Nominations are in for North’s most prestigious art prize

Can you believe it's May already? New shoots and all that, we have some exciting news from the director of the Northern Art Prize, Pippa Hale, that will have delighted 22 of the region's artists! Yay the longlist is in...

For those of you wondering how the longlist is decided, the answer is we have 12 nominators from across the North who put forward two artists they deem to have been been producing strong work over the last two years, and are based in the North. Over the coming weeks we will be taking a look at just who these nominators are, as they are drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds; gallerists, artists, independent curators, artist led studios, freelancers and more...

This year we are also buzzing about our judging panel, they will be getting together on June 1st to whittle that longlist down to a shortlist of just 4 artists, no mean task...

Richard Greer, Collector
Susan Hiller, Artist
Mark Lawson, Journalist, broadcaster and author
Andrea Rose, Director of Visual Arts, British Council

The Northern Art Prize 2010-11 long listed artists are: 

North East
Sophie Lisa Beresford (Sunderland), nominated by Grainne Sweeny, Creative Director, National Glass Centre
Rhodri Davies (Gateshead), nominated by Rebecca Shatwell, Director, AV Festival
Graham Dolphin (Newcastle), nominated by Rebecca Shatwell and Julie Milne, Curator Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums
Alec Finlay (Newcastle), nominated by Grainne Sweeny
Laura Lancaster (Newcastle), nominated by Julie Milne
Diane Welford (Redcar), nominated by Gavin Delahunty, Curator, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA)

North West
Simon Blackmore (Manchester), nominated by Tomas Harold, Exhibitions co-ordinator, Cornerhouse
Gina Czarnecki (Liverpool), nominated by Tomas Harold
Leo Fitzmaurice (Heswall), nominated by Lindsay Taylor, Exhibitions Officer, Harris Museum & Art Gallery
Lubaina Himid (Preston), nominated by Lindsay Taylor
David Jacques (Liverpool), nominated by Sara-Jayne Parsons, Exhibitions Curator, The Bluecoat
James Quin (Meols), nominated by Sara-Jayne Parsons
Quasim Riza Shaheen (Chorlton-on-Medlock), nominated by Stephen Whittle, Museum Manager, Gallery Oldham
Matt & Rob Vale (Ramsbottom), nominated by Steve Manthorp, Director, Manthorp ACT Ltd and artist, ADEPT (with Shanaz Gulzar)

Yorkshire
Breda Beban (Sheffield), nominated by Louisa Briggs, Curator of Visual Art, Museums Sheffield
Laurie Burt (York), nominated by Jon Wood, Research Co-ordinator / Curator, Henry Moore Institute
Matthew Crawley (Leeds), nominated by Jon Wood
KMA – Kit Monkman & Tom Wexler (York), nominated by Steve Manthorp
Kevin Laycock (Leeds), nominated by Stephen Whittle
Sue Lawty (Hebden Bridge), nominated by Karen Southworth, Freelance Curator, York
Ian Macdonald (Whitby), nominated by Karen Southworth
Haroon Mirza (Sheffield), nominated by Louisa Briggs

And the winner is....

The winner is Czech born Pavel Buchler, who will now be able to get his boiler fixed and a whole lot more. Speculation was rife amongst us last night as to whether he had prepared his speech!!! (We think Pavel would say he didn't) To read more about Pavel and his view on prizes read this article by Martin Wainwright in today's Guardian

Did you join us at the Prize Giving?  Here are a few photographs from the evening courtesy of Simon Warner

Cover her up!

The partners involved in the Northern Art Prize (From left to right, Pippa Hale, Dir, Dirk Mischendahl of Logistik, Catherine Blanshard, Leeds City Council, Cllr John Procter Leeds City Council, Pavel Buchler, Artist and winner, Prof Chris Bailey, Leeds Met, Tanja Pirsig Marshall Curator and Chair of judges, Nigel Foster, Arup)

Thanks also to City Inn Hotels for their very generous sponsorship of the event, the wine flowed, and apparently the crowd were still mingling well after 10pm!  Thanks to the gallery staff for staying well past bed time.

The judges are deliberating...

We asked on twitter what is the collective noun for the four judges deliberating over the fate of the four shortlisted artists. In return we will be rewarding the best suggestion with a very highly sought after present...more of that later!

So far we have a:

• deliberation
• contemplation
• bickering
• clout
• conspiracy
• nudge
• clutch
• grudge
• smudge
• privilege
• jilt
• jigger
• jostle
• cabal
• northernry
• artery
• prizery
• anthology
• crew
• imagination
• communication
• expression.
• subjection.
• installation
• blot
• scribble
• vicissitude 
• delusion of judges
• confusion . . 
• colloquy

What do you think works best?

Who is leading the public vote online?

A ever so slightly camera shy Pippa Hale tells us who is leading the public vote online, is this who you want to win? Click here to cast YOUR vote (sorry about the rather shaky production values of this video!)



*Please note the judges decision is final!

Matt Stokes in conversation

A good number of intrepid people braved the snow and ice to attend on Tuesday night, and kept their coats and scarves on in the icy lecture theatre. Leeds Art Gallery had also been suffering the winter chill, and just when we thought we could not get any colder, the fire alarms went off mid way through Matt's informative conversation with curator Tanja Pirsig-Marshall.

Shortly after graduating from University of Newcastle, where he studied sculpture as part of his Fine Art Degree, Matt decided to give up his studio practice because he found it so isolating. Instead he began collaborating with a house music producer in Newcastle and developed a relationship-based practice that referenced the music subculture and their communities.

Up until eighteen months ago, Matt supported his practice as a freelance gallery technician, alongside his commissions and residencies. He is represented by two galleries Workplace and ZieherSmith in New York, he modestly said that he was a loss maker to the galleries, although they seem to benefit from the media generated by his work! (Matt won Becks Futures Prize in 2006)

As a result of Workplace putting on a solo show in NADA Miami Art Fair in 2006 Arthouse in Austin, Texas approached Matt to work on a solo piece in Austin, with a fairly loose brief that the work would have something to do with the music scene. Austin, Matt explained, calls itself the 'Live Music Capital of the World' This live scene mostly Blues and Country.

The piece currently in Leeds Art Musuem,'these are the days'  explores the Austin punk scene in the late 70's early 80's and the now. The decision to visit the punk and hardcore scene was the result of Matt immersing himself in the community in close to a year of regular two week long visits. An early encounter in a bar with a very well connected video archivist helped Matt determine his direction, and put him in contact with a significant number of punks from the early days. The final exhibition at Arthouse,  Austin was accompanied by display cases containing ephemera from both era's deliberately mixed up to muddle the distinction between then and now. Unsurprisingly the punks from the 70's/80's don't see anything fresh and original in the stuff happening now, and those creating music now, acknowledge they pay tribute but see their work as being totally relevant.

Matt was questioned about the degree to which he controls the process, whilst he was keen to create an infrastructure, such as the lighting, use of film, events, and gigs, he appears to be at ease in letting the collaborative process determine the final outcome to some degree. For example the split screens show a crowd scene of an 'All Ages' concert that a he and Timmy, young hardcore promoter, (Chaos, Tejas) collaborated on putting together specifically for the art work, without the soundtrack. The other screen shows a five piece band put together for just 48 hours, asked to create an entirely new soundtrack to correspond with the video image of the crowd scene. Both scenes were shot in Super16 film and used the same lighting techinques. Other layers in this interesting approach & interweaving the past and future where the producer, the studio, amps.

To understand the process Matt takes when creating new work deepened my appreciation of 'these are the days'.

What's next for Matt? By this point my hands were frozen and I can hardly read my writing, he has a solo show coming up in at the Fredericanum in Kassel, Germany and a new commission for Art In The Underground plus numerous smaller projects inbetween.

Rescheduled artists talks

Who would you like to win?

Have you visited the exhibition yet? (You may have been captured by Tom or Claire on our preview night...)

Who would you like to walk away with the winning prize of £16,500? The shortlisted runner ups all receive £1500. Why not give our judges* food for thought by casting your vote here

The judges for 2009 are Patricia Bickers (Editor, Art Monthly), Richard Deacon (Artist), Paul Hobson (Director, Contemporary Art Society), Peter Murray (Director, Yorkshire Sculpture Park) and Tanja Pirsig-Marshall (Curator of Exhibitions, Leeds Art Gallery).