Our first Commended Entry for Jackson’s Open Painting Prize has been announced! During the JOPP entry period, we will be commending one entry each week that we think is of exceptional quality. All commended entries are automatically added to the longlist meaning they will be considered for the six Category Prizes, the People’s Choice Award, the Shortlist and the Overall Prize. To submit your work, please go to our Jackson’s Open Painting Prize Website.

Commended Entry Winner: Shinyoung Park
‘As the Moon Rises’
Highlighter, ink, watercolor and wine on paper, 57x77cm
Artist Description:
My pursue in art is to capture a certain moment which shows unexplainable points in daily life. For me, the creation of an image is in the process of freezing and reviving a certain moment in mortality. The only thing I do is to treat the dead moments as an undertaker and to gather them as a collector. This work is the complex of my observation in a restaurant and white moon in front of my room’s window by imagination. It is like a self-portrait showing my nostalgia about my home country.
Jackson’s Judging Panel:
We loved many of the entries that we received this week, but ‘As the Moon Rises’ really stood out to us. Shinyoung Park’s work offers us a glimpse into a surreal, illusive amalgamation of memories that are simultaneously exposed and withdrawn by their raw rendering. The artist’s unusual combination of materials has resulted in a fantastic tactility and vibrancy, drawing connotations to African Batik Prints, Primitivism and Expressionism. Each mark is beautifully placed – the closer you look, the harder it is to determine the layering of colours and mediums. The composition enhances this by creating a mirage; the depth of the vegetation and figures draw closer and further away from the eye as you focus on them, creating an uncanny sense of movement and a dream-like absorption into the piece. Much like a memory, this painting appears to shift and transform as a fluid representation of ideas and thoughts.
We highly recommend taking a look at Shinyoung’s website to see more of their work (examples shown below).
Newborn Series, 2014-5, ink & watercolor on paper (selected images):