Midas Award 2010: Winner of Cornwall’s contemporary art award announced

An exhibition of this year's shortlisted works for the coveted Midas Award, that includes paintings, sculpture, video, printmaking and modelling, opened at Newlyn Art Gallery this Friday with Katie Sims announced the winner of this year's Award.

The Midas Award is a collaborative project between construction company Midas and University College Falmouth (UCF) as a means of helping the most talented of Cornwall's emerging artists to launch their professional careers and reach new audiences within the region and further afield. The Award is supported by Newlyn Art Gallery and Krowji, the cluster of creative studios, workspaces, offices, meeting rooms and facilities based in Redruth.

This year's prize was awarded to Katie Sims by Operational Manager of Midas, Kevin Bate, for her seven pieces, Fleeting Agony, Four Gray Walls and Four Gray Towers, Snake Pass (Extended Version), The Three Stakes, Arcadian Landscape Between Lines, Schism and Glass Eye (Underbelly), work that has evolved from her interest in art history and that reference the historic painters, Andrea Mantegna and Nicolas Poussin.  Katie has chosen the option of a year's free studio space at Krowji as her prize.

"Midas is delighted to be involved with this Award to support emerging artists in Cornwall," said Kevin Bate. "The show demonstrates the quality of art in Cornwall. Kate Sims is a very deserved winner, she's clearly a talented and innovative artist."

"It's a huge thrill to be hosting the Midas Award Show and it's a key part of our programme that shows how the private and public sectors can collectively work together to do something very successful," said James Green, Director of the Newlyn Art Gallery. "The quality of the work is astonishing with the artists already demonstrating a very clear identity. This is testament to the talent of both the artists and the professional staff at University College Falmouth."

"The Awards Show is a very special opportunity. It allows the students to work and show in a professional context and is an important stepping stone to an artistic career," said Anne Carlisle, Rector and Chief Executive, University College Falmouth. "The Show is the result of a number of partnerships and demonstrates what can be achieved through working together. UCF is delighted to continue the strong links with Newlyn Art Gallery and Midas."

"This show is a remarkable opportunity to exhibit in such a fantastically stunning space and alongside such great work from very good friends. It is a diverse, great show. Thank you," said Katie Sims, this year's winner. "The award will be pivotal in developing my practice, from where I left it at degree level and generating new ideas and helping with my Masters' Application in a few years time. I was so excited just to be in show, the calibre of the work is so high that to be the winner is an honour."

The work of the six finalists - Matthew Benington, Thomas Carder, Charli Clark, Susan Morris, Oliver Parkinson, Katie Sims - were selected by an expert panel of judges during UCF's annual graduate exhibition in June and will be on show to the public in the Upper Gallery at Newlyn Art Gallery from 16 October to 6 November 2010. Alongside the Midas Award show, last year's winner, David Pringle presents new work that builds on his earlier fascination with time and movement in projected images in the Lower Gallery. David is currently studying MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

Katie and Matthew Benington are also currently exhibiting in London as part of the Channel 4 and The Saatchi Gallery 2010 New Sensations Prize having been shortlisted from a field of 400 applicants.

The judges were: Martin Walton, Business Development Manager and Keith Hosen, Project Director from Midas, Joseph Clarke, Director of Millennium Gallery, St Ives, James Green and Blair Todd, Director and Exhibitions Manager at Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange Penzance; Patrick Gottelier, Head of the Department of Design, Dr Larry Lynch, Head of Performance and Sara Bowler, Business Fellow in Visual Arts at UCF.

Midas Award

16 October - 6 November 2010
Newlyn Art Gallery, New Road, Newlyn, Cornwall TR18 5PZ

Free Admission

Tel: 01736 363715
Email: mail@newlynartgallery.co.uk
Web: www.newlynartgallery.co.uk

The six semi-finalists, all from the BA(Hons) Fine Art course were:

• Matthew Benington
• Thomas Carder
• Charli Clark
• Susan Morris
• Oliver Parkinson
• Katie Sims

and David Pringle (2009 winner).

Katie Sims

Information on a selection of the paintings exhibited:

The Three Stakes

The Three Stakes is on the brink of disappearing.  Scarcely visible, three vertical pillars rise from the nothingness.  The outmost two tilt slightly, drawing our focus inward whilst a dark frame isolates the scene.  Informed by Andrea Mantegna's The Crucifixion, there is a solitude and silence to the painting.  Its incompleteness does not dictate to the viewer exactly what to think.

Four Gray Walls and Four Gray Towers

Inspired by Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott", the painting's title derives from the poem's metrical pattern.  Just as the line "Four gray walls, and four gray towers" punctures an otherwise flowing rhythm with stressed syllables, correspondingly the painted castles evoke a depth as they interrupt a seemingly flat, shallow ground.

Schism

Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Castle on a Lake forms the basis for this painting.  Unpopulated, the deserted landscape we survey exists without any discernable sense of space.  The sharpened castle appears to rise out of and stand not against a solid land mass, but absurd hovering shards.

Fleeting Agony

Referencing The Agony in the Garden by Andrea Mantegna, Fleeting Agony appears to fade into and emerge from the paint.  There is an ever-present tension between abstraction and figuration offering both moments of crisp clarity and hazy vacancy. Despite such sparing detail, the painting maintains its deep sense of space.

Snake Pass (Extended Version)

Nicolas Poussin's Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake provides the stimulus for this backdrop.  Once a frenzied drama, now stripped of its former narrative is full of optimism. The bizarre coupling of brightly coloured prisms bursting through this tentative surface makes for discord.

UCF is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the right to award degrees in its own name.  The University College has two campuses - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns and jointly manages with the University of Exeter).

UCF's merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008 created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Dance, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.  The Dartington-based courses have now relocated to an impressive, high-specification £19M Performance Centre at the Tremough Campus, which launches this October.  The European Union's Regional Development Fund invested £12,266,667 in this development which will prepare performance students for success within the creative industries.  The South West Regional Development Agency's Single Pot Fund contributed a further £3M, with the remainder being invested by the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Strategic Development Fund.

The Performance Centre is the latest phase in UCF's ambition to create a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2013/2014 that will be unrivalled in the South West.

UCF is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

Midas

Midas is one of the UK's fastest-growing, independent providers of property solutions, and has 30 years' experience offering a complete range of construction and property-related services for all industry sectors.

The Midas Group is made up of specialist trading companies and dedicated customer teams that deliver a highly personalised service. Midas works closely with clients and partners to develop open, long-term relationships and deliver high-quality, value-for-money projects on time, ensuring that customers have a positive experience and their expectations are exceeded.

www.midasgroup.co.uk

Newlyn Art Gallery

Newlyn Art Gallery has a 115-year history of developing regionally significant contemporary art projects. Over the past 20 years the level of ambition within the organisation has increased very significantly, to the point where the gallery consistently delivers nationally significant programmes of exhibitions and education projects.

The gallery was previously limited by its building, necessitating a redevelopment in order to realise its plans to showcase the very best of national and international contemporary art. The newly refurbished gallery reopened in 2007, alongside a major new art space The Exchange, in the heart of Penzance.

For more information please contact:

Kathy Hill - Marketing Officer, kathy.hill@newlynartagllery.co.uk, 01736 363715 www.newlynartgallery.co.uk

Krowji

Krowji is the cluster of creative studios, workspaces and offices based at the former Grammar School in Redruth. The site was acquired in 2005 and there are now more than 80 people, including painters, furniture makers, jewellers, web designers, picture framers, theatre companies and ceramicists as well as office staff from a number of sector support agencies such as Creative Skills and Cornwall Council's Creative Services. There are meeting rooms, a licensed café, exhibition areas and a rehearsal space.

The name ‘Krowji' comes from the Cornish language word for shed or small workspace.

For more information please contact:

Ross Williams, Director, ross@actcornwall.org.uk Krowji Ltd, The Old Grammar School, West Park, Redruth, TR15 3AJ, 01209 313200 or 07779 467 640

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby Dip CIPR MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email:  jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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