NORTHERN ART PRIZE 2007
An exhibition of work by the short-listed artists
Eric Bainbridge
Tim Brennan
Dan Holdsworth
Karen Guthrie + Nina Pope
22 November 2007 - 10 February 2008
Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA
The work of the four artists short-listed for the first Northern Art
Prize goes on show
at the Gallery from 22 November. Eric Bainbridge, Tim Brennan, Dan
Holdsworth,
and Nina Pope & Karen Guthrie(Somewhere), will show a range of work in
media
that includes photography, film, sculpture and painting, prior to the
announcement of
overall winner in January.
The artists involved demonstrate a range of different practices rooted in
individual concerns
but the exhibition as a whole is marked by an interest in journeys to
different destinations
and of varying intent,
Dan Holdsworth (based in Darlington) has travelled far and wide, courting
the sublime, photographing at the margins of cultivated or wild
landscapes,
as far afield as Iceland, Norway and the Spanish Sierra Nevada.
Tim Brennan (based in Sunderland), sets out in the footsteps of
watercolourists
such as Turner and Girtin, capturing images through his mobile phone
camera of
northern English landscapes, that look remarkably like watercolours, while
back in his studio painting watercolours of mineral formations that look
like distant
constellations.
Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie (based in Coniston/London and Coniston
respectively - working together as 'Somewhere¹) adopt roles within their
collaborative docudrama films, finding themselves as Tudor artists, or
tour-guide hostesses, on a bus journey from the UK to the Czech Republic,
to
challenge shoe entrepreneur Tomas Bata¹s premise, 'We are not afraid of
the
future'.
Eric Bainbridge's (based in Hartlepool) recent sculptures that
sprang from his artists residency in Bangkok, express the cultural
differences he encountered as a 'new modernism' that combines coolly
refined
structures with cheap throw-away material, echoing the merging of the
sacred
and profane he witnessed as a cultural 'tourist'.
The exhibition continues until 10 February 2008; the winner is announced
on 17 January 2008.
The prize-winner will receive £16,500. Each of the three runners up will
receive £1,500.
In a series of early evening talks in December and January each artist
will be in conversation
with the person that nominated them. Details will be announced a
shortly.Twenty-four artists were
put forward by twelve nominators from across the three northern regions
(as defined by the
Arts Council); the short-listed four selected by a panel that comprised
independent curator and
private collector Greville Worthington; Tom Lubbock, arts writer for The
Independent; Anne Gallagher,
Head of Collections at Tate and artist Martin Creed, chaired by the
Gallery's exhibition curator, Nigel Walsh.
The Northern Art Prize is supported by Leeds City Council, design and
communication
agency Logistik and business and design consultant Arup with additional
support from Arts & Business Yorkshire.
Further information available from
www.northernartprize.org.uk
www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery
Opening times:
Mon, Tues 10am-8pm
Wed 12-8pm
Thurs, Fri, Sat 10am-5pm
Sun 1-5pm
Closed bank holidays
