New Light Art Prize Exhibition 2023 / 2024

Rheged, Penrith 14th March – 2nd June; The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle 29th June – 22nd September; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate 12th October – 31st December | Free Entry

The New Light Art Prize exhibition is a biennial exhibition – it takes place every two years.  The exhibition has been designed to bring together and showcase some of the best and most original art from across northern England.  The exhibition has run since it was conceptualised back in 2010.  The New Light Art Prize was founded to bridge a gap where there was not a large regional exhibition that could be accessed by talented artists within the region.  In all of the exhibitions previous iterations since 2010, all art has been wall hung but the 2023 – 2024 exhibition also includes sculptural elements, with a new sculpture prize on off their year which was funded by the Biscuit Factory – an arts and gallery space which is located in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Unlike some of the other large regional exhibitions which accept submissions from a disparate group of artists such as the Northumberland Open, and the Baltic Open Call, New light travels the region to bring the exhibition to as many people as is possible over the exhibitions fourteen-month run.  The current exhibition cycle began at the Williamson Gallery and museum in Birkenhead; followed by a run at the Bankside in London, it is currently on display at Penrith’s Rheged centre, just off the M6 near the lake district.  It is here that I caught the exhibition.  It is running at the Rheged Centre until June 2^nd; at which time it will be moving to the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle from June 29 to September the 22^nd.  After this the final exhibition is at the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate from October 12th – December 31^st.

The exhibition gallery is arranged and divided up into several smaller continuous spaces which flow into each other, giving the viewer the impression of a much larger exhibition space than there really is.  This also creates the illusion that it is a more private experience as you are often out of sight from others who are viewing the exhibition.  There were a lot of artworks on display though, so a more open exhibition would not have been able to showcase them so effectively.  This exhibition, like many other open style exhibitions also has a visitors choice award, so everyone visiting can vote for their own personal favourite artwork from amongst those on display.

Exhibition Prize Winners

The prize-winning exhibits were displayed on their own wall with accompanying interpretation text about the artworks.  The winning artworks for the different prize categories all have completely different characteristics.  The New Light Emerging Artists Award was given to George Melling for his work During the Endless Night, She Felt Herself Losing Her Mind; this is not a piece that I particularly would have chosen as to myself it lacks the compositional elements and character that I look for in an artwork.  The New Light Patron’s Choice Award was handed to Robert Cook for his painting Bog Bumper Emerging from The Moss.  In this artwork, he has produced a photo realistic painting of a bird walking through the undergrowth of a pond.  The winner of The New Light Printmaker’s Prize is in my opinion the best of the prize-winning artworks.  Neil Bousfield has created his block printed artwork Bewick’s Place from a collection of engraved blocks which he used to create his prints.  He had the idea for the print after a visit to Cherryburn – home of Thomas Bewick; these days a National Trust run property.   The New Light Purchase Prize was given to Christine Stables for her piece The Art Of Balance.  This is an interesting abstract piece, dominated by orange with a background of more earthy colours.  

The Grand Prize willer, the winner of the Valeria Sykes Award was Francis Bell with her painting Lockdown.  This painting was created towards the end of the second covid lockdown in 2021 with the artist describing it as “Almost like a time capsule from the past”.   My interpretation of this painting is one of loneliness, The lady in the picture is sitting in front of a mirror with a saddened expression on her face, she appears to be clutching a shirt.   The mirrored image behind her though contains the back view of herself, but instead of staring off into space like in the iteration before us, she appears to be gazing up at a man.  We have to ask, Is he really there?  Is his presence in the reflection symbolic of him being missing in the real space?  As he is outside of the picture space, perhaps we will never know.  During this time, everyone became distant from everyone else; however, seeing the distance presented to us in this manner can be somewhat alarming. 

My personal highlights from this exhibition

This exhibition was so large and so wide ranging that it was difficult to select just a few highlights to showcase here and the artworks which I have selected are likely not representative of the full body of work on display.  The artworks which I am discussing here are all different in style, but all in some way appealed to me as I saw them displayed within the exhibition space. 

This quite small painting by Jo Morris piqued my interest as soon as I saw it; a hand holding aloft a cabbage as though it is some kind of trophy.  The dark black background on this piece makes the fine detail of the subject stand out much more than it may have done otherwise.  There is a high level of delineation throughout which leads to a fine level of detail especially on the hand with its skin creases and knuckles perfectly recreated.  This detail also holds true for the cabbage itself, its round form like a crinkly little globe being held up for the world to see.  

Towards a corner of the Rheged Centre gallery in Penrith hung a large, dark painting which contains a selection of lighter squares.  The peculiar quality of the darkness drew me in for a closer examination; it took on the form of the face of a building at night.  The Hotel Du Monde (Large Study), painted by Alan Stones had suddenly revealed itself for what it was.   The dull tone of the painting suggests nighttime, the angle of the picture space suggests that it is viewed from across the street in an apartment or room mid-way up a building.  As you look closer, you can see some of the windows have their curtains drawn.  There is a sudden realisation that you are a voyeur, peeking into the private spaces that other people are utilising without their knowledge. 

Rather than allowing you to shy away from the painting, the composition draws you in, it makes you move closer to see what is happening in all those seemingly identically decorated rooms.  The people within and their antics are really the only things that create a difference between the various rooms.  At the top, we see a woman getting dressed, a few doors along someone else if sleeping on the bed.  Below those, a couple are sat in their room reading, all are oblivious to the fact that they are being watched save for the black individual on the bottom floor.  He appears to be dressed in traditional clothing and reading, but he is looking right out of the picture space at the viewer on the outside as if to challenge the viewers intentions.  This painting has a lot to see and offer the viewer on multiple levels. 

Group magic by Joan Prickett instantly caught my attention as soon as I entered the exhibition space, it was one of the artworks on the wall just to the left of the wall explaining the theme of the exhibition itself.  I immediately recognised within the painting itself a similar lighting effect and feeling of overall cohesiveness to that which can be experienced in El Greco’s ‘An Allegory (Fabula)’ which is on display at the National Gallery in Edinburgh.   The artwork itself, which is warm and homely, appears centred around a small knitting circle, the bright light within emanating from an unknown source in the centre.  My interpretation of this picture is that it represents support and comradery amongst a group of close friends. 

The lady at the centre of the image is smiling and happy, the light apparently coming from somewhere close to her heart.  The two ladies behind her are placing friendly looking hands on her shoulders.  The two women in the front are engaged in holding up what they have made, this creates a barrier between the viewer and the woman at the centre of the composition, enclosing her and making her the absolute centre of this circle.  The way the light fades with distance and the directions of the light and shadow throughout this painting are absolutely meticulously rendered.  The artist has clearly put a lot of time, effort and thought into how this composition was put together and the subtle effects and feelings which she wanted within.

One of Gavin Watson’s delightful offerings to this exhibition is a painting called Mayday.  This is quite an interesting artwork which aroused my interest in it simply because of the absurdity of its content.  The painting itself is very muted in colour, it contains a lot of mauve and blue and turquoise all interacting together to provide a semi monochromatic background.   Just to the right and slightly below centre of the frame, there is a boat, It has a stalk on the tiller and what looks like a several year old tree growing somehow inside of the boat; growing straight upwards too.  The tree is in bloom and contains a couple of birds, there are eight other birds in the scene, these form a sort of loose halo around the tree. 

The boat is being lashed by waves, they are larger than the boat and cresting with white spray coming from their tips.  The boat also appears to be stationary; it has no wake and appears incongruously still within the roiling scene.  The lighting in the scene is nicely balanced and soft as though we are enjoying a pre-dawn view of the scene before us.  This artwork is extremely thought provoking and entices the viewer to question the artists intentions and the concepts underpinning the composition itself. 

Jane Sanders has produced a visually appealing and striking image with her work The Paul McCartney Project.  The majority of this artwork has been created from textiles, sewn together into the shape of Mr McCartney along with buttons and applique attached to the surface.  The artist has done a fabulous job of shading on all of the skin tone areas, this really adds a lot to the realism of the whole composition; it’s difficult to imbue an obvious two-dimensional work with realism in this way.  The whole image is then overwhelmed with hearts, they are sewn onto every part of his jacket, and he is even holding his hands making a heart sign. 

At a glance, all of the hearts appear to be individual and different, but if you look hard enough, a couple of them are duplicated.  The artist has gone to great trouble to ensure that they are all oriented the same, so that the bottom of the hearts go down the clothing, even on the raised sleeves.  The hearts aren’t just decoration though, within them are references to Paul’s origin, the Beatles songs, also his wife Linda; a fair few of them though are plain and simply decorative.  The whole composition is an absolute riot of different colours and textures which somehow manage to create a cohesive image which references the brightness and vibrancy that the Beatles added to British culture. 

When I saw one off Chrissy Freeth’s beautiful tapestries hanging in the gallery, I knew that I had found my overall favourite piece of art from within this exhibition.  Her tapestry Light Footfalls became the centrepiece of the exhibition for me, it is the absolute quality of artistry and the quirky abstract symbolism with which she imbues her work that makes it so utterly enjoyable.  Crissy has used quite an old technique of telling the story within the scene by placing vignettes within the scene itself which can be read to add context and meaning to what is seen. 

The symbology that has been used within this artwork is not always a standard symbology, in a way, it holds more meaning for the artist than the viewer with some of the meaning being quite difficult to work out without intimate knowledge of the scene.  Chrissie has included a description on her website detailing the events that are taking place within the tapestry; the story is quite tragic, one of loss and forgiveness as opposed to loss and vengeance.  This is an artwork which really does need to be seen up close and personally to really appreciate the quality of craftsmanship as well as the content of the work. 

The guide book for this exhibition is quite small and contains a number of images of the picture on display; however, the guide book does not contain a comprehensive set of images, several were omitted.  Before the images, the guide tells a little about the organisation behind the exhibition as well as giving a short biography of the judges and a list of shortlisted artists.  It also details all of the places the exhibition is touring too. 

This exhibition was exceptional in the quality and quantity of artwork which it has brought together within the region, from many professional and semi professional artists.  It is an exhibition that has been put on for free and is well worth taking the time to go and view.