THERE are just two weeks left to attend the New Light Art Prize Exhibition at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead.

It features pieces by the five winners of the prestigious New Light Art Prize and the 121 shortlisted runners up and has so far received rave reviews since opening in September.

The biennial New Light Art Prize shines a light on Northern artists, celebrating the talent the region has to offer. The winners, who are from Northumberland, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire were crowned victorious after the judges waded through thousands of entries.

Rebekah Tadd, Development Director at New Light said: “The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead is a wonderful launch venue for the New Light Prize Exhibition 2023/24. The standard and quality of artwork submitted was incredibly high. Once again the shortlist has proved the tremendous wealth of talent that exists in the North of England. The judges had a very difficult time making a decision and commented on the high standard of all the shortlisted artwork in the exhibition. Congratulations to such worthy winners. The exhibition is now open to the public at The Williamson before commencing the next leg of the tour in London at Bankside Gallery in February.

“We are excited to open for entries for our first ever Sculpture Prize in December 2023, sponsored by the Biscuit Foundation and hosted by the Biscuit Factory. For the first time, plinth, floor and suspended work will join the wall hung Prize Exhibition, adding a new experience for the visitor.” 

The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead is the first stop on the exhibition tour and the exhibition will end on December 22 before it re-opens at Bankside Gallery, Southbank in London on February 26.

Headlining the exhibition includes the winners:

  • ‘Lockdown’ by Frances Bell – Winner of The New Light Valeria Sykes Award – winning £10,000 – Frances has lived in Wooler in Northumberland, not far from Newcastle, for the past 20 years. Born in 1983, after developing an early interest in drawing and painting, she pursued art and art history, making her way to Florence to pursue classical training at Charles H. Cecil Studios in 2001 for three years, where she taught sporadically for the further seven summers. Since completing her training, Frances has been a full-time professional portrait and landscape painter, exhibiting internationally and across the UK.

 

  • ‘Bog Bumper Emerging from the Moss’ by Robert Cook – Winner of The £2,500 New Light Patron’s Choice Award – Robert lives in Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire. After graduating in scientific illustration at Blackpool & The Fylde College, Robert worked as an illustrator before going into teaching, sharing his knowledge of drawing, painting and passion for nature as a lecturer in scientific illustration. Since leaving education, he has worked as a wildlife artist honing his craft.

 

  • ‘During the Endless Night She Felt Herself Losing Her Mind’ by George Melling – Winner of The New Light Emerging Artists Award sponsored by Saul Hay Gallery. George is from Preston in Lancashire. After finishing his MA at Chelsea College of Art, George taught at Kingston University before moving back to Lancashire in 2000 where he set up his own painting practice. Working as a butcher two days a week to enable George to focus on his artwork for the rest of the week, his current body of work draws on images from photographs of family and friends from childhood, representing an interrogation of the past, what we inherit, what we cherish and what we discard.

 

  • ‘Bewick’s Place’ by Neil Bousfield – Winner of The New Light Printmakers’ Prize sponsored by Zillah Bell Gallery - multiple 16 block reduction relief engraving and woodcut (16cm x 32cm). Neil was born in Middlesborough and grew up in the coastal village of Marske-by-the-Sea and Redcar in North Yorkshire. He studied at Cleveland College of Art & Design in Middlesborough and Teesside University, Middlesborough. He now lives on the North Norfolk coast. He works within the discipline of relief printmaking and contemporary wood engraving. ‘Bewick’s Place’ comprises 16 small square blocks to represent a grid or a plotting and mapping method, which have been engraved, cut and printed using the reduction method. Each block has been engraved in sections and printed as one.

 

  • ‘The Art of Balance’ by Christine Stables – Winner of The New Light Purchase Prize. Christine lives in Stockport in Cheshire. After working as a textile artist for many years, Christine became an abstract painter in 2019 so that she could mix and use her own colours to suit her work. She uses acrylic paint, glazes and inks, and in her winning piece ‘The Art of Balance’ she uses organic shapes, created with loose white lines, showing off the colour orange by using contrasts in textures, translucency, opacity and complimentary colour.