TAS Wessex Area Sponsors first prize for the Bath Open Art Prize

For the third year running TAS Wessex Area has sponsored the first prize of £500 for the Bath Open Art Prize. We feel that it is important to support emerging artists as they start on their career. Having a first and second prize, highly commended awards and a peoples award, given at the end of the exhibition run, encourages artists to participate. As well as having their work judged and critiqued by professional artists, their work is hung in a contemporary Gallery - 44AD, in Bath for two weeks. The final prize, provided by the project director of 44AD, Katie O'Brien, is the opportunity to have workshop space in the gallery and a solo exhbition at the end of the residency.

There was an eclectic range of work from painting, printmaking, video, textiles, mixed media and 3D.

First Prize: Aran Illingworth,  'Bag Lady' (Textile) was a wonderful piece of mono cromatic textiles heavily embossed with machine stitch.

Second Prize: Oliver Hurst,  'Moth on a Building' (Oil on canvas)

Highly Commended: Maxine, 'Turmoil l & Turmoil lV' (Mixed medium: Ink and Chine-collé)

Highly Commended: Jess Skelton, 'Flotsam, Seabed, Sunken Treasure' (Porcelain, black clay, stoneware clay, glazes and gold lustre)

44AD Solo Exhibition Opportunity; Simbah Pilé, 'Sacra Diadem' (mixed media with 24kt gold leaf on paper)

FaB aims to raise the profile of contemporary visual arts in Bath, provide opportunities for early-career and emerging artists, and put art in unusual places in unexpected ways for people to happen across and interact with.

The FaB team organise a two-week festival of contemporary visual art exhibitions, events and workshops during Bath Fringe Festival in May/June each year. Free for all to attend, occupying empty shops, unusual spaces and making appearances around the streets of Bath

FaB started as (and still is) Bath’s only annual contemporary visual arts festival, growing out of the Bath Fringe Festival’s visual arts strand to become it’s own organisation in 2007, and sees itself as a cheeky little sister to the Bath Fringe (visit www.bathfringe.co.uk for info)

Bath Open Art Prize

Organised by Fringe Arts Bath, this open call welcomes all Visual Artists, at any stage of their career, from across the globe. Now in its 12th year, the Bath Open Art Prize accepts submissions across all genres and mediums; including video, painting, photography, textile, digital, print and 3D. Small installations and performance are also considered.

An exhibition of works selected by 2024 judges Karen Wallis and Leonie Bradley takes place at 44AD artspace in Bath, UK from 10 to 26 October 2024.

Judges

Leonie Bradley, Artist and Editor: Leonie Bradley is an artist, whose practice encompasses writing, printmaking, animation, installation and production.

Karen Wallis, Artist: Karen Wallis draws and paints the everyday world, bearing witness to events around her. She is interested in how art can facilitate conversation and its potential for contributing to the research activity of other disciplines.

1st Prize: £500 cash sponsored by The Arts Society Wessex Area.

2nd Prize: £250 cash sponsored by The Bell Inn.

People's Choice: £50 art vouchers, sponsored by Minerva Arts Supplies

Heather Leach