Visual artists and composers share £600k Hamlyn cash

Written on 14 November 2019.

Five composers and five visual artists have won £60,000 reach in the 25^th awarding of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Awards for Artists scheme.

Since the scheme, the largest “no strings” award programme in the UK, was started in 1994 175 artists have shared £7.2m, given to visual artists and composers only since 1998, though often the disciplines are now mixed. Previous winners have included Yink Shonibare, Phyllida Barlow, Jeremy Deller, Sally Beamish, Eliza Carthy and Tansy Davies.

Jane Hamlyn, Chair, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Chair of the Visual Arts judging panel commented: “A lot has changed since we set up Awards for Artists 25 years ago, but one thing hasn't changed - the environment for artists is tough” said the foundation’s chair, and chair of judges, Jane Hamlyn. “The PHF awards give exceptional artists and composers an invaluable space to concentrate on their work and imagine how it can find its place in the world”.

Moira Sinclair, Chief Executive of Paul Hamlyn Foundation, said: “The visual artists and composers announced this year join a pool of exceptionally talented recipients that we have supported over the last 25 years. We are grateful for the contributions of all our nominators and judges who have helped shape the programme, and we intend for the awards to continue as an unequivocal commitment to the vital contribution artists and musicians make to our culture.”

The 2019 winners are:

Larry Achiampong who combines imagery, aural and visual archives, live performance and sound to explore ideas surrounding class, cross-cultural and post-digital identity in his practice;

Phoebe Boswell whose work combines traditional drawing with digital technology, creating powerful images, animations and immersive installations in an effort to find new languages to house and amplify voices and histories which are often marginalised;

Adam Christensen who makes performance, video, fabric and text works, blurring the boundaries between everyday life and fiction;

Harold Offeh who works in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice, often using humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture;

Ingrid Pollard, a photographer and media artist and researcher whose practice is concerned with representation, history and landscape through a photographic background in theatre, cinema and narrative;

Eleanor Alberga who uses a spectrum of genres into her music, from Eurocentric contemporary to Afro-Caribbean elements with a wide emotional range in her language, structural clarity and technique as an orchestrator;

Laura Jurd is a composer and trumpet player working in improvised and contemporary music, from a background in jazz and classical music;

Mark Lockheart holds improvisation at the heart of his compositional practice through the natural process of playing his primary instrument, the saxophone, and developing into more substantial forms;

Nathaniel Mann, an experimental composer, performer and sound designer whose compositions are grounded in research, context and collaboration, often developed with professionals and enthusiasts from varied fields and in response to specific settings. He is also a member of experimental trio Dead Rat Orchestra;

Shiori Usui who is inspired by human anatomy, gestures and reflexes, and by other living creatures and ecologies, seeing human body as instrument using sounds such as the scratching of skin, for instance, and the acoustics and data of musicians’ blood flow and muscle movements.

Pictured left to right are: Larry Achiampong, Laura Jurd, Ingrid Pollard, Mark Lockheart, Harold Offeh, Adam Christensen, Phoebe Boswell, Shiori Usui and Nathaniel Mann.
Photo credit: Emile Holba

phf.org.uk/awards-for-artists

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Visual artists and composers share £600k Hamlyn cash

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