Long-list Announced: John Moores 60th Anniversary Painting Prize 2018

John Moores

The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool has announced the 60 artists whose paintings will feature in the John Moores Painting Prize 2018 exhibition, marking 60 years of the UK’s longest-established painting prize. The free exhibition will be held at the Walker from 14 July to 18 November, showing as part of Liverpool Biennial 2018.

For 60 years, the Prize has enabled the Walker to showcase and acquire work

The prize is an open competition for artists working with paint, which, since it launched in 1957, has culminated in an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. The exhibition is open to all artists aged 18 years or over, living or professionally based in the UK. It showcases the best new painting produced in Britain today and attracts a broad spectrum of artists. Named after its founding sponsor, the first John Moores exhibition was a great success and led to it becoming a biennial event. By the early sixties, the exhibition was regarded as the UK’s leading showcase for avant-garde painting. Many of the prize-winning works were purchased by John Moores and presented to the Walker Art Gallery for its permanent collection.

Jeong, Seungjo, 2017, Interface L3
Jeong, Seungjo, 2017, Interface L3

 

Since John Moores 23 in 2004, the first prize is no longer such a purchase prize. Instead, the painting that wins the first prize may be purchased by the Walker, meaning that the artist receives not only their prize money but the value of the painting in addition.

Paintings were selected from more than 2,700 entries by an esteemed panel of jurors. This year’s jurors include artists Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Lubaina Himid MBE, Bruce McLean and Liu Xiaodong, and curator Jenni Lomax. The names of the artists remain anonymous throughout the judging process.

From Amazon parcel collection lockers to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, subjects depicted within the selected paintings are wide-ranging. Vibrant abstracts will be exhibited alongside highly finished, meticulously detailed works; united in their mutual use of paint as a medium.

Some of this year’s artists have experimented with an inventive range of materials. Aluminium, silk, cardboard and even compostable food recycling bags are utilised in place of conventional canvases. Meanwhile, found objects, coins and felt pen are among the materials used in addition to paint.

Sandra Penketh, Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, said: “The 2018 exhibition will be a particularly significant one. For 60 years, the Prize has enabled the Walker to showcase and acquire work by a truly remarkable selection of contemporary artists, and this year will be no exception.

“Self-taught artists, art tutors, recent graduates and established artists are all represented, together providing a fascinating insight into what’s inspiring artists in the UK right now. Visitors will no doubt recognise the names of some talented past exhibitors, as well as discovering a host of exciting new names.”

 Longlist announced for John Moores Painting Prize 2018 Kathryn Maple, Alone in the Desert, 2017. Oil on canvas,

Kathryn Maple, Alone in the Desert, 2017. Oil on canvas,

Reflecting on the judging process, juror Jenni Lomax said: “After the nerve-wracking process of making the first cut from hundreds of digital images comes the surprise of seeing the paintings in their reality. Scale, texture, mark and material, all elusive on-screen, become evident in the next stage of selection.

“Our lively and sometimes heated discussions while judging led to a final group of works that show dexterity, humour, passion and a strong physical sense of having been made.”

The jury will select a final shortlist of five paintings, from which the £25,000 first prizewinning work will be chosen and four additional prizes of £2,500 will be awarded. Visitors to the exhibition will also be invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the popular Visitors’ Choice Award, sponsored by Rathbones. The winning artist will receive £2,018.

In celebration of the Prize’s 60th anniversary year, an additional award will be offered to the first prize winner – a three-month fellowship at Liverpool John Moores University together with an in-focus solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2019.

The artists selected to exhibit paintings in the John Moore Painting Prize 2018 are:

• Ahmed, Miraj ‘Smile’
• Bailey, Liz ‘No Ball Games’
• Baker, Richard ‘Cupboard 2’
• Bakst, Marta ‘I Still See You on the Horizon’
• Barker, Andy ‘Nowhere to Go’
• Bingham, James ‘Shere’
• Blane, Frances ‘Aviva Mother’
• Bruton, Jo ‘Tassel Talk’
• Busuttil, Carla ‘Trophy for a Dull Man’
• Cadwallader, Gareth ‘Milk’
• Clark, Jake ‘Circus’
• Clarke, Pete ‘doubt and distance…of lost content.’
• Crosby, Billy ‘Quilt’
• Davies, Lara ‘Me Reading ‘Philip Guston Retrospective’ in the Studio’
• Down, Tom ‘hollow.’
• Elton, Liz ‘One Hundred Harvests’
• Fears, Alan ‘My Favourite Chair’
• Fineman, Emma ‘Questions of Silence’
• Franklin, Charlie ‘Flatland’
• Gasson, Clare ‘Note-taking September 2016’
• Gerrard, Jahan ‘Aerial’
• Hain, Alex ‘#consumer.’
• Hallum, Jacqui ‘King and Queen of Wands’
• Hogarth, Delphine ‘French Summer’
• Holloway, Leo ‘Untitled’
• Homerton, Ian ‘Untitled’
• Howse, Tom ‘The Thunderous Silence of Your Presence’
• Jeong, Seungjo ‘Interface L3’
• Johnson, Ben ‘The Space Between Revisited’
• Johnson, Nicholas William ‘The Intolerable Strangeness of Vegetable Consciousness (Sunspilt II)’
• Kiki, John ‘Bud Girl’
• Krishanu, Matthew ‘Mission School’
• Kulkarni, Nicholas ‘Misdirection’
• Lancaster, Laura ‘Untitled’
• Lawrence, Gary ‘Kos Town Paradise Hotel Front Terrace’
• Lock, David ‘El Muniria’
• Maple, Kathryn ‘Alone in the Desert’
• Martin, Graham ‘Red Road’
• Matsuzaki, Tomoya ‘Untitled (Willow)’
• Matthews, Peter ‘Suspended Aura’
• Nahaul, Cara ‘Inches of Dust’
• Ní Mhaonaigh, Sinéad ‘Monument’
• Noga, Laurence ‘Deep Blue Filtered Silver’
• Norris, Olivia ‘Loose sugar, fade to black, bread makes you fat’
• O’Rourke, Joseph ‘GIANTS’
• Osborne, Mark ‘Untitled Pink’
• Oshilaja, Damilola ‘Landscape Redux; No-nVOID/26: IDARIKA, The Land & The Sky’
• Panchal, Shanti ‘The Divide, Beyond Reasoning’
• Payne, Alistair ‘(D)welling’
• Payne, Steve ‘Unnamable’
• Pearce, David ‘Greenhouse’
• Rejmer-Canovas, Gracjana ‘Electric Landscape’
• Robertson, Joanne ‘Raining on Shoebox Cove’
• Soni, Lucy ‘Untitled Bunting’
• Talbot, Emma ‘Intense and Remote Connectivity’
• Stewart, Bill ‘TreeAirplaneTrap’
• Thatcher, Clare ‘Feature of Landscape’
• Verran, Virginia ‘Black Star’
• Whittle, Joanna ‘Rain Tent’
• Wills, Morgan ‘Leadlight Silhouette’

The names of the five prizewinning artists will be announced on Thursday 12 July.

Come and see the exhibition from 14 July to 18 November 2018.

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