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On The Table Read, “the best arts magazine in the UK“, the deadline approaches for submission for the Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award – the third time the competition has taken place in collaboration with Saatchi Gallery and UK New Artists.
Last year the awards received a record-breaking 900+ entries and as the 31 August deadline looms closer, 2022 is on track to be even bigger.
The Unimagined Future
After entries close, the judges will look through the submissions for the brief ‘The Unimagined Future,’ and will announce the top ten finalists on 3 October – with the exhibition and awards ceremony taking place on Thursday 10th November at the Saatchi Gallery, London.
The theme of the exhibition plays into the notion that 85% of jobs in 2030 currently do not exist – and opens a wider debate as to ‘what else have we not thought about or is yet to be invented?’
Judges include Robert Walters – art enthusiast, collector and CEO of Robert Walters Group; Paul Foster – Director of Saatchi Gallery; Lisa Gee – longstanding Director of the Harley Foundation Charitable Trust; Saad Eddine Said – internationally-acclaimed curator and Artistic Director and CEO of New Art Exchange; Won Hee Nam – CEO of Art Lab N3 and Gallery N&K based in Seoul, South Korea; and Anne von Freyburg – artist and winner of the 2021 UK New Artist of the Year awards.
Awards
The awards have a track record of providing a springboard for emerging artists where previous winners such as Conor Rogers (2019) was subsequently selected for the Freelands Foundation Artist Programme and has an upcoming show at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield, in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery
Last year’s winner Anne von Freyburg (2021) went on to win the ‘Tsivrikos Shake Emerging Artist Award’ and currently has an exhibition in the Netherlands at Art Gallery O-68.
2019 runner-up Camilla Hanney was awarded the Gilbert Bayes Award 2021 by the British Society of Sculptors, and has a solo exhibition launching in July at Pallas Projects in Dublin. 2021 runner-up Catriona Robertson was also awarded the Gilbert Bayes Award 2022 with the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Entries Close August 31st
Entries for the 2022 award will close on 31st August at 11:59pm BST. This year’s judges are expecting to see works from outstanding artists whose work demonstrates a strong and original voice and is of exceptional artistic quality.
The final shortlist of 10 artists, selected by the judging panel, will have the opportunity to have their work exhibited at London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery – with all travel and logistics costs covered by Robert Walters Group – at the awards evening on Thursday 10th November 2022.
The winner will receive a cash prize of £10,000 and the artist’s work will be shown at the Robert Walters Group head office in Covent Garden for 12 months. The runner-up will also receive £5,000 from Robert Walters Group to help fund their future career in the visual arts.
Robert Walters Group
Robert Walters, CEO of Robert Walters Group comments:
“We’re excited to see the entries from this year’s cohort. Providing a steppingstone for ambitious individuals is what the foundation of Robert Walters Group is built on, and seeing the careers of previous winners and entrants flourish post exhibiting at our awards night at Saatchi Gallery provides us with the fuel to keep this competition going.
Now more than ever we appreciate how important an award of this kind is – and we remain committed to supporting the arts sector and those who want to pursue their career in this field.”
UK New Artists
Michelle Bowen, Director of UK New Artists comments:
“The 2019 and 2021 Awards discovered some of the most compelling and exciting new artists working across the UK today and I am sure this year’s award will show how the pressures and challenges of the last two years have been managed by this resilient and extraordinary creative sector, and how this will inform their artistic practice as they look to the future.”
Saatchi Gallery
Paul Foster, Director of Saatchi Gallery comments:
“We are delighted to be hosting the third edition of the UK New Artist Award, an initiative which has proven to be an exciting and important opportunity for emerging artists. We extend our gratitude to Robert Walters Group for their crucial on-going support of this project.”
How to enter
To be eligible for the award, you must be aged 18 or over, and within the first 10 years of your professional practice, and have the right to live, work or study in the UK. Upon application, we will ask you to define the start of your professional practice using one of the following:
- the date that you registered as a self-employed artist
- the first public exhibition or performance you presented
- your first paid commission
- The year you completed your education or training
- You are yet to do any of these things, and self-define the start of your professional practice
Artists should be working within the following fields:
- Applied arts: ceramics, glass, textiles, jewellery,
- Digital Arts: Moving image, performance video, technological arts
- Fine Arts: painting, printmaking, photography, installation, sculpture.
Entries close on Wednesday 31 August. For more information about the Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award in collaboration with Saatchi Gallery and UK New Artists click here.
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