Too busy chatting to look at the artworks!

IMG_0164, originally uploaded by Tom Callingham.

Last night was a wonderful event, we had well over 500 people attend the preview night and a good ole chin wag was had by all! City Inn our event supporter laid on a goodly amount of tasty refreshments, and the customary way of letting everyone know the event was over by stopping the flow did not result in an exodus to the door!

Did you come to the preview? If so what did you think?

If you click on this link you will find the Northern Art Prize photostream and perhaps you may see you own face in the crowd

A big thanks to Tom - a volunteer on the night from Leeds Met University.

Nearly there

Hats off to the gallery for putting together a fantastic looking exhibition. When I visited Sunday, I was slightly concerned for the well being of Tanja Pirsig Marshall (curator of exhibitions) and Andrew Cole (head technician) who seemed to have a small mountain to climb. But somehow they seem to have done it.

I got under the feet of the Pavel, Matt and Rachel today, asking them questions about how they felt about being nominated for the prize, (general consensus is that it's difficult to be in a competitive situation where there can only be one winner, but it's better that there is an exhibition before the prize is announced in January as it means people come with open minds, not to just focus on the art work/artist they have read about in the press)

None of the artists seem to relish the thought of being singled out for glory, but they enjoy the opportunity to be part of an exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery.

Prizes by their nature are interesting,  in a not so distant post, we will be asking Pippa Hale director of the Northern Art Prize why she set up the Northern Art Prize, and whether it is where she hoped it would be three years on. We will also be sharing insight from last year's winner Paul Rooney, about his year since winning and what it has meant for his professional practice.

Andy Dave & Kevin installing Pavel's work

Andy Dave & Kevin installing Pavel's work, originally uploaded by northernartprize.

They made quick work of that wall!

Rachel Goodyear

Rachel, originally uploaded by northernartprize.

Rachel in pensive mode, as she contemplates the forthcoming exhibition. This picture was taken minutes before a very precious cargo from a private collector in Essen arrived bearing the rest of her exhibition (a very small crate, causing some alarm that it may not have all arrived!) A decade or so ago Rachel studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, after graduating she moved back westwards across the Pennines and enjoyed the 'can do attitude' of the art scene in Manchester.

Rachel is represented by International 3 - an artist led gallery in Manchester and Pippy Houldsworth in London.

Nick and Ian

Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson installing 'Two Eternal Flames'

The gloves are on

Rachel Goodyear by Pippa Hale

Busy installing

Matt Stokes up a ladder by director Pippa Hale (note the lovely grey of the Lecture Theatre)

What are YOUR expectations of The Northern Art Prize?

Pictured above are Lidia and Tracey, Gallery assistants. As invigilators they often are asked about the exhibition, and sometimes are posed questions that give them pause for thought.

What questions do you have about the Northern Art Prize? We can't promise to answer them all, but why not either find us on Facebook and start a discussion going, or ask us on twitter?


We'd like to know more about you! Have you been to the Northern Art Prize before? If so what did you think of it? If not have you visited Leeds Art Gallery before, do you go to exhibitions? Do you enjoy contemporary art? Have you come across the work of the shortlisted artists before? What do you think of prizes? What do you feel like when you come to art galleries?

Did you know that you can meet the artists during the exhibition and ask them about their work? We will be present at the talks should you not be able to make it, and will be live tweeting via our twitter stream

Countdown to the private view and all is calm...

This last week we have been sneaking around Leeds Art Gallery with our cameras - taking care not to infringe any copyright of course (you'll have to excuse the blurry nature of our undercover snaps). The gallery technicians and curators are working around the clock to install the four shortlisted artist's work. They have very tight turn around times, having taken down two exhibitions in the last week (British Surrealism in Context and Hughie O'Donoghue- The Journey) they now set about creating video installation rooms within the galleries for Ian Crowe and Nick Rawlinson's Four Horsemen , and constructing huge bespoke screens (Matt Stokes), and waiting on international shipping (Rachel Goodyear)

This year with a slight break with previous convention you will find the exhibition completely on the first floor, and with the added interest of locating The Four Horsemen in the Ziff Gallery (see image above) and Matt Stokes ' These are the days' in the dramatically painted lecture theatre

Illuminating

Shortlisted artist Pavel Bϋchler meets Andrew Cole, the head technician at Leeds Art Gallery and together they puzzle over a solution to adapt the 1950's Leitz Prado slide projectors from Pavel's piece entitled 'Eclipse' to use modern halogen bulbs .