Taking a View

The New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize

Taking a View

Duality of Life
Remi Jablecki

160 x 190 cm | 62 x 74 in

Original painting in oil on canvas.

With summer degree shows fast approaching, it’s the perfect moment to take a look back over the past twelve months and celebrate the work of last year’s graduates, in particular those nominated for the inaugural New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize last summer. The prize invites university tutors to nominate graduating students to participate in an exhibition that showcases the most exciting and innovative work coming out of undergraduate art courses across the country.

Last year’s nominees have achieved many great things, winning accolades, prizes and exhibiting widely. For example, Remi Jablecki has gone on to study for a MA at Edinburgh College of Art and has participated in RSA New Contemporaries, with his gardening-inspired queer abstractions garnering national attention. Likewise, Sean Davidson was nominated for the Freelands Foundation Painting Prize, an exhibition and publication showcasing the best graduating BA work. Currently, Sean is studying for an MA at the Royal College of Art.

The prize winner, Sophie Lloyd, has been part of several exciting projects, winning the Anthony Caro Sculpture Prize, completing a commission for the Sarabande Foundation’s Fundraiser Banquet and more recently was selected for the Royal Society of British Artists’ Rising Stars exhibition, with the show running through till 7th July. It has been a big year for last year’s nominees; we’re excited to see what the coming year holds.

At the heart of New Blood Art is the desire to recognise emerging artists, platforming their work at an early stage in their career, often from the moment of graduation. Vikram Kushwah is an artist who showed with us for many years and has subsequently become a major name in Fine Art and Fashion Photography. In May, he will be showing at Photo London at Somerset House, adding to an existing CV that includes the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery and the Humanity Prize, which he won. He has recently collaborated with Coca-Cola for their latest blockbuster ad campaign, ‘Masterpiece’ and is a regular contributor to Vogue while also publishing his photos in the Guardian, Financial Times and Telegraph. Vikram, in many ways, embodies the ethos of New Blood; we hope that our recent grads will go on to have similarly successful careers and look forward to introducing you to the 2024 Emerging Art Prize nominees very soon!

Taking a View