2014 | Third Edition | Winners
Young Masters Art Prize 2014 oVERALL wINNER
Juergen Wolf
Juergen Wolf, Untitled, 2014, Mixed media on wood
German artist Juergen Wolf was selected from 30 International artists. His work takes an ironic look at icons, taboos and the menaces of the civilized world, moments of luck, of sadness, impressions of historical and political reality, sporting events and fragments of mental abyss. These painted stories are compiled from all walks of human experience, assembled without hierarchy and thus grant a special importance to each singular moment. The works continuously cast doubt on the absolute terms of an idealistic philosophy: the good, true and beautiful. Wolf’s work refers to idealism, German romanticism, and questions the essence of beauty itself.
£1500 Awarded to Juergen Wolf, sponsored by Dr Chris Blatchley
Highly Commended
Saskia Boelsums & Marwane Pallas
Saskia Boelsom, Lemon, 2013, C-type photograph
Saskia Boelsum is a Dutch visual artist specialising in photography. She is inspired by the atmospheric light, material expression, colour, tone, and compositions used by the Old Masters. She is also fascinated by the symbolic value of the objects, food, flowers and animals in Old Master paintings, particularly those of the Dutch golden age of painting, from 1550- 1720.
Marwane Pallas, Le Déjeuner Sur L’herbre, 2013, Photographic print on dibond
Marwane Pallas is a photographer of the Digital Era, who has always looked at the past. Inspired by the digital alteration of time in images, he looks back to iconic painters through the ages and introduces different generations through his own pictorial realities.
£500 Awarded to both Saskia Boelsum & Marwane Pallas, courtesy of the Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS)
YOUNG MASTERS MAYLIS GRAND CERAMICS PRIZE oVERALL wINNER
Matt Smith
Matt Smith, Pair of Wall Sconces, 2014, Ceramic
Using techniques of institutional critique, artist intervention and re-appropriation, the familiar is made unfamiliar and power structures are brought to light. Smith’s use of craft, with its connotations of the amateur, accessibility and gender, and his exploitation of its place in the art world, mean that his pieces utilise mainstream culture and unsettle it, taking objects from their intended role and repurposing them in new situations – creating a visual polari.
£1,500 Awarded to Matt Smith, sponsored by James and Maylis Grand
Highly Commended
Jongjin Park & Zemer Peled
Jongjin Park, Definitely Ceramics II, 2014
Porcelain, stoneware with newspaper, celadon glaze
Zemer Peled, Blue & White Porcelain Shards Flower No. 3, 2014, porcelain shards, fired clay
Zemer Peled's work examines the beauty and brutality of the natural world. Her sculptural language is formed by her surrounding landscapes and nature, and engages with themes of memories, identity, and place. Her sculptures and installations consist of thousands of hand-crafted porcelain shards; a technique that yields a texture both delicate and severe.
Jongjin Park explores the materiality of ceramics and their ability to imitate other materials such as wood and paper. Born in Korea, Park recently came to the UK to study Ceramics, and the relationship between British and Eastern ceramic cultures. Paperclay, a material invented to improve clay’s material properties was later used by many potters. Park takes this one step further by using and mimicking paper in clay.
£500 Awarded to both Jongjin Park and Zemer Peled, sponsored by James and Maylis Grand