

“When it comes to the landscape, I like having a subject, but I like to be able to use my imagination in the painting. The painting is just as important as the subject. The things that attract me are shadows, shapes and colours, rather than the need to capture the emotion of something.”

'The Spanish Horse', Ali Bannister, Pastel on pastel card, 35 x 26.5 cm

'The Spanish Horse', Ali Bannister, Pastel on pastel card, 35 x 26.5 cm
“There is a quote by Nuno Oliveira, ‘The horse is the best judge of a good rider, not the spectator. If the horse has a high opinion of the rider, he will let himself be guided, if not, he will resist.’
My aim was to produce a picture that showed a horse who has judged his rider and found him worthy of following. It’s a true partnership then; a relationship completely in harmony; two species in sync; speaking a language that both understand and respect. The horse willing to give whatever is asked and the rider wise enough and respectful enough to not ask too much.
The horse in the picture is ‘Karioko’. He belonged to the late Miguel Tovar who won many competitions with his Spanish horses. (This picture was drawn with kind permission from a photograph by Diego López Rodríguez).”
“Caravan I engages with the London housing-crisis, rising rents and alternative living. This painting takes an autobiographical viewpoint on broader socio-political subject. Having lived in Art Studios, basements, derelict buildings and now a caravan in Central London, I have combined memories, architectural designs and personal photographic reference in the painting. Spaces are constructed and distorted in order to covey the reality of domestic spaces; objects in various states of solidity suggest a transience to the existence.”

Ruairi Fallon McGuigan, Caravan I, Oil on board, 122 x 244 x 1.8 cm

Gisela Banzer, Habitat memories 2, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 x 2.5 cm

Gisela Banzer, Habitat memories 2, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 x 2.5 cm
“The theme of the extinction of fauna is the axis of my artwork since 2015. I look for species at risk of extinction, and portrait them, as a testimony of their passage and imminent disappearance. To humanize them is my way to pose a mirror game of our own extinction.”
“This painting reconsiders the multiple layers of London through a dream-like, atemporal filter, so as to redefine the notion of the city, both individual and collective, by what it can inspire.”

'Metropolis London', Caio Locke, Acrylic on canvas, 155 x 255 x 5 cm

'Walthamstow Central', Rosso Emerald Crimson, Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 x 5 cm

'Walthamstow Central', Rosso Emerald Crimson, Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 x 5 cm
“This portrait was conceived very spontaneously one evening, while I was coming back with my family from a trip to the Cinema in North London. I was suddenly fascinated by the beautiful intricate patterns of the ceramic tiles in the background and by its brightness, which highly contrasted with the outfit of both the figures, at the same time as exalting them. I also really loved the expression of both father and daughter. This very temporary moment was caught while waiting for a train to arrive at Walthamstow Central station, hence the title.”
“This painting draws inspiration from the classic Greek tale of Odysseus and his men’s plight at the hands of Circe. It re-imagines the story within a contemporary setting and whilst it retains the essence and integrity of the myth. It also stands alone as a modern day cautionary tale.”

'Circean Poisons', Mark Finch, Oil on linen, 100 x 135 x 5 cm
“The patterns of natural subject matter, forced into close proximity.”

'United Nation', Paul Stone, Oil on canvas (on board), 51 x 90 x 3 cm

'Wechsellied', Nadja Gabriela Plein, Oil on dibond, 100 x 80 x 1 cm
Abstract/Non representational Category Prize Winner
Nadja Gabriela Plein

'Wechsellied', Nadja Gabriela Plein, Oil on dibond, 100 x 80 x 1 cm
“My paintings have to do with sensation. Sensation arrived at through improvisation that plays and responds to the present moment.”
JUDGES
All six of our expert judges are leading figures in the contemporary art world. Each judge will bring a unique perspective and opinion to the judging which will cultivate a varied selection of work that showcases the very best of the entrants.
Click to view profile


ANDREW BICK
Artist & Curator
https://www.halesgallery.com/artists/9-andrew-bick/overview/Andrew Bick is an artist and curator living and working in London. Through both art and exhibition making he is exploring the complex and ambivalent nature of our relationship to Modernism. His practice and curatorial work reconfigures principles of concrete art in relation to the social impact and sustainability of contemporary art practice.
He supervises PhD’s at Kingston University and University of Gloucestershire and at the latter is Reader in Fine Art. He is currently working on a monograph with Hatje Canz/Museum Haus Konstruktiv, to be launched in Zurich in April 2019.
He is represented in significant public and private collections worldwide, notably Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, The British Museum, Yale Center for British Art, GoMA, Glasgow, Goldman Sachs, Roche Art Collection, UBS, Stalke Collection, Denmark and Pizzuti Collection, USA.
Andrew Bick is represented by Hales Gallery, London and Galerie von Bartha, Basel and has written for Art Monthly, Art and Christianity Enquiry, The Brooklyn Rail, Kultureflash and Abstract Critical. He is currently Chair of the board of Tannery Arts London and on the advisory board of
Drawing Room, London.
Photo Credit: Andreas Zimmerman


KERRY ANN LEE
Artist, Designer & Educator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Ann_LeeKerry Ann Lee is a visual artist, designer and educator from Aotearoa, New Zealand. With a background in graphic art, she creates multi-media installations, print and image-based works.
As the Creative Director of the 2018 Asian Aotearoa Arts Hui and Senior Lecturer at the School of Design at Massey University College of Creative Arts (CoCA), she has been involved with diverse communities through public art commissions, exhibitions, workshops and art education programmes and is well known for her work with independent publishing and fanzines
over the past 20 years.
As an artist of third-generation Chinese descent in New Zealand, her work has explored urban settlement and culture clash occurring in the Asia-Pacific region.
Kerry Ann Lee has undertaken international residencies in China, Taiwan, US, Mexico and Australia and exhibits regularly in New Zealand, including, Return to Skyland a recent work for The National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa.


TOM DOWN
Artist & Winner of Jackson’s Painting Prize 2018
http://www.tomdown.co.uk/Originally from Birmingham, Tom Downs is an artist living and working in London, who graduated in 2008 with a BA in Fine Art: Painting, from Wimbledon College of art. He was the winner of the 2018 Jackson’s Open Painting Prize with his piece ‘frontier’.
This year he also exhibited in the John Moores Painting Prize, had work shown in Germany as part of Sluice Exchange: Berlin, and been included in group shows in London, Swansea and Derby.
His paintings are currently held in private collections in the UK and the USA.


HAIDEE-JO SUMMERS
Artist & Author
https://www.haideejo.comHaidee-Jo Summers is a British painter best known for her landscapes and seascapes painted ‘en plein air’. She is a full member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and an associate member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists.
Haidee-Jo’s work features fresh and vibrant brushwork coupled with keen drawing and observational skills which result in lively celebratory paintings that glow with light and sing with colour. Well known as a plein air marine and landscape painter she also develops favourite themes in the studio and is an avid sketcher.
Her work features regularly in The Artist magazine and she has a book called ‘Vibrant Oils’ and a DVD which shares the same name. Since being published in 2016 the book has also been printed in the French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese languages.


YVES BLAIS
Curator & Producer
https://outset.org.uk/Yves Blais is a curator and producer, and works for Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
Over 2018 and 2019 he has overseen fig-futures, a series of week-long exhibitions and a museum acquisitions programme across four institutions around the UK. This follows his work as Assistant Curator at fig-2, 50 projects in 50 weeks, and the ICA Studio in London in 2015.
He produced ‘Love is Enough’ an exhibition that surveyed Andy Warhol and William Morris by Jeremy Deller at Modern Art Oxford.
His experience also extends to commercial sector programming at White Cube’s international art fairs and showroom hangs, as well as its exhibitions, prints and editions.
At Outset, he manages the implementation of Studiomakers, a strategic private-public initiative to counteract the loss of affordable creative workspaces in London, which includes a brand new initiative, the Creative Land Trust.


JENNIFER CONNER
Director, Curator & Publisher
https://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.