For the past 100 years, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery has played host to an ‘open-style’ exhibition, aiming to “throw a spotlight onto the many committed and talented artists that live and work in our community”.
The biggest Fine Art and Contemporary Art prize in the Midlands returns this year with a wide range of amazing work representing the huge variety of mediums and materials – from sculpture and photography, to printing and installations – that artists in and around Nottingham work in, and highlights the amazing talent of artists around the region.
From the 447 submissions sent in for this year’s show, works from 37 artists were chosen, and are on display in Nottingham Castle’s temporary exhibitions gallery until the 8th January 2017 as part of the Nottingham Castle Open 2016. Getting to Know, a video installation by Alice Gale-Feeny, who won the Castle Open 2015 Solo Exhibition Prize, is being shown alongside the 2016 candidates.
Winners of the Nottingham Open 2016 Prize have just been announced, and prizes include £1,500, art materials, and exhibition/residency opportunities across the East Midlands.
“The exhibition is remarkable in the sheer range of materials and mediums used to create the works”
The brief given to the selecting committee of the 2016 Open was “to draw together a body of work that [represents] the wide range of creative practice in our region, from style and medium, to subject and technical ability,” and the resulting collection of works reflects that.
The exhibition is remarkable in the sheer range of materials and mediums used to create the works, from more commonplace mediums like those in Katharina Fitz’ Nottingham (photography) and Michael Guerrieira’s Tsunami series (acrylic on canvas), to the less conventional, such as those used in Arianne Wilson’s Space Foam (made using polyeurethane expanding foam) and Harry Fletcher’s Suckle (a combination of bronze, steel, concrete and soil).
“The exhibition is an amazing way to track the ever-changing and shifting art scene of Nottingham”
Also interesting to see is the wide range of topics and issues discussed, from the politics of gender and class, to statements about social media and industrialisation, though different visitors to the exhibition will no doubt interpret different meanings from the works on display; everyone’s experience of this remarkable show will be completely unique.
The exhibition is an amazing way to track the ever-changing and shifting art scene of Nottingham; all work displayed has to have been made within the past 12 months. This also means that the Nottingham Castle Open is a “valuable and respected vehicle for the region’s emerging and established artists”, and past participants have gone on to bigger and better things. An example of this is 2011 winner Frank Kent, who has exhibited all across the country, and was elected one of the best artists in the East Midlands under 30 by NVA magazine.
“It highlights the remarkable talent of artists in the East Midlands”
Once again, Nottingham Castle Museum and Gallery have curated an amazing exhibition, showcasing and featuring some truly amazing artworks from local artists. It highlights the remarkable talent of artists in the East Midlands, and those who have won the prizes have truly deserved it.
Ellen Smithies
Image credit: Arran Bee via Flickr.
Nottingham Castle Open 2016 runs until 8th January 2017 at the Nottingham Castle. For more information, see here.
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