Lorena Levi
“It is such an honour and privilege to be awarded this year’s Jackson’s Painting Prize. I’m humbled and grateful to the panel for selecting my work among so many deserving pieces of art on the shortlist. I often find that art can be insular and, the process of constructing community can be difficult. I’d like to thank Jackson’s for facilitating such a competition with so many incredible artists.”
“This is a current project I’ve been working on where I find psychoanalysis academic papers online and then I paint imagined scenes from what I read. This painting is based on ‘Eric’, a child who has undergone psychoanalysis for a few years. Each year he has four assessments with his parents and the therapist. I wanted to try and depict the tension between the family by placing them in the therapy room – a place that is becoming increasingly familiar, no longer stigmatised for treating mental health issues. Following on from my work ‘couples therapy’, in which I imagined and depicted my parents in a couples therapy scene. I draw inspiration from portrait artists such as Alice Neel, Chantal Joffe and early Lucian Freud, who all capture the internal psychology of the subjects they choose to paint, specifically in the eyes.”
“Each year in Poland approximately 20,000 people go missing. Intending to raise awareness of particular cases and overall problems, the project focused not only on the disappearances but also on trauma and difficult emotions accompanying the loved ones of a missing person. Through paintings, I studied the concept of liminal space, which is an ambiguous condition that occurs during the transition from one state to another. The experience of disappearance forms a specific space where thresholds between absence and presence, life and death, loss and mourning are blurred and undefined.”
'Christie/krysia' , Zuzanna Pieczyńska, Oil on canvas, 90 x 120 cm
“Some paintings are simply imagined, while others are recollections of actual events, others still a mixture of both. A vivid and significant early childhood memory was of feeling the wind forcing its way up between the black stained sitting-room floorboards and seeing it lift and ripple the carpet square in front of the fireplace.”
'Train Station', Robert Senior, Oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm
“I love to reimagine places and tell visual stories. I invent narrative scenarios and characters within a cinematic context, involving myself with fake or reimagined mythology often borrowed from and celebrating the tropes found in late 20th-century science fiction film and tv.”
'Learney Incantation (Tornaveen)', Robbie Bushe, Oil on canvas, 135 x 145 cm
“My painting practice focuses primarily on observed accounts of overlooked spaces and the wider environment around me. I consistently encircle the subject of decomposition within the landscape.”
'Pine Marten', Aiden Crotty, Oil on panel, 40 x 50 cm
“I have been interested in the dynamic expression methods of classical music and baroque, and recently I have been working on the predetermination or delimiting of a certain flow based on one’s own pure decision. When I hear music, certain scenes and stories come to mind, and these are all human emotions that cannot be expressed in words. Sometimes sad, happy, and painful emotions become the subject of painting.”
'Chopin - Nocturne Op. 27 No. 2', Haeeun Lee, Oil On Linen, 130.5 x 126 cm
“My work starts from a need to create a puzzle and then to find its solution. I often feel that all I do is spend my time trying to find a form that does not offend the natural abstract qualities that begin a painting. A successful painting for me is one from which the form emerges without embarrassing the beauty that came before.”
'Elvira's Dogs', Julie Karpodini, Oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm
'Thinking', Ki Yoong, Oil on board, 29 x 21 cm
'Thinking', Ki Yoong, Oil on board, 29 x 21 cm
“My paintings explore people; how we view ourselves and relate to others in terms of our difference and similarity, unity and division. There are an infinite number of people in this world, all wanting different things, all constructing their own sense of identity, it’s this uniqueness and difference that I want to celebrate”
'Raining', Junwei Dai, Watercolour on paper, 100 x 70 cm
'Raining', Junwei Dai, Watercolour on paper, 100 x 70 cm
“Raining is my reflection of China’s urbanisation process. It is the carrier of my nostalgic mood of the old Jiangnan city texture. The zig-zagging alleys have disappeared and given way to modern urbanisation.”
'My Red Hair Grandmother', Idrak Amirli, Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm
'My Red Hair Grandmother', Idrak Amirli, Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm
“In my works, which are distinguished by classical technique, I constantly strive to create something beautiful and new. The oil painting technique consists of slowly layering, layer by layer, different colours to create classic works. Each work of art is an open experiment, during which nuances are discovered by mixing colours”
“I paint the everyday mundane objects around me. As an artist the challenge with such a statement is to create a rendering of the familiar in a way that might inspire the viewer to consider objects or items, transformed through painting, as unusual or changed. I strive to distil and focus a moment in time, imbued with the illusion of a small drama taking place within the confines of a composition. I hope to achieve this with colour, tone and a new interpretation and appreciation of the Chiaroscuro found in the works of the Baroque painters of the 17th century. For me, it is important to find a contemporary approach to communicate darkness and shadow as well as light and colour”
'Citrus Fruit With Blue Paper', Angelo Murphy, Oil on canvas, 36 x 41 cm
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.
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JENNIFER CONNER
Regional Managing Director, Affordable Art Fair, and Art Advisor, After Nyne Contemporary
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CURTIS HOLDER
Artist
https://www.curtisholder.co.ukDrawing 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.comBorn 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.ukMiranda 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.coClaudia 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.
JENNIFER CONNER
Regional Managing Director, Affordable Art Fair, and Art Advisor, After Nyne Contemporary
https://www.affordableartfair.comJennifer 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.
