LONDON, January 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Realist painting of abandoned urban space wins £20,000 award
- Exhibition runs until Saturday 17 February 2018 at Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
Ana Schmidt has been announced as the winner of the 2018 Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Europe's leading open competition for figurative and representational art, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Ana receives a cash prize of £20,000 and a solo exhibition for a wider body of work in the Threadneedle Space at Mall Galleries.
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Ana Schmidt is a 'realist' painter based in Bilbao, where she works as an urban planning architect and figurative painter. Her work focuses on depictions of urban landscapes and how they appear in our everyday experience. Finding inspiration from her immediate surroundings, Ana is especially interested in painting the territorial changes brought on over the last decades by the process of urban transformation and sprawl.
Her winning work, Dead End, is one of a series of gritty cityscape works that document in fine detail the abandoned urban spaces, spaces that normally escape our awareness, as the periphery, the fringes, where cities become blurred.
Ana has previously won major awards in the USA, Italy and Spain and has exhibited her paintings and drawings extensively in group exhibitions in Germany, the USA, Italy and, most recently, in Spain at Figurativas 2017 in Barcelona.
Chairman of the Selection Panel and Director of Mall Galleries, Lewis McNaught said, "It is always a difficult task to select just one winning work from all those entered for the Prize - but with Ana's painting, the selectors were all struck by the macabre and melancholic beauty that she has conjured up with her extremely skilled brushwork. With this large canvas, Ana is calling on us to wake up to the increasing levels of inequality, unemployment and poverty rife in modern cities. It's a powerful work."
Alison Jefferis, Head of Corporate Affairs, Columbia Threadneedle Investments said: "The Columbia Threadneedle Prize has grown in strength and reputation during our 10 years of support. Congratulations to this year's finalists and to Ana for winning the prestigious Prize. We hope it inspires visitors to Mall Galleries during the course of the exhibition."
Five Finalists each receive a Prize of £1,000. The Finalists are:
Emily Allchurch, Babel Britain (After Verhaecht), Digital collage as a transparency on bespoke LED lightbox
Caroline Burraway, Samuel, The Jungle Calais, Charcoal
Serena Curmi, Bedlam' Case Studies, Oil on board
Cathy Lewis, Nowhere near Gotham, Cast marble and digital print
Lois Wallace, Perfect Day, Oil on copper
Visitors to the exhibition are invited to vote for The Visitors' Choice Award, a further prize worth £10,000 to the winning artist. The Visitors' Choice Award winner will be announced at the end of the exhibition.
The Columbia Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today
Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
31 January to 17 February
10am to 5pm (closes 1pm on final day)
Admission Free
http://www.columbiathreadneedleprize.com
Share your photos and thoughts on the exhibition with us and let us know who you voted for with MyArtChoice ColumbiaThreadneedlePrize @mallgalleries
For more information, please visit http://www.columbiathreadneedleprize.com
There are several talks and events taking place during the exhibition.
Where does the gallery model go from here?
Wednesday 7 February, 6:30pm to 8pm
Leading Industry figures discuss where the traditional gallery model goes from here, offering valuable advice for artists, art lovers and collectors.
Free, but book your place at http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk
In the Studio: Short Film Screening
Thursday 8 February, 2pm to 4pm
An afternoon of artists' film screenings exploring the different notions of creative spaces.
Free, but book your place at http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk
Figurative Art Today: A panel discussion
Tuesday 13 February, 6pm to 8pm
Our panel discusses the ways in which contemporary artists chose to reflect the world around them.
Free, but book your place at http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk
Notes to Editors
Established in 2008, the number of entries for The Columbia Threadneedle Prize (formerly The Threadneedle Prize) continues to increase as the Prize gains momentum: 4,118 submissions were received from 2,097 artists through an open entry submission for the 2018 Prize and exhibition, compared to 3,828 entries from 1,973 artists in 2016. The Columbia Threadneedle Prize encourages debate about the growing relevance of figurative and representational art by hosting visitor events throughout the three-week exhibition in London. http://www.columbiathreadneedleprize.com
More than 2,000 artists entered 4,118 works to this year's exhibition. Over 100 works, comprising painting, sculpture, drawing and print, were selected by a panel of judges, chaired by Mall Galleries Director Lewis McNaught, the judges were:
- Jennifer McRae, award-winning portrait artist
- Helen Pheby, Senior Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
- Pippa Stockdale, Managing Director at The Fine Art Society.
Previous winners of The Columbia Threadneedle Prize include:
- Nina Murdoch
- Shelia Wallis
- Patricia Cain
- Henrietta Simson
- Ben Greener
- Clare McCormack and Lisa Wright - Joint winners
- Tina Jenkins
- Lewis Hazelwood-Horner RBA
About Mall Galleries
Mall Galleries is a major contemporary gallery space in the heart of Central London, and is a national focal point for contemporary figurative art. For over 40 years Mall Galleries has played a crucial role in diversifying the practice of figurative art, exploring its boundaries while inspiring and educating audiences with new exhibitions and interpretations of the contemporary world. See http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk
About Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset management group that provides a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2000 people including over 450 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage £366 billion[1] of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives. Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc., a leading US-based financial services provider. As part of Ameriprise, we are supported by a large and well-capitalised diversified financial services firm.
See http://www.columbiathreadneedle.com
Source: Columbia Threadneedle Investments as at 30 Dec 2017
[1] Source: Ameriprise Financial Q4 2017 earnings release.
Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of investments and any income is not guaranteed and can go down as well as up and may be affected by exchange rate fluctuations. This means that an investor may not get back the amount invested. This material is for information only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation of an order to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments, or to provide investment advice or services.
For images and further press information about the Prize and Exhibition please contact:
Liberty Rowley, Mall Galleries, T: +44-020-7968-0955, E: press@mallgalleries.com
(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/635094/Ana_Schmidt_Dead_End.jpg )
Video:
https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8264051-winner-2018-columbia-threadneedle/
