Founders Award Winners 2022
Founders Award Winners 2022
Bethlem Gallery is delighted to share here the works of the 2022 Founders Prize Award Winners: Amber Jesson, Lil Dios and Natasha Connell.
Every year as part of the Bethlem Art Fair, we invite a judge to select three artists for the Founders Prize, highlighting artists who are submitting work for the first time. Winners receive a prize of £100.
This year we invited Errol Francis to judge the award. Errol is artistic director and CEO of Culture&. Errol studied photography and fine art at Central Saint Martin’s, University of the Arts London. His doctoral research at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London focused on postcolonial artistic responses to museums.
Errol’s background in mental health activism has influenced his arts practice such as his role as head of arts at the Mental Health Foundation and his directing of the Anxiety Arts Festival 2014, Cyborgs 2019 and his work in the curatorial research group PS/Y. Errol is currently content producer for the Culture Box research project at the University of Exeter which promotes social interaction and public health through the arts in the time of Covid-19 for people living with dementia in care homes. He is visiting lecturer at the University of Greenwich, Goldsmith’s University of London and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Errol said on selecting the winners;
And on Natasha Connell’s work; “The titles do not prepare you for what you see. Strong use of colour reminiscent of Mayan art. What looks like a teddy bear becomes diabolical and questions the innocence of childhood and how a wild animal can become a cuddly toy. This suggests an unease about the symbolism we attach to animals and children.”
Many of the works are on sale as part of Bethlem Gallery Art Fair 2022 which is open until 21st January 2023.
This year we have also awarded three artists a Highly Commended Award with winners receiving £30. The selected artists are VR Thompson ‘The Blind Lady’, Marisa Samos and Mylene Chahine.
Many thanks to Errol Francis for judging the Founders Award, and congratulations to Amber Jesson, Lil Dios and Natasha Connell and the Highly Commended artists too.
