One Week Left to Enter the Aesthetica Art Prize: A Selection of 2014’s Longlisted Artists

There is one week left to enter the Aesthetica Art Prize, an annual award which celebrates excellence in contemporary art. Entries are welcome from artists at all stages in their career and working in any medium. We present a selection of longlisted artists from the latest edition of the award in anticipation of the call for entries deadline.

Sheau Ming Song
Sheau Ming Song’s practice is concerned with trying to transpose realities on to a two-dimensional surface. He often utilises unprimed canvas, masking tapes, and spontaneous marks as they are not specific to space or time, and so make fewer explicit biographical references to the image depicted. Spectatorial mode of perception in Ming Song’s work not only annihilates the distance between the viewer and the depicted image but also intensifies the tangible quality of the subject.

Nina Fowler
Nina Fowler graduated from Brighton University with a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture) in 2003. Since being longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize, Fowler has had the privilege of opening Galerie Dukan’s new space in Leipzig with a solo exhibition. She has also been working closely with The Cob Gallery (London), who exhibited her work in the show Drawing Now (Paris) in March and the Liverpool Biennial in July this year. She was also invited to join the famous Art Car Boot Fair, now in its 11th year and showed alongside artists including Sir Peter Blake, Gavin Turk, Jake and Dinos Chapman.

Martha Zmpounou
Martha Zmpounou is a visual artist and illustrator, based in London. She holds a degree in Fine arts and in 2011 she completed her MA at Central Saint Martins College of Art. Since then she has been awarded the De Laszlo Foundation Award and her work has been exhibited and published widely in the UK and abroad. Being published in Aesthetica Magazine significantly increased the number of commissions of art works and played a role in getting an offer for a solo exhibition.

Ghanesh Das
Ghanesh Das was born in Georgetown, Guyana and grew up in London, UK, before moving to Toronto, Canada. He has studied at the Toronto School of Art and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. Varied and eclectic both thematically and stylistically; his work reflects on society and culture, nature and industry, beauty and truth. After featuring in the Aesthetica Art Prize longlist, his painting Burning Oil Spill will go on exhibition at the Tom Thompson Art Gallery, Canada and his work will also appear in the 50th Annual Juried Art Exhibition: Convergence 2014.

The Aesthetica Art Prize is open for entries until 31 August 2014. The Judging Panel features artist Anna Vogel; Dr Sam Lackey, Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield; Matthew Flowers, Managing Director of Flowers; Professor Rob Dickins, CBE; and Whitney Hintz, Independent Advisor and Curator at Hiscox among others. Prizes include £5,000 courtesy of Hiscox, exhibition, editorial coverage in Aesthetica Magazine, publication, art supplies vouchers courtesy of Winsor & Newton and art books by Prestel.

For more details and to enter visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize.

Credits
1. Sheau Ming Song, Fleuve (from the Linen and Masking Tape series). Aesthetica Art Prize: Painting & Drawing Longlist. Courtesy of the artist and Aesthetica.
2. Nina Fowler, Intimate Strangers: Marianne. Aesthetica Art Prize: Painting & Drawing Longlist. Courtesy of the artist and Aesthetica.
3. Martha Zmpounou, Hut. Aesthetica Art Prize: Painting & Drawing Longlist. Courtesy of the artist and Aesthetica.
4. Ghanesh Das, Arab Spring #2. Aesthetica Art Prize: Painting & Drawing Longlist. Courtesy of the artist and Aesthetica.

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