Wells Art Contemporary announces its winners for 2024


Wells Art Contemporary (WAC), located in Wells Cathedral, received almost 2,500 submissions from artists across 31 countries.

Award-winning and shortlisted works will be showcased at the historic venue, including a white-wall gallery in the cathedral cloisters and an installation show of site-specific works, located throughout the cathedral and its grounds.

The judging panel whittled the thousands of entries to a shortlist of 121 artworks by 119 artists.

The installation show’s 19 site-specific works, by 20 artists, were selected from almost 300 proposals.

When the exhibition opened on Friday, August 2, seven artists received awards ranging from £2,000 in cash to a residency in France.

Among the winners is Frances Featherstone, who received the NG Art Creative Prize for her work, Solitaire. 

Ms Featherstone’s work explores the interaction between people and their interior spaces, with a focus on storytelling and narrative.

Frances Featherstone's Solitaire, oil on linenFrances Featherstone’s Solitaire, oil on linen (Image: Supplied)

Joanna Cohn, who is studying a Masters of Print at the Royal College of Art, was the recipient of the GBS Fine Art Student Prize, a £1,000 cash award which aims to support a young artist under the age of 26.

Her work, All That I Am, is a celebration of life, death, and humanity.

Wells-based artist, Jane Manning, won the Somerset Art Works Prize for her graphite pencil drawing evoking the architecture, history, and spirit of Wells Cathedral.

The Jane Bowe Memorial Award was given to Sally Wetherall, another Wells-based artist, for her site-specific installation, I Was Here 2024.

The series of 20 books is a direct response to the words once carved into the stones of Wells Cathedral: “I Was Here.”

Sally Wetherall's I Was Here 2024 won the Jane Bowe Memorial Award Sally Wetherall’s I Was Here 2024 won the Jane Bowe Memorial Award (Image: Supplied)

Established in 2012 by artists for artists, the WAC competition is an open competition for innovative visual art.

It aims to place contemporary art in dialogue with Britain’s only standing example of an entirely gothic cathedral, completed in the 14th century.

All award-winning and shortlisted works are on display until Saturday, August 31 at the WAC exhibition, at Wells Cathedral, Somerset, as well as online.

They are also available for sale online, with gallery show works at https://www.wellsartcontemporary.co.uk/2024-gallery and installation show works at https://www.wellsartcontemporary.co.uk/2024-installations.

Entry to the exhibition is included with £14 ticket admission to the cathedral. 

Attendance to the Private View is free of ticket charge. 

Further information is available at www.wellsartcontemporary.co.uk.
 





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