Sequested Art Prize Seeks Self-Portraits From COVID-19 Isolation

Sequested Art Prize

Today sees the launch of the Sequested Prize, a new self-portrait group award launched during the time of COVID-19, designed to create a platform of recognition and support to those working to establish or continue their artistic practice. Co-founded by artist W. K. Lyhne and art curator / advisor Fru Tholstrup, this open call initiative will culminate in the opportunity for 15 Sequested Prize artists to be part of a London-based gallery selling show, before the close of 2020.

To sequester literally means to isolate. To put away or to set aside for a particular purpose. The Sequested Prize, a new short-hand for sequestered, uses an unprecedented word for unprecedented times. The Sequested Prize is recognising the particular purpose of the artist at this time: to make work during a time of isolation and to pause and reflect on our own shifting identity and sense of self at a time when the world is in such flux.

curator / advisor Fru Tholstrup
The Sequested Art Prize Co-founder Curator / Advisor Fru Tholstrup

Born from the belief that art has always sustained humanity in its darkest hours, The Sequested Prize epitomises the founder’s ambitions to champion hope and creativity at a time when the art market is widely suffering across all areas during this pandemic, whilst also fostering the opportunity for self-reflection for the artist. Both ideologically and literally.

Open to current art students and those who graduated in the last 20 years from an arts-based degree, the prize is open for submissions from now (27 April) until 30 June 2020. Through a two-stage selection process, 15 winners will be selected by a panel of renowned industry leaders and will have their work exhibited in a selling show, hosted by Tristan Hoare at his Fitzrovia gallery for one week.

The esteemed and diverse judging panel for the Sequested Prize includes top level creative industry professionals. They are:

Kate Bryan, Curator, writer and Head of Collections Soho House

Matt Carey-Williams, Senior Director and Worldwide Head of Sales for Victoria Miro Gallery Nicholas

Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery

David Dawson, Painter and photographer

Fergus Duff, Director in Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department

Maryam Eisler, London- based photographer and editor

Melanie Gerlis, Art market columnist, Financial Times and editor at-large, The Art Newspaper

Ruth Guilding, Art and design historian, writer and curator Katy Hessel,

Art historian and curator Tristan Hoare, Gallerist

Dylan Jones, Award-winning editor, GQ magazine

Samson Kambalu, Artist and writerSimon

Martin, Director of Pallant House Gallery

Johnathan Messum, Founder of Messums, Cork St, Wiltshire, Harrogate

Jane Neal, Independent curator, art critic and advisor

Professor Simon Ofield-Kerr, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of the Arts London

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries

Carrie Scott, Art historian, curator and consultant

Carol Tulloch, Professor of Dress, Diaspora and Transnationalism at the University of the Arts London Ewan

Venters, CEO of Fortnum & Mason

Katy Wickremesinghe, Founder KTW London

Jonathan Yeo, Portrait Artist

The Sequested Prize costs £10 to enter. See thesequestedprize.com for further information.

10% of the sales will go to CW+, the official charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and 10% to support the cost of the exhibition. The gallery will take no commission. The remainder goes to the artist, thereby not only directly supporting the artist, but also helping to re-stimulate and invigorate the art
market and demonstrate unparalleled support for the organic community.

W.K.Lyhne (known as Nell) and Fru have brought together the experience of being an artist, and the experience of being an international art consultant in The Sequested Prize. Developed and mobilised during self-isolation in March 2020, the initiative grew quickly with the support of their strong networks. W.K.Lyhne (Nell) is a London- based artist, researcher and curator, who has a wide network of artists and academics. Fru Tholstrup is widely known for her ability to spot emerging artistic talent and for championing the artist community. This is demonstrated no better than in her most recent project: 21st Century Women, a group show of all female artists co-curated with Jane Neal at Unit London in 2019.

W.K.Lyhne is an artist, curator and researcher. She has wide-ranging practice, principally painting and drawing though also including work with ceramics, sculpture and film. She has shown recently at Lungley Gallery in Dalston, The Freud Museum and for Mark Hix. Lyhne is currently working on a practiced-based PhD at Chelsea College of Arts and The Royal College of Art.

Fru Tholstrup is a London-based art consultant with a deep knowledge of the contemporary global fine art market, advising collectors and international businesses on building museum-quality art collections. She spent 10 years as a Director of the London and Berlin-based Haunch of Venison gallery and is known for her role launching Sotheby’s flagship London Art Gallery, S|2 in 2013 and working closely with the S|2 Brand in New York and Hong Kong. Recent independent projects have included the critically acclaimed group show 21st Century Women at Unit London and the curation of the art collection for the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris.

Foundedin 2009, Tristan Hoare is a multi-layered gallery focussing on young and established artists working in a variety of mediums. African photography, glass, textiles and drawing are all areas of interest, with adeveloping passion for Korean and Japanese ceramics.

Each year an ambitious exhibition is curated with an overarching theme. Geometrica (2018) and Botanica (2019) enabled the gallery to collaborate with multiple artists and galleries and combine artworks from BC to present day. Exhibitions are executed with the intention of telling a story and connecting with both seasoned collectors and people less familiar with the art world.

The gallery is located in a Grade I listed Georgian House in Fitzroy Square.

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