Six short-listed for first Liverpool Art Prize

Feb 20 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

The Singh Twins with their Liverpool Coat of Arms _158

SIX Liverpool-based artists will be competing for the first Liverpool Art Prize. The contest – planned to become an annual event – is for fine artists based in the Liverpool area.

Organised by the online organi-sation artsinliverpool, the six short-listed artists will be exhibited in the new Contemporary Urban Centre North West gallery in Greenland Street.

All are described as “mid-career professionals establishing them-selves on an international level”. Their work is all very different.

The best-known of the finalists are twins Amrit and Rabindra Singh whose miniature work combining Western and Eastern styles has been exhibited widely.

In 2002 they were artists in resi-dence to the Manchester Common-wealth Games.

The other finalists include photo-grapher Mary Fitzpatrick who specialises in images of places abandoned after conflicts, particu-larly those in the Middle East. She is currently working on a project in Ramallah on the West Bank.

Painter Gareth Kemp has for many years been working on a series of paintings titled Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow, mono-chrome canvases inspired by old family photographs of the remote area of Wales where he grew up.

Jayne Lawless specialises in installations, typical is a recent work Tunnel for the New Wolsey Theatre designed to provoke a sense of anticipation as people went to see a theatre show.

For the Liverpool Prize she has produced a new work Cage – her reaction to the frustration of trying to realise a creative idea.

Imogen Stidworthy is a video artist interested in aspects of communication and how words and meaning can become disconnected. The main prize in the contest will be a cash sum of £2,000 awarded by a five-strong team of judges including artist Terry Duffy.

There will also be a People’s Choice prize of £500 voted for by visitors to the exhibition.

The works will go on display to the public at the gallery from Feb- ruary 29 and will run until April 10. It will be the first show in the new development, part of the self-styled Independent Arts Quarter.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk