Submissions open now

CURTIS HOLDER

Artist

https://www.curtisholder.co.uk

Drawing inspiration from intimate conversations with his subjects, Curtis Holder explores the complexities of human emotions and how we connect with and interpret the feelings of each other through sensitive artistic expression.

Curtis’s large-scale, multilayered coloured pencil portraits are dynamically tender, revealing something of the inner life of his sitters. He aims to evoke an individual’s unspoken truth, which he compels the viewer to search for, and in doing so, reflect upon their own perceptions.

In 2020 Curtis won Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. His winner’s commission, a portrait of world-renowned ballet dancer, Carlos Acosta, is now part of the permanent collection at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK. He also has a drawing in the Soho House art collection.

Recent exhibitions and awards include: ‘Something Unspoken’, his debut solo show at 45 Park Lane, Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize, Viking Cruises British Art Prize, Figurative Art Now, Society of Graphic Fine Art, The Pastel Society and UK Coloured Pencil Society.

MARCELLE HANSELAAR

Artist, Painter and Printmaker

https://marcellehanselaar.com

Born in the Netherlands, lives and works in London. Self-taught, she started out as an abstract painter before turning to figuration. Hanselaar looks for ways to express those illusive questions of who and what we are when the mask is off, and how we appear when the mask is on. The shock effect of her work lies in the contrast of combining her outspoken subject matter with the conventional medium of oil painting or etching. Both her paintings and her prints display her delight and fascination with theatrical illusions and although often peppered with a biting sense of humour, the works reveal her own vibrant understanding of human nature, in all its animosity and fragility.

Public collections: British Museum Prints & Drawings Collection, London; V&A Prints & Drawings Collection, London; V&A National Art Library, London; Ashmolean Museum Prints & Drawings Collection, Oxford; Fitzwilliam Museum Prints & Drawings Collection, Cambridge; Whitworth Museum & Art Gallery, Manchester; Clifford Chance Art Collection, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

MIRANDA BOULTON

Artist & winner of Jackson’s Painting Prize 2021

https://www.mirandaboulton.co.uk

Miranda Boulton is a Painter living and working in Cambridge, UK.   She studied Art History at Sheffield Hallam University and with Turps Banana Art School, London.  

Boulton’s paintings are Nature Morte of flora. Her work is a response to historical references within this genre, translated through memory into a contemporary pictorial language, linked through expressive colour, gesture and form. Boulton has exhibited widely throughout the UK, she was awarded the overall winner prize at The Jackson Painting Prize, 2021. 

Recent significant exhibitions include: ING Discerning Eye 2021, two-person show ‘Double Time’ at Arthouse1, London, 2019, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 2019 and 2016 and The Creekside Open, 2019.

CLAUDIA KENNAUGH

Art Advisor

https://www.artandpeople.co

Claudia Kennaugh is the founder of Art & People, a Bristol-based art advisory service offering guidance to artists and collectors. Prior to the launch in 2019, Claudia worked for 15 years in the arts. First as a songwriter and performing artist and then art advisor and gallery partner. Over her years co-running the Hollywood Road Gallery, London – established by her family in 1980 – she curated countless fairs and exhibitions with hand-sourced artworks from the UK, Europe & South America. 

During that time she nurtured the careers of many artists. Her dual understanding of life on both sides of the business inspired her to create a service that helps the people who create art, just as much as those who collect it. Today, Art & People supports the professional development of early-mid career artists with one-to-one coaching, online tutorials and workshops with studio groups such as Bow Arts Trust and Wimbledon Art Studios. Claudia’s curating work continues both in public residencies, featuring emerging artists from Bristol and Somerset, and in people’s homes. By sourcing artworks from her growing community, and helping collectors to buy, frame and hang art that they love, she creates new connections and opportunities, bringing it all full circle.

SHANTI PANCHAL

Artist

http://www.shantipanchal.com/

Shanti Panchal was born in Mesar, a village in Gujarat, India, and studied at the Sir JJ School of Art, Bombay. He came to England on a British Council scholarship to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London from 1978-80, and has lived and worked in London since. He has been artist-in-residence at the British Museum, the Harris Museum in Preston and the Winsor & Newton Art Factory in London. He has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in Britain and abroad.

He is known for his watercolour paintings. He won the Second Prize at the John Ruskin Prize at Holden Gallery, Manchester 2019. He won the John Moores Painting Prize, Liverpool 2018/1989 and the BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery 1991. He won first prize in The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2001 and in 2012 won the second. He won the prestigious Ruth Borchard self-portrait Prize in 2015 and in May 2016 was awarded Eastern Eye ACTA for arts.

His work is in many private and public collections, including the Arts Council of England,

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The British Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Collection. In 1989 The Imperial War Museum commissioned his painting The Scissors, The Cotton and the Uniform and in 2012 also acquired his painting The Boys Returned from Helmand and most recently the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

He contributed to a touring show At the Edge: British Art 1950-2000, at Touchstones Rochdale; Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston; Gallery Oldham and Bolton Museum & Art Gallery during 2009-10.

JENNIFER CONNER

Regional Managing Director, Affordable Art Fair, and Art Advisor, After Nyne Contemporary

https://www.affordableartfair.com

Jennifer moved to the UK from Manhattan in 1997 when Sotheby’s auction house transferred her from its New York office to become Senior VP & Head of Marketing for Europe.  After a decade in this role, Jennifer went on to serve for five years as Managing Director of the prestigious  Lisson Gallery, prior to becoming COO of  Karla Otto, an international luxury marketing and communications agency.

As well as leading the  Affordable Art Fair team in the UK, Jennifer is Director of the  After Nyne Creative Services Group, curating exhibitions for its  Holland Park gallery and is publisher of the After Nyne magazine.