trained to be a teacher, specialising in art. Her headmaster at Crewkern School in Somerset commented that, “she has revolutionised the conception of [art]… even those to whom this medium of expression is not natural have been stimulated by her method of approach.”

Sassoon was a fierce feminist from a young age and remained disappointed that she never lived to see women paid equally. On marrying Hamo Sassoon in 1948, she told him, in the crisp and clear way that she always communicated, she would not be spending all of her time cooking for him. If he wanted a chef, he could pay for one.

Hamo was an archaeologist which meant they lived in many different places, including colonial Africa – where in addition to their own three children, they adopted three cheetahs whose mother had been killed by hunters. During these years of travel, she illustrated the book Friends and Enemies by Naomi Mitchison, drew renditions of the local African life, and on arriving in Fort Jesus in Mombasa, she wrote and illustrated her own book called Chinese Porcelain in Fort Jesus.

Sassoon had an ever-expanding interest in all art, from cave paintings, through to David Hockney, and she was always open to modernisations within the industry. In her later years, from the age of seventy-one, she began painting coastal watercolours in Cornwall, near where she lived in Fowey. They were exhibited and sold in the Julia Gould art gallery in Cornwall.

Caroline Sassoon was someone who never saw age as a barrier, taking a course in genetics at the Open University at seventy-eight years old. She believed that you never stopped learning and that perseverance was the key to achieving clearly set goals. In her memory, the Caroline Sassoon Emerging Artist Award will make a monetary contribution to the successful student, with the intention of aiding their continuing practice as an artist following their degree studies. 

Falmouth School of Art Purchase Prize – Robin French

Artist Robin French, with a detail from his painting.

The Falmouth School of Art Purchase Prize is an occasional award made during our degree shows, whereby the School purchases an artwork from a graduating student in recognition of their achievement and the strength of their work, and in support of their continued practice. This year we are delighted to have awarded a Purchase Prize to Robin French, who has just graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art, for his painting, Kitchen, early spring. We asked Robin if he’d like to tell us a little about the painting, and about his future plans…

Robin French – Kitchen, Early Spring, 112 x 152cm, oil on canvas

“I’m very proud to have been awarded the Falmouth School of Art Purchase Prize. It is so encouraging to sell work from the show –  it has really spurred me on.

My painting, Kitchen, early spring, is important to me. I shouldn’t like to tie it down to a particular narrative but perhaps I can explain my own personal ideas behind it. The figure is my mother, crouched down to hug her dog. In the room there is a stove. The bowls and mugs are pottery she has made herself. The plants are from the garden she has carefully grown. it’s not so much a portrait of my mother. I wanted more to tap into the soul of the house she has made.

I like to use negative space, leaving large areas of the canvas unpainted. I don’t want the painting to feel suffocated in it’s meaning or appearance. If I’m successful, hopefully the viewer can share certain feelings or understandings that I’ve been working through. This could be very subtle and hard to put into words. I think successful figurative paintings have this unique ability. It’s my challenge to achieve this.

For the future, I’m trying to maximise the time I can spend painting. I’m planning a motorcycle trip where I hop between different artist residencies. At the same time, I’m hoping to find somewhere on the continent where I can rent a studio on a more long term basis.”

https://www.instagram.com/robinfrenchartist/

Falmouth School of Art Lecturers selected for John Moores Painting Prize 2018

Virginia Verran, Associate Lecturer on BA(Hons) Fine Art and Peter Matthews, Visiting Lecturer on BA(Hons) Drawing, have been shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize 2018.

This year the John Moores Painting Prize is celebrating 60 years. Named after sponsor Sir John Moores (1896-1993), it is the UK’s best-known painting competition, and culminates in an exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery every two years, forming a key strand of the Liverpool Biennial.

The John Moores exhibition is held in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust, and showcases some of the best contemporary painters from across the UK.

Sir Peter Blake became the first Patron of the Prize in 2011 and says, “The John Moores is one of the most prestigious art competitions in the UK and winning the Junior Prize in 1961 is one of the achievements of which I am most proud.”

Virginia Verran – current work at her studio in Bethnal Green, London.

 

 

Peter Matthews  is a Visiting Lecturer on our BA(Hons) Drawing. Of his success this year he says, “Really delighted to be showing a large scale painting at the 60th John Moores Painting Prize”.

 

Virginia Verran was born in Falmouth and has taught Fine Art since 1990. She is an Associate Lecturer on Falmouth’s BA(Hons) Fine Art course, and also teaches at Chelsea College of Art and Design. In 2010 she won the Jerwood Drawing Prize and this year her entry in the 2018 John Moores Painting Prize is titled ‘Black Star’; a large piece measuring 6ft x 5ft6ins.  She lives in London and works in her studio in Bethnal Green.

 

 

Last chance to see…at Imagine Falmouth

Beth Garnett, alumna of MA Illustration: Authorial Practice, is currently showing a collage – From the Headland at Mawnan I – as part of Falmouth Art Gallery’s Imagine Falmouth exhibition until this Saturday. The piece was produced during Beth’s participation in Falmouth School of Art’s Observational Drawing Intensive last July.

Beth Garnett, From The Headland At Mawnan I, 2017, Collage

After the success of Falmouth Art Gallery’s inaugural submissions show last year, ‘Imagine Falmouth’ has grown in scale, and is now a bi-annual exhibition and arts prize. The gallery invite emerging and established artists from across the county to submit their work. With no theme and no restriction on medium, the exhibition has reflected the very best of Cornish art today. The exhibition, which opened in November, closes on Saturday 20 January.

Falmouth School of Art Intensives offer a selection of 5-day courses for artists and art educators, all taking place in the studios and grounds of Falmouth Campus, and the surrounding area. Of her experience at last summer’s Intensive, Beth says, ‘The course was a really great timeout from real life to get back to drawing again, in beautiful surroundings. The tutors were supportive and offered really practical advice. The group size wasn’t too big and we had a lot of fun. I was able to find new directions for my work and new ideas for my process which has really refreshed my practice. I’m am sure will continue to impact on my drawing work for a long time to come’.

for 2018, Falmouth School of Art will run three Intensives; in Drawing, Abstract Painting and The Figure. Course descriptors will soon be available online, at www.falmouth.ac.uk/fsaintensives, where you can also find images from previous intensives, terms and conditions and a short application form.

Catching up with Katie Sims, Falmouth Fine Art alumna

Katie Sims graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art at Falmouth in 2010. Since then she has pursued her art, enjoyed competition and exhibition success and had a spell teaching. She reflects on her time at Falmouth, and talks to us about her life as a professional artist…

Katie Sims

Describe your life since graduating back in 2010…

Things kicked off for me when I was selected for Saatchi’s New Sensations and the Midas Award, two competitions that afforded critical exposure and led to further opportunities to show and collaborate with curators and galleries. The Midas Award provided tremendous professional support during that daunting first year with the prize at that time including a solo exhibition, materials grant and yearlong mentorship programme through Falmouth University. None of this would have happened had I not entered those, proving it’s worth putting yourself forward for things.

Trinity After Ribera and Portal (Opening Gambit, Hoxton Art Gallery, London, 2010), Image courtesy of Hoxton Art Gallery

That led me to establish a working relationship with Hoxton Art Gallery (2011-13). At the time, Hoxton was a new venture and I made work for their launch show. We grew together; things went well and they asked me to be one of their represented artists. We were a good fit and shared a similar ethos so I accepted. The gallery acted as my agents, taking care of all sales, promoting my work, providing exhibiting opportunities and inclusion in key art fairs and events whilst I was able to concentrate solely on painting. For that privilege I promised exclusivity to them, and they would take a commission on all sales. One of the highlights was my solo show, Opening Gambit. I spent 9 months working toward this exhibition and to see the work in situ and how the public responded was moving. It completed the whole cycle for me.

One of the biggest challenges has been trying to create freely whilst feeling the pressure of deadlines and accountability.

I started teaching art to sixth form students in 2013 in order to have more social contact and a regular income alongside painting. Three years later, with a PGCE now done and a ton of experience and newfound knowledge about my work, and myself, I’m shifting the emphasis back to painting. My experience of teaching was brilliant, but I struggled to balance both careers with equal intensity. I still want to teach though; perhaps as an artist that delivers workshops in schools. I loved working with my students.

What are you working on now?

Fleeting Agony, oil on panel, 24x30cm (2010)

I’m working on a new body of paintings to exhibit. I’ve also been archiving my work and recently launched a new website – www.katiesims.co.uk. Revisiting ten years worth of work has been cathartic and essential, allowing me to notice which pictures resonate most with me now. For example, I made a painting whilst at Falmouth called Fleeting Agony, the first picture that was discovered through the process of painting. It remains a monument to what I’m trying to do now – taking on my historic influences, memories and experiences as they affect me now. Trying to fix the quiddity of that impression rather than objective reality.

Osmosis, oil on panel, 24x30cm (2017)

 

What is a typical day for you?

Studio, studio, studio. I need to be here and cut off from life outside in order to focus. Large parts of my day are spent thinking rather than physically painting. When I do pluck up the courage, I have a window of a few hours to get something down. It’s always been that way, even as a student. The process itself is full of risk and I’ve watched many paintings close down from overworking or overthinking them, but sometimes you have to sacrifice things in order to potentially realise something greater. I’m always learning and each painting proposes a new challenge, leading me on to the next. As I’ve matured I’ve learnt creative down time and play is as important as production, otherwise you burn out. You need to keep nourishing yourself as an artist to remain fresh and engaged. I love to walk and go off exploring new places. These trips feed my work and keep the days varied.

Trinity after Ribera, oil on panel, 30x24cm (2012) Image courtesy of Hoxton Art Gallery.

What’s next for you?

I’d like to kit out a van and create a portable studio to travel around Spain. I’ve returned to the country each year since winning The Ford Award in 2012 (a travel bursary to study at the Prado in Madrid) – it’s my second home.  As time goes on there is something about the landscape, the people, and the light that is of interest and speaks directly to me. I have a collection of drawings, some from life, some from memory which I intend to re-familiarise myself with and work into paintings too.

Why did you choose to study at Falmouth?

I needed a supportive environment where I could really focus on exploring my ideas with fewer distractions. Falmouth instantly felt right. As students we were spoilt – top facilities, resources and tutors available to us. Such accessibility and personal relationships with staff are rare to come by. It’s what makes it unique. I knew I would be a person here and not a statistic.

 

What is your favourite memory from studying at Falmouth?

There are so many, and the most precious for me seem to be in the everyday stuff. I remember walking the tree-lined passage to the Falmouth Campus at Woodlane from my home in Falmouth each day. The light present in my studio building, the buzz surrounding the campus, everyone doing something different – it was a remarkable, concentrated moment in my life. I look back with fondness. They all stay with me.

How did Falmouth influence your career?

Falmouth gave me the space required to find my own language. Its strength as a university is in encouraging each student to have the confidence to do this. I left with a definite sense of who I am and the type of work I want to make.

I also gained a remarkable set of friends, which continues to stand the test of time. Anyone that studies here is part of something bigger, akin to family. When you meet a former Falmouth student, regardless of age or course, you share an instant connection.

If you had to give one piece of advice to a new Falmouth student, what would it be?

Studying at Falmouth is a brilliant opportunity in a truly inspiring place, make every moment count and experience it to the fullest.

 

Fine Art students reflect on the Future Now Symposium

Second year BA(Hons) Fine Art students, Isaac Aldridge and Unn Devik joined their Senior Lecturers Mercedes Kemp and Lucy Willow at a two-day conference – Future Now – at York St John University. Isaac and Unn, whose attendance was partially funded by Falmouth School of Art, share their experience of the symposium:

‘Cherie Federico, the Co- Publisher, Editor and Director of Aesthetica opened the symposium with a soft, reinforcing message, reminding us of uncertain times with the unprecedented rate of technological intervention with the effects and questions that it brings to us in the present time. Federico mentioned the way technology can sway culture and enforce propaganda; we can see this through the brain washing of young people through the manipulation of religious intentions to commit acts of terror and political gain, but ultimately through art we are able to consider the events of the world; even though it’s shifting at a cataclysmic speed, we have some power of influence. It is a self-reflection on the 21st Century life and what it means.’ Isaac Aldridge

‘Future Now Symposium invited us to celebrate the shortlisted artists for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2017, and for the occasion arranged a vast series of lectures by professionals from the art world. Speakers came from Glasgow School of Art, Welcome Trust, ArtAngel, Arts Council, Visual Art South West, Icon Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery and many more. Themes of the Symposium included; the arrival of the digital age and how it affects the art world as we know it and, diversity in the art world and how to make it a more inclusive and culturally diverse scene on all levels.  There were also sessions about funding and art prizes, relevant platforms when launching a career as a practicing artist.’

I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity by the university to attend the Future Now Symposium. All in all I feel more informed about the current situation of the Art World. Although it is a highly competitive and commercially driven world, it is full of opportunities.  Hopefully, too, it is on its way to becoming a truly diverse place.  An Art World utopia is a place where the Art World is not commercially driven and takes pride in nurturing and sustaining talent from across the globe – regardless of background.  I think only then we can talk about making art for art´s sake – that is to imitate different realities of existence.  We are far from this utopia– but I believe going to symposiums and other events like Future Now is a great way of getting to know yourself and what you find to be valuable and worthwhile – thus creating your own idea of a utopia.’ Unn Devik

International awards for Falmouth Illustration alumni

Two of this year’s four winners of the BolognaRagazzi Award are alumni of Falmouth’s BA(Hons) Illustration. The BolognaRagazzi Award is one of the world’s most highly regarded international prizes in children’s publishing, giving winners extraordinary visibility, including through high profile recognition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

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Emma Lewis won the Opera Prima category for The Museum of Me, by Tate Publishing. She said, ‘Winning the award was an amazing surprise, as I hadn’t even considered that I would be put forward. I’m also pleased because it reflects all the brilliant hard work put in by my publishers, Tate’.

2012 graduate William Grill won the Non-fiction category for his book The Wolves of Currumpaw, published by Flying Eye Books. Grill said ‘I am over the moon that Wolves was chosen for this year’s non-fiction category, I had never imagined that it would be so well received overseas. Since my aim was to bring Seton’s tale to a modern audience, I now feel more hopeful that more people will appreciate the story’.

The Wolves of Currumpaw has also been long listed for this year’s CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, the UK’s oldest award for Children’s literature, previously won by some of the best loved children’s illustrators, including Quentin Blake and Raymond Briggs. Grill won the Medal in 2015 for his acclaimed Shackleton’s Journey.

Alongside Grill on the Kate Greenaway Medal long list is Levi Pinfold, who graduated from Falmouth in 2006. Pinfold – also a previous Medal-winner, in 2013 for Black Dog – has been selected for his picture book Greenling, published by Templar Publishing. The Kate Greenaway Medal short list will be announced on 16 March, with the winners announced at a ceremony in June.

MA Illustration Alumna, Heidi Ball, wins international writers competition

Heidi Ball, Illustrator and Writer, who graduated from the MA Illustration: Authorial Practice course in 2013 has won the 2016 Iceland Writers Retreat (IWR) writing competition with her short story ‘White Light’.  The competition to win a spot on the retreat has been running for three years and attracted over 350 entries from around the world.

The IWR will take place in April this year and is a space for writers and those who enjoy the craft of writing to retreat and to foster their creative spirit.  Over the course of the retreat participants can choose to enroll in small group writing workshops led by internationally acclaimed authors, Q&A panels, numerous readings, social functions and the opportunity to explore the Icelandic countryside.

Heidi says “I’m really looking forward to the IWR 2017 retreat in April – there are some amazing speakers and I’ve been lucky enough to book on five of the workshops, with; Claudia Casper, Sara Gruen, Bret Anthony Johnston, Madeleine Thien and Meg Wolitzer. Goodness, what a line-up. I cannot wait!”

 

White Light, by Heidi Ball (471 words)

The old man watched from the dryness of the shore. On black sand in a black night. He tilted his head upwards, waiting for the clouds to pass.

He would always come here, he knew that. This was where his heart was held. A tiny beating thing. The land was so vast, so strong, and only here he remembered his place.

This time, he stood with his family, his son by his side, a man now. And they gazed together, waiting for the moon.
He had always told him on each return, that you should never fear the moon, but only fear what you find reflected there of yourself. The only true advice he could think of, as he doubted again what he himself might see.

The moon slipped silently into vision. Its light fell upon them. He tried to remember to breath. The whiteness slid along the ground, over the water and rocks and over their own small frames.

His wife, slipped her hand through the shadows and grasped his. Her hair greyed, as had his, but she hadn’t aged. Her eyes spoke of youth and the chilled air had awoken her complexion.

They aligned themselves, ready to see, ready to understand. This was the land of the moon, created in its likeness and only here, it felt like a homecoming. A resting place for the eternal.

No words were spoken aloud, they were quieted in time. Their annual trip to this place brought that moment of peace. He thought of the next year and the next, and wanted to be here to see them all. His grandchild would make the trip and he could tell her about, it all, you had to feel as well as see.

He closed his eyes to soak in the light. Then opened them wide to see what would be revealed. He was consumed by that moon. Its detail etched into his mind. The variations of its surface, pitted with memory.

His wife turned to him, squeezed his hand one last time that year. She nodded at the moon and smiled. He wondered why, always wondered how it could be, them standing here.

The gentle wind pushed back the veil and he found his hand empty once again. The moment had passed. He appreciated his son’s company with a glance, and turned for a final look up to the sky. He mouthed his thanks.

This is where he’d remember her, his wife. Her laugh, her voice whispering to him. He felt his son’s hand on his shoulder. She had slipped away, but he couldn’t bring himself to let go. This is where they had met, this is where they came each year, and she would always turn up, like tonight, when the light was just right. On the black sand, under the white moon.

 

Midas Exhibition 2016 opens 11 November

Recent work by Linda Straehl (video still)

We’re getting ready for the 2016 Midas Exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery, featuring work by ten artists, selected from their BA(Hons) Fine Art degree shows at Falmouth Campus this summer.

The exhibition runs from 12 November to 7 January, and includes work by Ella Caie (film), Finbar Conran (kinetic and sound installation), Tanya Cruz (sculptural video installation), Robert Davis (large kinetic sculpture and other works), Joe Fenwick-Wilson (painting and sculpture), Nicholas Griffin (painting), Zoë Pearce (painting), Bharat Rajagopal (painting), Isabel Ramos (video installation), and Calum Rees-Gildea (painting).

In the lower gallery, last year’s Midas winner, Linda Straehl, who graduated in 2015, will present a new video work.

A preview evening on 11 November (7-9pm) will include food from Cornish Fusion Fish and Food, as well as a pay bar. We are pleased to be enabling a group of current BA(Hons) Fine Art students will be attend the preview and an Artists’ Talk at 11am on 12 November, also open to the public (free with the cost of admission).

For more than ten years, Midas Construction, through the Midas Award, with Falmouth University, Newlyn Art Gallery and Anima-Mundi (formerly Millennium, St Ives), has provided recent graduates with funding for materials, mentoring and an exhibition in their first year after university.

A number of those exhibiting this year were featured by ArtCornwall talking about their work earlier this year: read more here.

Former Visiting Professor Deborah Levy shortlisted for Man Booker Prize

Falmouth School of Art is delighted to congratulate Deborah Levy on being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016, for her novel Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton).

Levy served as Visiting Professor of Writing in Illustration to Falmouth School of Art between 2012 and 2015, delivering a series of well attended and thought-provoking lectures to students and the public.

Levy works across fiction, performance and visual culture. She trained at Dartington College of Arts, leaving in 1981 to write a number of plays, highly acclaimed for their “intellectual rigour, poetic fantasy and visual imagination”, including Pax, Clam, Heresies for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Macbeth – False Memories, all published in Levy: Plays 1 (Methuen).

Her novels include the 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlisted, Swimming Home, translated into 14 languages, Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography, The Unloved (all reissued by Penguin), Billy and Girl (Bloomsbury). Her 2012 short story collection Black Vodka was short listed for The Frank O’Connor Award and the BBC International Short Story Award. Her long form essay, ‘Things I Don’t Want to Know’, a response to George Orwell’s 1946 essay ‘Why I Write’ and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is published in hard back by Notting Hill Editions, paperback by Penguin.

Bookmakers William Hill have declared Levy 2/1 favourite to win the prize.

2016 Guardian interview with Deborah Levy

The 2016 Man Booker shortlist:

The Sellout by Paul Beatty (Oneworld)

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton)

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh (Vintage)

All That Man Is by David Szalay (Vintage)

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (Granta)

More about the shortlist

BA(Hons) Drawing student Megan Fatharly is runner up in the Batsford Prize 2016

Congratulations to Megan Fatharly, a student on Falmouth’s BA(Hons) Drawing course who was chosen as a runner up in the Fine and Applied Arts category of the Batsford Prize 2016 for her piece ‘Organic Chaos’.

(C) Megan Fatharly, from Organic Chaos

 

The Batsford Prize is an annual competition for all undergraduate and postgraduate students studying at UK institutions with 2016 having a record number of entries.  As well as prize money awarded to the winner of each category, runners up also got £50 worth of Batsford books.

The theme for this year was ‘Reuse, Recycle, Reclaim’ and judges were looking for entries that reflect the desire and need to reuse and recycle materials and to reclaim what is discarded and give it a new life.  Judges included one of Britain’s most celebrated children’s illustrators Michael Foreman, fine art photographer and former Director of Kent Institute of Art & Design Vaughan Grylls, leading fashion writer and author Gemma Williams, textile artist and lecturer in textiles Jean Draper and the Publishing Director at Pavilion Books Katie Cowan.

(c) Megan Fatharly, from ‘Organic Chaos’

 

 

Falmouth Fine Art Student Reps celebrate

BA(Hons) Fine Art Student Reps Ruby Hall and Bryony Hacker

Falmouth School of Art congratulates Student Representatives from BA(Hons) Fine Art at Falmouth, who are celebrating success and recognition this week at the annual FXU Awards, which took place at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

FXU – the student union for Falmouth and University of Exeter in Cornwall – awarded the Fine Art Rep Team ‘Most significant Contribution to the Student Voice’, and from that team, Bryony Hacker, who has also served as the Falmouth School of Art Department Rep this year, was named ‘FXU Rep Legend’.

Every course at Falmouth University has Student Representatives, elected from within each year group annually. The role, which can be demanding as well as rewarding and challenging. gives students a great opportunity to gain experience representing their peers at course, department and University levels, and participate in initiatives and working groups relating to developments at Falmouth.

Fred Mallin, FXU Falmouth President, said of the Fine Art Rep Team, “They have been engaged, committed, positive and responsive, ensuring all students on their course have been represented. Between them they have attended Student Staff Liaison Groups, Departmental Boards, Student Councils, the AGM and UGM, Department Rep Working Groups and Falmouth Campus Reps meetings. [They] have been exceptionally proactive, providing strong representation of their peers and providing fair feedback both to staff and then back to students…as a cohort they have gone above and beyond their roles,effecting change on their course and the wider student experience.” First Year Course Coordinator Gillian Wylde described the team as “extremely pro-active and engaged as a point of contact for students on issues relating to the Fine Art course and facilities”.

Nominating Bryony Hacker as FXU Rep Legend, fellow Fine Art student and Rep Ruby Hall wrote, “I nominate Bryony because she is a hardworking and committed Student Rep and Falmouth School of Art Department Rep. Her attendance and communication between students and meetings is outstanding and she makes everyone feel in-the-loop. Her commitment to the roles is fantastic and she uses social media to communicate effectively. She has a passion for change and is proud to study at Falmouth, which easily rubs off on to her peers. I believe her hard work, commitment and positive energy should receive the recognition it deserves.”

Supporting the nomination of Bryony Hacker, Course Coordinator Gillian Wylde wrote, “Her role involves meeting with and talking to Fine Art students about the relevant issues affecting the cohort. Bryony is at all times, friendly, honest and hard working. She keeps the students she represents informed of key decisions so that they can feel confident that their voice is represented, working with the School to identify and resolve issues which may arise…providing feedback to the students she represents. Bryony has been exemplary in her role, directing students to information about services offered within the University and the Students’ Union. She is aware that the ‘voice’ of students matters and contributes toward positive change and improvements in the School.”

This year’s Fine Art Reps were Constance Barker, Jamie Battersby, Jessica Glover, Bryony Hacker, Ruby Hall, Anthony Kenny, Charlotte Macias, Tabitha Tohill-Reid, Chris Slesser  and Alexandra Trinder. We’re proud to have such dedicated and effective Reps in the Falmouth School of Art.

 

MA Illustration student wins The Andy Hocking Award

Ellie Robinson-Carter, a student of Falmouth’s MA Illustration won The Andy Hocking Award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Engagement at the FXU awards on Monday evening for her role in founding and running the Penryn Memory Café.   Ellie was presented the award by John Dukes, Police Representative for Falmouth University and the University of Exeter.

Ellie, a qualified dementia champion, supported by a small committee of volunteers, set up the Penryn Memory Café which launched back in September 2015.  Ellie continues to manage all aspects of the Memory Café from organising and leading activities at the fortnightly meets, to managing and recruiting new volunteers, maintaining and making new links with other community groups, attendance at local events to raise awareness of the Café and holding the monthly committee meetings.

The Memory Café welcomes those living with dementia and their carers to meet for activities, refreshments, to talk about their life stories and to help them meet new people and build relationships.  Since launching, the project has attracted a number of different society groups, creating a very important and diverse link with the local community which has rarely been seen before.  The Café meets on a regular basis every first and third Thursday of the month at the Penryn Temperance Hall.

If you would like to find out more about the Memory Café, you can email Ellie at: Erobinsoncarter78@googlemail.com.

Drawing student shortlisted for Batsford Prize 2016

© Megan Fatharly

The Batsford Prize is an annual competition for all undergraduate and postgraduate students.  The theme for 2016 is ‘Reuse, Recycle, Reclaim’.  We’re delighted that one of our BA(Hons) Drawing students, Megan Fatharly, has been shortlisted in the ‘Fine and Applied Arts’ category.  Winners will be announced in London on 17 May – Good luck Megan!

http://megansartspace.blogspot.co.uk/

Win for India Durban, Fine Art student

One of our BA(Hons) Fine Art students, India Durban, has won the very first Student Discovery Competition at the Cornwall Art Fair.  Her work The 3rd Driving Test was awarded first place by the selection committee.

Alumni selected for John Moores Painting Prize

(C) Laurence Owen, Ritual to the Westfield, 2015, Oil and collage on canvas with glazed ceramic pins (236 x 360cm)

We’re delighted to announce that an alumnus of BA(Hons) Fine Art, Laurence Owen is one of 54 artists selected from 2,500 entries for this year’s prestigious John Moores Painting Prize.

Born in Gloucester, Owen graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art at Falmouth in 2005 and later studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London, where he now lives and works. His works has featured in group, and some solo exhibitions, in London, Manchester, Surrey, York, Colchester, and Mexico.

Owen’s selected painting Ritual to the Westfield will be exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery (9 July – 27 November) with other selected artists as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2016.

Submission for the prize is open to all painters in the UK. Works for the exhibition are selected anonymously. This year’s jurors are Gillian Carnegie, Richard Davey, Ansel Krut, Phoebe Unwin and Ding Yi.

The overall winner will receive £25,000, with four further prizes of £2,500 also awarded. The names of the five shortlisted prize winners will be announced in June 2016, with the overall winner revealed on 7 July 2016.

www.laurenceowenart.com

Fine Art student Michael Cox selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016

Michael Cox, a third year BA(Hons) Fine Art student has been announced as one of the 46 artists chosen for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016, an annual open submission exhibition.

Michael has submitted an oil on canvas painting titled De Beauvoir which can be viewed by following this link to the New Contemporaries website: Michael Cox

The panel of guest selectors this year comprised Anya Gallaccio, Alan Kane and Haroon Mirza.  Kirsty Ogg, Director, New Contemporaries says “The panel this year were impressed by the breadth of work and critical sense demonstrated, with the resulting exhibition set to profile a cross-section of the most dynamic work to come out of British art schools.”

The national touring exhibition will launch from 09 July to 16 October 2016 at Bluecoat, Liverpool.

EYE Prize awarded to Ben Rivers

Falmouth School of Art alumnus, artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers has been announced as the winner of the 2016 EYE Prize. Set up in collaboration between EYE, the Dutch film museum, and the Paddy and Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund, the EYE Prize exists to highlight the relationship between contemporary art and film, awarding £25,000 annually to fund the making of new work by a living artist.

Ben Rivers, Swamp, 1971. Estate of Robert Smithson, Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York. Image: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson.

The EYE Prize aims each year to support and promote the artist or filmmaker whose work unites art and film, and demonstrates quality of thought, imagination and artistic excellence.

Last month, in an event presented by CAST and LUX as part of the public programme for The Cornwall Workshop 2016, Rivers introduced and spoke about his curated film programme, Edgelands, to a crowded lecture theatre at Falmouth School of Art, from where he graduated in 1993.

Blouin Artinfo have published a new interview with Rivers in which he responds to having been awarded the prize: read it here.

Zoe Pearce and Falmouth School of Art receive awards from the British Art Medal Society

© Zoe Pearce, front of medal

One of our BA(Hons) Fine Art students, Zoe Pearce, recently received the Tin Plate Company prize from the British Art Medal Society for her medal design It is July on the Moorlands: Took the wrong path when descending a 520-metre high sandstone hill.

Zoe describes her work below:

“Since entering the 2015 BAMS Student Medal competition, I really enjoyed learning the medal making progress, as well as the concept behind the medal. I have therefore continued medal making, incorporating it alongside my painting practice as well as going on to enter the 2016 BAMS Student Medal competition.

My artistic practice explores the relationship we have to the natural world, creating artworks that encourage viewers to reflect upon their understanding and observation of the physical world that surrounds us; but it isn’t without experiencing elements of the natural world for myself that I am able to understand our reality within it. Through walking within the landscape I am exposing myself to the elements of weather, light, change in temperature, and sense of space, that are all qualities of nature that have begun to inform the creation of my art medal.

In my work so far, it has been the vast and desolate British Moorland that has provided me with much of my inspiration, revealing that through my experience of walking through such open ground it is hard not to feel small and alone when surrounded by what seems such infinite space. The medal presents a place where I have walked within the landscape on one side, and the reverse featuring a figure, which is a representation of myself, which if placed on the side of the landscape would be positioned looking out into the distance. Although the subtle bronze landscape might not appear obvious to anyone where this place is, I still have no intention on giving away the exact location, instead, I have used the title in which to hint but not tell, supplying the viewer with a poetic fact of the landscape combined with an aspect of my experience there.”

© Zoe Pearce, reverse of medal

It has also been announced that the 2016 BAMS President Medal will be awarded to Falmouth School of Art.  The BAMS President Medal is awarded annually to individuals and organisations who have made significant contributions to the understanding, appreciation and encouragement of the art of the medal.

Design competition success for Fine Art student

One of our Third Year BA(Hons) Fine Art students, Jake Booth, has won the national Student Volunteering Week t-shirt design competition.

Jake commented about his award: “It was great for my design to be picked for the official SVW t-shirt, the design is very different from my usual art work and used my new skills in Indesign.  It’s nice knowing that something I had designed was being worn across the UK by students doing great volunteering work.”

Jake’s t-shirt design was worn by hundreds of volunteers across the country for The Student Volunteering Week.

Jake with his winning design

 

 

 

Illustration Award for Mat Osmond

The Michael Marks Awards are now in their seventh year, and in 2015 a new ‘Best Illustration’ prize was awarded which was won by Mat Osmond, Senior Lecturer on MA Illustration at Falmouth.  Speaking about the new Illustration prize, Wordsworth Trust Director Michael McGregor says “This year for the first time we are delighted to announce an additional award for illustration, promoting the poetry pamphlet as an object of visual as well as of poetic beauty”.  The new award ‘recognises outstanding illustration of a poetry pamphlet published between July 2014 and June 2015’.  The judge, Nicholas Penny, was asked to ‘consider illustration in any medium and look for a subtle and sustained relationship between image and text, as well as the overall quality of the images’.

The Awards have been presented by The Wordsworth Trust and the British Library, with the support of the Michael Marks Charitable Trust.  They have established themselves as one of the most significant awards in contemporary poetry, designed to raise the profile of poetry pamphlets, recognising the enormous contribution that they make to the poetry world.

Illustration Award Judge, Nicholas Penny (Director of the National Gallery, London from 2008 – 2015), wrote the following piece of Mat’s award winning pamphlet:

“Mat Osmond’s pamphlet Deadman and Hare:part 1, Fly Sings, published by Strandline Books, designed by Pirrip Press, is illustrated in an elegant but economic manner with black and white images which are sometimes miniature and specific and sometimes mysteriously abstract. They provide a sort of pictorial punctuation, cunningly placed and spaced, between and beneath the lines – thus, one cannot miss them or think of the poetry without them.”

The winners were announced at a special dinner at the British Library attended by an invited audience of poets, publishers, critics and supporters of poetry on the evening of Tuesday 24 November 2015.  The winner of the Poetry Pamphlet Award was ‘The First Telling’ by Gill McEvoy and the Publisher’s Award was won by Edinburgh based Mariscat Press.

British Art Medal Society prize winners on display

BA(Hons) Fine Art student prize winners from the British Art Medal Society’s (BAMS) competition will be exhibiting in Cornish Cream in conjunction with Truro & Penwith College students at the Royal Cornwall Museum, River Street, Truro.  This will take place from 01 July to 31 August 2015.  The Museum is open Monday to Saturday 10am – 4.45pm.

The BAMS competition, run by the British Museum, requires students to consider the medal as a small, hand-held, double-faced sculptural object, normally in cast bronze. As well as the upcoming exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum, students will have their work published in a catalogue. Selected student medals also go to an international exhibition in 2016, the FIDEM Congress.

BA(Hons) Drawing student wins Monty Parkin Memorial Prize

We were delighted to hear of third year BA(Hons) Drawing student Theo Crutchley-Mack‘s success in the Monty Parkin Memorial Prize. This is the second year in which the prize has run, inviting applications from leading art schools across the UK, and the organisers were very pleased with the high standard of entries this year. Just three winners were selected, each winning £300. We invited Theo to tell us about his work and about winning the prize…

Theo Crutchley-Mack

“Since living and studying on the coast I have become fascinated by the detrimental effects of time on abandoned buildings and vessels. The textured surfaces commonly found in these subjects have a unique quality of beauty that contradicts the negative opinion commonly taken toward decaying buildings and shipwrecks. In my artwork I attempt to capture this quality of beauty and represent it in an appealing and well composed drawing. I am inviting the viewer to appreciate how decay is actually a fascinating and beautiful process that never stops changing.

This prize money from this award will go towards travel and supplies for a research trip through England and Ireland where I will seek more subjects in a state of decay.

More of my work can be found at facebook.com/theocrutchleymack where I will be posting updates on the trip and the progress of my new body of work”.

(C) Theo Crutchley-Mack

(C) Theo Crutchley-Mack

(C) Theo Crutchley-Mack

Reflections on the Spike Island Residency

2014 BA(Hons) Fine Art graduate Ed Hill was awarded the Spike Island Residency, following his studies. Here he shares with current students of the course his reflections on the experience…

Working at Spike Island for three months allowed me to continue the momentum of working post graduation. In my case, this meant painting.

Ed Hill’s Spike Island studio space

The Residency studio was big and situated among other artists’ studios. After moving timber, paint, canvas and stretchers into my space, I shared the studio with three other recent graduates. With 24/7 access, you are free to come and go anytime, day or night. I enjoyed the access to a wood workshop – where I made stretchers, (there is also a metal workshop and plenty of room for larger scale projects).

The atmosphere was very professional, and it was a realistic and beneficial experience of a totally independent way of working outside of art school. I made paintings for a show, and without the studio, facilities and space it would have been much more challenging to do so.

‘At the beach (after Mr and Mrs Andrews)’ 100x100cm, oil on canvas

If you are hoping to carry on working on art projects after graduating, and if you are serious about being artist, the residency is something to aim for – it will provide space, facilities and an opportunity to continue momentum in an art environment at a time when it is increasingly hard to do so. I recommend applying for the residency.

Edward Hill, Standing on a Rock

Ed Hill was one of four Falmouth alumni selected for the 2014 Bloomberg New Contemporaries which, having toured to Liverpool and London, will be on display at Newlyn and the Exchange Galleries from 21 March – 30 May 2015. You can see Ed’s work as part of that exhibition. Ed was also the recipient of The Falmouth School of Art Purchase Prize 2014 for his Bloomberg-selected piece Standing on a Rock.

Turner Prize nominees – What advice would you give to a younger artist?

Next Monday evening sees the announcement of the winner of The Turner Prize 2014.Tate Collective London asked the nominees, “What advice would you give to a younger artist?”. You can see their responses in this short Tate Collective Film, including advice given by Tris Vonna-Michell, alumnus of Falmouth’s Foundation in Art & Design. You can hear Vonna-Michell talking more about his work in a recent TateShots film.

(C) Tris Vonna-Michell / Turner Prize

At Falmouth, staff and students will be celebrating Vonna-Michell’s nomination with a panel discussion and live screening of the televised announcement of the 2014 winner. The panel will be chaired by Dr. Ginny Button, Director of the Falmouth School of Art, former Turner Prize curator (1993-1998) and author of The Turner Prize. Dr. Button will be joined by Kelly Taylor, Independent curator and former Director of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, and by Lisa Wright, figurative artist, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Falmouth, winner of the 2013 Threadneedle Prize and former selector of the National Open competition.

The Turner Prize 2014 exhibition runs at Tate Britain, London, until 4 January 2015, and also includes the work of Vonna-Michell’s fellow nominees, Duncan Campbell, Ciara Phillips and James Richards. Tris Vonna-Michell will be giving a performance in the exhibition on Saturday, 29 November, tickets available from Tate.

Falmouth graduate wins ‘New Talent’ AOI Illustration Award

2014 Falmouth BA(Hons) Illustration graduate David Doran has won the prestigious ‘New Talent’ AOI Illustration Award in partnership with Directory of Illustration. The brief for the award was to create an illustration for an article reviewing Dennis Bock’s novel Going Home Again.

David describes his approach: “It was important to understand the themes and subject matter of the novel being reviewed, but I chose not to look too far beyond the article itself. I simply researched all the visual references in order to pictorially make sense of the text.”

He adds: “Winning the award has been a fantastic experience for me. It’s opened up many new doors and has been an encouraging start to the beginning of my career. It is a huge honour to have been recognised in editorial illustration by such an esteemed panel of judges. I had a lot of fun working on this illustration and am very thankful to Nicholas Blechman, Art Director at The New York Times Book Review, for entrusting me with the project.”

Falmouth Prospectus cover by David Doran

The AOI Illustration Awards are the most comprehensive and highest profile illustration awards based in the UK, promoting exceptional work by illustrators and presenting illustration as a major force in global visual culture. The awards are international and open to illustrator’s worldwide working across all sectors and in any medium.

Doran has a strong interest in traditional print techniques; his work explores textures and overlapping colour palettes. Often involving a sense of narrative with conceptual elements, he frequently employs figures and symbolism. He has worked with a wide range of international clients, including the New York Times, WIRED, Nobrow and the San Francisco Chronicle.

For more examples of Doran’s work, see his website: daviddoran.co.uk

Also among this year’s New Talent winners were 2012 BA(Hons) Illustration graduate William Grill, and 2014 graduate Katie Ponder.

Guido Lanteri-Laura wins the Midas Award 2014

Guido Lanteri Laura has been announced winner of the prestigious Midas Award at a private view held at Newlyn Art Gallery on Friday 17 October. The award was presented alongside the exhibition launch, which showcases work by all of the finalists, recent BA(Hons) Fine Art graduates Guido Lanteri Laura, Laura Adams, Calum Armstrong, Diana Bechmann and Jon Doran. Also opening was Existed, the solo exhibition by last year’s winner, Marc Messenger.

Much of Guido’s work consists of primitively edited films in which physical acts and performances can be represented in a way that create moments of doubt within the mind of the audience. These moments of doubt have the ability to not only send the protagonist into a different world, but simultaneously send the audience there with him.

Guido comments, “I was shortlisted for the Midas Art Award from the degree show, and it’s fantastic to win. Now I’ve won this award, I will look to continue my work and aim to apply for a place at the Royal College of Art in the new year”. He receives a prize worth £1,500, a year’s mentoring from an art tutor based at Falmouth, and the opportunity to stage his own solo exhibition at the Millennium Gallery, St. Ives in the autumn of 2015.

The exhibition is on at Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance until 15 November. The gallery is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am – 5pm, and entry is free, donations welcome. Alongside the finalists’ exhibition, paintings by Caroline Pedler will also be on display in The Picture Room from 18 October to 15 November. All works are for sale.

Falmouth graduates reviewed at Bloomberg New Contemporaries

Writing for the Edinburgh based magazine, The Skinny, Sacha Waldron discusses this year’s Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition at the World Museum, Liverpool, and highlights work by Falmouth Fine Art graduates Edward Hill and Frances Williams.

Waldron writes, “a stand-out painting comes from Falmouth’s Ed Hill. His trio shows a man standing on a mountain rock, in a bee suit at night and lying in bubbling rapids. The viewer is transported to a 1970s hike in Yosemite to the soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel. It’s the most carefree summer in this moustachioed young man’s life, and I want to be in those paintings with him, wrapped in an unknown landscape of muddy greens, glowing whites and dusky pink skies”.

Ed Hill, Bee Night, 2013,

Waldron continues by picking out a work by Frances Williams…”Further into the exhibition, however, the video offering becomes really interesting. Ting & Tang: anachronisms by Falmouth’s Frances Williams is the most intriguing. Two men sit side-by-side as if on stage preparing for a performance, before rising into a ritualistic dance with each other. Twisty lines of disturbance sporadically distort the image. With a rather disturbing found-footage quality, the work is refreshingly hard to pin down”.

(Whole review)

Ed Hill graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art at Falmouth in 2014, and also studied his Foundation at Falmouth. His work can be seen online at: www.edwardjhill.com 

Frances Williams graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art in 2010. Her work can be seen online at: www.frances-williams.co.uk

Also included in the show is a video piece by 2013 Falmouth BA(Hons) Fine Art graduate Stacey Guthrie, Disarmed and Ever So Slightly Dangerous, 2013. Her work can be seen online at www.staceyguthrie.co.uk 

The Midas Award 2014

Midas Award Shortlist – Calum Armstrong, Laura Adams, Diana Bechmann, Guido Lanteri Laura and Jon Doran

Five artists were selected from this year’s degree shows at Falmouth University for this group exhibition, which runs at Newlyn Gallery from 18 October to 15 November. The shortlisted artists, Laura Adams, Calum Armstrong, Diana Bechmann, Jon Doran and Guido Lanteri Laura will present their work in the upper gallery.

Last year’s winner, Marc Messenger, will present Existed, a solo show of miniature sculptures, inspired by Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Each piece is created from a mix of materials including wood and steel, combined with natural elements such as flowers, moss, and seaweed. The installation, comprising one hundred sculptures, will be in the lower gallery.

Work from this year’s shortlisted artists includes Mindscape, an atmospheric animation by Laura Adams set in a dark and mysterious building where strange occurrences take place. Calum Armstrong’s architectural sculptures, made with clay, sand and straw, will buttress the gallery walls and push up against the ceiling. Diana Bechmann’s intricately carved plaster sculptures feature life size figures, shrouded and bound in fabric. Jon Doran’s series of paintings feature young people finding their way through woodlands, paused at the fork in a path or tentatively stepping into a stream. Guido Lanteri Laura’s film Modo Del Abeglia, features his alter ego, Jean-Pierre Lanteri, performing gravity-defying actions in the forested mountains of his ancestors.

The 2014 winner, announced on Friday 17th October at the private view, will receive a year’s supply of art materials, professional mentoring and a solo show at Millennium Gallery in the autumn of 2015, providing the opportunity to present work in a high-profile professional venue.

Private View & Award Ceremony Friday 17th October 7.30 – 9.30pm

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014

Four BA(Hons) Fine Art alumni – Edward Hill, Stacey Guthrie, Melissa Kime and Frances Williams – are exhibiting in this year’s Bloomberg New Contemporaries which is currently open as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2014. Ed, Stacey and Frances, along with 51 other artists, join the roster of Bloomberg New Contemporaries, which includes previous exhibitors Jake & Dinos Chapman, Falmouth alumna Tacita Dean, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst and Mike Nelson as well as more recent emerging artists including Ed Atkins, Becky Beasley, Haroon Mirza and Laure Prouvost.

This year’s selectors are Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Enrico David and Goshka Macuga and the resulting exhibition is an incisive snapshot of contemporary practice, spanning diverse media, processes, themes, influences and approaches—from moving image and performance to more traditional approaches to making work such as printmaking, painting and sculpture.

“At a time when creativity and innovation has never been so vital, this year’s selected artists demonstrate the relevance of contemporary art as analytical commentary in everyday life. Offering a unique nationwide insight into British art schools today, this year’s national touring exhibition offers a unique opportunity for selected works to be seen on an international platform at Liverpool Biennial and ICA, London.”
–Kirsty Ogg, Director, Bloomberg New Contemporaries

Ed Hill, Bee Night, 2013.

http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/artists/ed-hill

Stacey Guthrie has been chosen by Axisweb as one of five artists to watch in this years New Contemporaries. For more details see:http://www.axisweb.org/features/default/spotlight/five2watch-bloomberg-new-contemporaries/

/ http://www.staceyguthrie.co.uk

Stacey Guthrie, Disarmed and Ever So Slightly Dangerous, 2013. Still from video

http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/artists/stacey-guthrie

Frances Williams, Ting and Tang: anachronisms (1), 2012. Still from video

http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/artists/frances-williams; www.frances-williams.co.uk

A review of the exhibition, referencing Frances’ work can be found on e-flux. Frances also completed her MA in Fine Art at Falmouth in 2011 and is a current PhD candidate and Technician in time based media.

Melissa Kime, Technicolour Joseph and the Amazing City Bankers, 2013, cropped

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014, 20 September–26 October 2014, World Museum, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN. Hours: Monday–Sunday 10am–5pm, Free admission

www.newcontemporaries.org.uk

Falmouth in the Threadneedle Prize

Falmouth is again well represented in this year’s Threadneedle Prize. The exhibition includes works by BA(Hons) Fine Art alumni Erin Sevink–Johnston, Jack Davis (2012), Sarah Shaw (2001) and Kate Giles (1990), among work by 64 artists selected from entries by over 3,600.

The Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today, aims to showcase the very best in new figurative and representational art, and champions work by some of the most interesting artists working in Europe today. The Threadneedle 2013 Prize was won by painter and Falmouth Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Lisa Wright.

Jack Davis, Pendennis Point Through The Rain

 

Erin Sevink-Johnston, Godzilla Mouse House.

 

Sarah Shaw, Hearthold

Kate Giles, Back Towards Overy Marshes, Norfolk

 

 

Exhibition open: 25 September – 11 October 2014, 10am – 5pm – Mall Galleries, London SW1

Fine Art alumni success in Glyndebourne’s 2014 Art Competition

The Glyndebourne opera house has announced the winners of its 2014 Tour Art Competition, and securing third place is Alex Jabore, BA(Hons) Fine Art graduate.  Alex, who is passionate about opera, specialises in traditional oil painting and is currently London-based.  Alex’s work entitled ‘The Finale’ focuses on Violetta’s death and its tragic finality.

It was reported that the standard of submissions for the competition was incredibly high.  Artists from across the UK submitted outstanding pieces inspired by Verdi’s La traviata, one of three Glyndebourne operas that will tour the country from October to December.

Glyndebourne will launch its 2014 Tour on 04 October and the winning artists will see their work exhibited in the Stalls Gallery at Glyndebourne from 4-26 October 2014.

Saatchi New Sensations long-list

Rose-Marie-Caldecott, A Debate.

BA(Hons) Fine Art alumni Rose-Marie Caldecott and Emily Cranny have made the Saatchi New Sensations longlist. Widely regarded as the UK’s most important annual prize for emerging artists, it prioritises talent and imagination, providing an international platform.

This, the eighth year of the prize, saw submissions from hundreds of art students preparing to graduate from both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Nominated by Saatchi Art curators, the longlist reflects the highest calibre of work.

Rose-Marie commented on her selection, “It was a great honour to find out that I had been nominated. To have the recognition from the Saatchi Gallery, which many call the hub of the modern art world, has given me a confidence and drive which is very valuable at this stage of my career.”

Emily Cranny, Arid and Salty

Equally delighted, Emily added, “The news was quite a surprise! I’m tremendously pleased and grateful to have been nominated. It’s a great boost as I continue with my practice.”

Rose-Marie is currently enjoying her first solo exhibition at Oxford’s Art Jericho. Titled, The Radiance of Being, the show runs until September. Emily is also continuing her work and has plans to return to university for postgraduate study.

The Saatchi New Sensations shortlist will be selected by a panel of judges and announced in September. All shortlisted works will be profiled in the New Sensations’ exhibition this October at a 22,000 square-foot venue represented by Location House, London.

Falmouth graduate shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries

(c) Stacey Guthrie

Chosen from 1,400 submissions via an anonymous selection process, 2013 BA(Hons) Fine Art graduate Stacey Guthrie will be informed of the outcome of Bloomberg New Contemporaries by mid-May.

Founded in 1949 as the ‘Young Contemporaries’, the Arts Council sponsored exhibition helps to launch promising artists. The annual selection is made by artists and writers who are often previous winners themselves.

Stacey said, ‘I am delighted to have been shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Since graduating it’s been a whirlwind of activity and it feels great to be representing Cornwall and being part of showcasing the great wealth of creativity and talent we have down here.’

Stacey, who lives in West Cornwall, is also involved in a current exhibition with Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, and Spectrum, the autism charity. The exhibition, ‘I’ (Passing Through the Veil of Solitude) runs until 20 April at Telegraph House in Truro.

Fine Art’s Nicola Kerslake awarded prize for ‘cutting edge’ medal

Nicola Kerslake, a student on BA(Hons) Fine Art, has been awarded a prize, presented by the Worshipful Company of Cutlers for a ‘cutting edge’ medal, titled You Will Be My Death.  Nicola describes her medal as “a statement on how nature is deadly to humans; yet at the same time humans are equally as harming to the natural world.  This is shown by the flip side of the medal.  The Hemlock flower depicted on one side of the medal is poisonous if consumed by humans.  On the other side, the Hemlock’s root system suffers, entwined with human’s rubbish, sewage pipes and cables.”

The Student Medal Project, which is now in its 21st year, is run by The British Art Medal Society (BAMS), and is based at the British Museum.  Nicola’s medal is currently included in the exhibition in The New Ashgate Gallery: Farnham, Hold It!  The Art of The Modern Medal:  British Art Medal Society Student Medal Project.  08 March – 19 April 2014.

(c) Nicola Kerslake – You Will Be My Death

(c) Nicola Kerslake – You Will Be My Death

 

Falmouth School of Art celebrates its Turner Prize 2013 nominee

Around 120 Fine Art students and staff gathered for a panel discussion about the Turner Prize, followed by the live televised broadcast of the announcement of the 2013 winner. Among the four nominees this year was Falmouth Alumna Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, who graduated from Falmouth’s BA(Hons) Fine Art with first class honours in 2000.

Students and staff filled the refectory

Director of the Falmouth School of Art, Dr. Ginny Button, who curated the Turner Prize from 1993-1998, and authored The Turner Prize: Twenty Years, led the discussion, with panel members critic, writer and former Turner Prize juror Sacha Craddock, and 2013 Threadneedle Prize winner and Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University, Lisa Wright.

The panel started by considering the value of art competitions generally, and noted that the Turner Prize is particular in that it is based on closed selection, rather than open submission. This led to reflection on the move, among open competitions, toward digital submission. In 2014, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which has always invited physical work, will for the first time shortlist all categories from initial digital submission, anticipating this process being easier for entrants. Wright, winner of the 2013 Threadneedle Prize, an open competition for figurative and representational painting and sculpture, suggested that entering certain work digitally can be problematic due to the loss of the sense of scale, surface and presentation. The panel encouraged students, however, to enter open competitions: Craddock recalled having offered Falmouth alumnus Ben Rivers a show when his work caught her eye whilst she was judging competition submissions.  Rivers has gone on to win numerous awards and prizes and exhibit internationally, and last month returned to give a guest lecture at Falmouth.

Turning their attention to the role and operation of juries, the panel considered the experience of judging an art prize. Button asked, ‘What is it like in that room?’ In Wright’s experience of fellow judges, ‘the work you think a judge will select will be nothing like the work they select’. For Craddock, the role leaves jurors vulnerable, the process of evaluation also being revealing about those doing the evaluating. That process of evaluation and critique, the panel pointed out, was one that this audience was already well-versed in, from reflecting on their own work and that of their peers throughout their studies.

Button’s experience assisting juries as curator of Turner Prize revealed to her the extent to which all four shortlisted artists have had to resonate with all the jurors in order to make the shortlist. At this point, Button suggests, all four are winners – from the shortlist, the prize really could go in any of four directions. But the make-up of the jury can, she observed, give an indication of which artists may appear on the shortlist, reflecting the particular interests of the jurors.

The Turner Prize is awarded for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of work in the 12 months preceding nomination; however, it is the later Turner Prize exhibition which draws the wider public and has tended to capture the media’s imagination. Craddock recalled how in 1999 – when she and her fellow jurors awarded the prize to Steve McQueen – media and public attention focused on Tracey Emin’s Turner Prize exhibition, My Bed, with then Culture Secretary Chris Smith accusing the jury of ‘controversy for controversy’s sake’. In fact, Emin had been nominated for earlier 1998-99 works, including film and, as Tate announced, ‘for her exhibitions in New York and Japan in which she continued to show her versatility across a wide range of media, her vibrancy and flair for self-expression’.

The panel deftly avoided revealing to the audience which artist any of them was rooting for from the 2013 shortlist – ‘You’re not supposed to ask that!’ – but they were happy to share their admiration for Yiadom-Boakye. Wright described her as ‘very true to herself’, and Craddock, who taught Yiadom-Boakye at the Royal Academy Schools, reflected on her ‘amazing ability’, and noted the mysterious quality of her paintings. Yiadom-Boakye, who describes her nomination as ‘a very big surprise’, is the second Falmouth alumna to be nominated for the Turner Prize: Tacita Dean was nominated in 1998.

As attention turned to Channel 4’s televised lead-up to the announcement of the 2013 winner, the Falmouth crowd heard Scissor Sisters’ Ana Matronic, the daughter of a painter, enthuse about Yiadom-Boakye’s work: ‘I love, love, loved it’. 

And finally, the live announcement, from Derry-Londonderry, of the 2013 winner…Congratulations to Laure Prouvost!

Congratulations, too, to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Tino Sehgal and David Shrigley, who, as Ginny Button pointed out, are all winners by virtue of making the shortlist and – as Shrigley observed – ‘get paid £5000 anyway…that can’t be bad!’.

 

A Year of Success for Falmouth’s Illustrators

This has been a really successful year for our third year Illustration students and alumni. As well as some significant commissions that came out of the annual industry visit to New York, a number were successful in some of the major competitions. Notable were four students who were chosen to exhibit in the Serco London Transport Poster exhibition, held at the London Transport Museum. Finn Clark, who graduated in 2012, was the overall winner. His winning poster can been seen at Tube stations all over the underground. Well done to Elena Boils and Oliver Kellett who also were part of the exhibition.

Recent graduate Jim Boswell has been commissioned to produce illustrations for the Folio Society, and had success at D&AD New Blood: Best in Year – D&AD 2012 Illustration – Little White Lies.

Charlotte Trounce, who graduated in 2011 has, with BA(Hons) Illustration Senior Lecturer Linda Scott, recently been commissioned and subsequently published in the Dutch edition of Jamie magazine.

Illustrator Mark Smith recently visited to present his work to all our students. He had been due to speak at our London Illustration Forum, but had to pull out at the last minute, so we are very grateful to him for coming down to Falmouth.

Our third year students will shortly be attending a series of presentations on the subject of Business Skills, as part of our Professional Practice delivery. Themes will include ‘Business Start Up’, ‘Tax Issues’, and ‘Intellectual Property Rights’. Tp compliment this, three successful alumni (Owen Davey, Emma Dibben, Robert Fresson) will talk to students about how they have built their careers; second year students will also hear talks from these alumni, regarding their working practices.

Serco London Transport Poster Competition

Winning Design by Finn Clark

Work by Elena Boils

Work by Oliver Kellett

Falmouth Four Shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize

Air Dies Elsewhere by Catrin Morgan, Associate Lecturer, MA Illustration: Authorial Practice.

The UK’s largest and longest running annual open exhibition for drawing, The Jerwood Drawing Prize, has seen a strong Falmouth contingent this year, with three alumni and one member of staff joining luminaries in the final exhibition.

With over 3,000 submissions, the 2013 standard of entry was exceptional. An independent panel whittled down the ensemble to a final shortlist, and judges Kate Brindley, Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima), Artist Michael Craig-Martin RA and Charlotte Mullins, Editor of Art Quarterly, selected a range of works representative of the diversity and excellence in current drawing practice.

Four Falmouth BA(Hons) Fine Art alumni – Paul Bradley (1993), Susannah Douglas (2003) and Olivia Jones (2013), and Catrin Morgan, Associate Lecturer in MA Illustration: Authorial Practice were shortlisted.

Drawing as a discipline in its own right was introduced at Falmouth in 2011 and offers a pure education in drawing, encompassing a wide range of approaches, traditions and applications. Phil Naylor, Head of Drawing & Foundation Studies, explains: “We believe that drawing sits right at the centre of visual practice; a core subject that encapsulates the essentials of the visual arts, but also translates across the broader terrain of science, technology and the wider cultural world.”

Also showing in London is RAW Drawing, an exhibition showcasing the work of second year BA(Hons) Drawing students at London’s RKB Gallery. Offering a diverse, unique and beautiful collection, the exhibition straddles all forms of the discipline from architectural design to surrealism.

Pablo de Laborde Lascaris Wins International Emerging Artist Award

Falmouth alumnus Pablo de Laborde Lascaris has won the prestigious International Emerging Artist Award (IEAA) for 2013.

An established sculptor at just 28, since graduating from BA(Hons) Fine Art in 2011, Pablo moved from coordinating the Breakfast graduate exhibition in London to winning an Artist’s Residency at Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex, to obtaining a bursary with the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

His latest achievement, the IEAA, represents excellence in contemporary art and offers emerging artists valuable international exposure alongside exhibition opportunities. Since receiving the accolade Pablo has enjoyed exhibiting across the globe: from Dubai’s FN Designs gallery, to the Vue Privée gallery in Singapore and latterly joining the Galerie Gourvennec Ogor in Marseille as an Associate.

Pablo won the coveted IEAA for his Cube, made whilst studying at Falmouth. The mixed media piece composed of different woods, grains exposed, and filled with 100kg of sand, poses queries regarding the relationship between two materials in a piece suggestive of time, movement, and displacement.

A prolific sculptor, Pablo’s latest work is set to form a pivotal role in the Marseille-Provence European Capital of Culture 2013 celebrations, showing at the Swab Barcelona Art Fair between 3-6 October before informing a solo exhibition at the Galerie Gourvennec Ogor.

Didier Gourvennec Ogor, gallery owner and President of Marseille Expos explains, “Pablo will be exhibiting from 31 October at the Galerie Gourvennec Ogor in a solo exhibition. He will have the opportunity to invest in a space nearly 200m by 4.7m high. This is a difficult exercise for artists in general, but I am sure he will take advantage of this great opportunity… I am very excited by this new collaboration with such a promising artist.”

(C) Pablo de Laborde Lascaris