Wells Art Contemporary has announced the winners of its 2024 competition, which celebrates cutting-edge contemporary art from around the world.
With nearly 2,500 submissions from artists representing 31 countries, the Wells Art Contemporary (WAC) 2024 exhibition displays a breadth of contemporary practice from artists across the United Kingdom, Italy, China, and Switzerland.
The exhibition includes a Gallery Show of artworks across multiple mediums displayed in a white-wall gallery in the Cathedral’s Cloisters and an Installation Show of site-specific works located throughout the Cathedral and its grounds.
The Gallery Show judging panel, comprising artists Tessa Coleman, Katherine Jones RA, and Shanti Panchal, distilled the thousands of entries into a shortlist of 121 artworks by 119 artists for display in the Cathedral’s cloisters.
Mary Branson, Jacquiline Creswell, and Victor Ehikhamenor selected 19 site-specific works by 20 artists from almost 300 proposals for the Installation Show.
When the WAC 2024 exhibition opened its doors on Friday, 2 August 2024, 7 outstanding artists received awards ranging from £2,000 in cash to a residency in France, art supplies and mentoring for their exceptional contributions to this year’s showcase.
All of the award-winning and shortlisted works are on display in the Wells Art Contemporary exhibition at Wells Cathedral, Somerset, and online until Saturday, 31 August 2024.
And the winners are…
NG Art Creative Prize, a three-week residency in Provence, France: Frances Featherstone, Solitaire, oil on linen, 70 x 90 x 4cm.
Frances Featherstone receives the NG Art Creative Prize, a three-week placement with NG Art Creative Residency & Gallery in Provence, France, for her work Solitaire.
Storytelling and narratives are central to Frances Feathersone’s work. She focuses on the interaction between people and their interior spaces, allowing viewers to glimpse into the intimate emotions entangled with the places we inhabit.
Joanna Cohn receives the GBS Fine Art Student Prize, a £1,000 cash award that aims to support a young artist under 26 in developing their practice.
Currently studying for a Masters of Print at the Royal College of Art, Joanna is interested in exploring traditional and expanded print techniques, installation, sculpture and sound.
GBS Fine Art Student Prize, £1,000: Joanna Cohn, All That I Am, dried wheatgrass roots and grass, thread, 195 x 40 x 50cm.
Her work All That I Am celebrates life, death, and humanity, exploring overarching themes of growth, time, and morality. The cast of the artist’s seed sculpture is a self-portrait and speaks to human beings being one with the earth.
Somerset Art Works Prize: a one-to-one mentoring session: Jane Manning, Stones and Shapes: Wells Cathedral Seen from Inside Wells Museum, graphite on paper, 72.5 x 52 x 3cm.
Jane Manning, a Wells-based artist, receives the Somerset Art Works Prize, which is a one-to-one mentoring session with the local artist-led organisation Somerset Art Works.
Her award-winning drawing, Stones and Shapes: Wells Cathedral Seen from Inside Wells Museum, uses graphite pencil to evoke the architectural, historical and spiritual essence of Wells Cathedral, represented in a contemporary frame.
Drawing is crucial to Jane’s practice, and it underpins her decisions on composition, colour and design, reflected in the shapes and tone within this work.
Jane Bowe Memorial Award of £500 to a Somerset-based artist: Sally Wetherall, I Was Here 2024, 20 book forms: porcelain, found clay, paper, beeswax, photogravure, photo decal, oak gall ink and thread, 15 x 25cm.
The Jane Bowe Memorial Award of £500 for artists based in Somerset, including Bristol and Bath, goes to Wells-based artist Sally Wetherall for her site-specific installation I Was Here 2024.
This series of 20 books is a direct response to the words once carved into the stones of Wells Cathedral, ‘I Was Here.’ It reminds us that in this ancient space, people before us once stood, whose existence may not remain without a physical trace. Aiming to reveal and illuminate these memories, the artist’s sculptural books tell us the stories scratched and scored into the stones of the Cathedral. They give these people a living memory.
Parker Harris Mentoring Prize, a one-to-one mentoring session covering professional development: Geri Waddington, Log Pile, resin engraving, 28 x 34cm.
Geri Waddington’s print, Log Pile, depicts a scene of stacked logs with scampering rodents rendered in black and white print.
Based in Somerset, Geri Waddington uses traditional hand tools to print from blocks on a Victorian iron hand press. Working predominantly in black and white, the artist creates tone and texture through tiny marks of the engraver’s tools.
She receives the Parker Harris Mentoring Prize, a one-to-one mentoring session with members of Parker Harris’ team of art consultants, and a one-year subscription to their mentoring program for artists, The Art Ladder.
St Cuthberts Mill Award, 20 sheets of Saunders Waterford 300gsm worth over £120: Alexandra Lavizzari, Rain in Westhay Moor, photograph, 42 x 42 x 2cm.
Alexandra Lavizzari received the St Cuthberts Mill Award for her photograph Rain in Westhay Moor, a natural landscape scene in which light, shadow, and pattern play across rippled water.
Based in Somerset, Alexandra is a Swiss-born multidisciplinary artist and writer who works in painting, pastels, and photography. She is interested in using imagery from our world to create abstract tableaus.
The artist will receive 20 sheets of Saunders Waterford 300gsm worth over £120 to support the continued development and process of their practice.
The Blue Schools Intern Award goes to Anna Gillespie for her site-specific installation Hear No Evil (lead image).
The artist’s sculptural installation within the cathedral is a triptych of three life-size figures portraying the characters of the proverb ‘Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil.’
Constructed into hollow and fragmented bodies, the allegorical sculptures speak to our struggles in confronting our current climate crisis and the drastic effects of consumer culture.
The JGM Gallery Prize, an online showcase from the West End-based gallery, and the Howard Art Award, worth £2,000 cash, will be announced shortly. The People’s Choice Prize, £500 for the artist who received the most public votes, will be announced at the end of the exhibition.
Established in 2012 by artists for artists, Wells Art Contemporary is an open competition for innovative visual art. The annual exhibition places leading international contemporary art in dialogue with Britain’s only standing example of an entirely Gothic cathedral, completed in the 14th century.
As part of its ongoing education and outreach programme, WAC recognises the power of visual art for mental health and wellbeing. This year, WAC will be collaborating with three local community groups to create unique pieces of art for the Installation Show:
- Imagine, Learn & Create, offering art and craft tutoring for groups and individuals with learning disabilities,
- The Mendip School is for pupils with a primary diagnosis of autism (ASD) and speech and language communication needs.
- The Hive at Orchard Vale Trust runs daily specialised sessions for adults with learning disabilities.
Budding artists will also have an opportunity to be involved with DRAW! Taking inspiration from the Wells Cathedral West Front, a series of public drawing sessions will take place on the Cathedral Green, with professional artists on site to share their knowledge and skills.
All shortlisted and award-winning works are on display in the Wells Art Contemporary 2024 exhibition in Wells Cathedral, Somerset, and online until Saturday, 31 August 2024.
Entry to the exhibition is included with a £14 ticket admission to the Cathedral. Attendance to the Private View is free of ticket charge.
For further information, please visit www.wellsartcontemporary.co.uk.
You must be logged in to post a comment.