The artists were selected from over 500 applications by an independent panel comprising: Yinka Ilori, artist and designer; Junko Mori, artist maker in metal; Dame Magdalene Odundo, potter; Christine Rew, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Manager; and Harriet Cooper, Head of Visual Arts at Jerwood Arts.
The award, now in its eighth edition, recognises and promotes the significance of making practice and process within contemporary visual arts. It gives exceptional artists and makers the opportunity to develop their creative ideas independently, enabling them to experiment, learn and take risks and produce ambitious new works at a pivotal moment in their careers. In recognition of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, for this edition the awardees receive an increased award of £10,000 each plus curatorial and production support from the Jerwood Arts team to enable the making of new work over an extended twelve-month period.
Showcasing a broad range of material disciplines, including glass, textiles, digital modelling, silversmithing and sculptural installation, the five 2021 commissions provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting new work being produced by UK-based artists and makers.
- Anna Berry’s practice stretches across a variety of mediums, including immersive, site-specific and kinetic installations. She is currently based in Milton Keynes. With the award she will be experimenting with materials and techniques she has not yet explored to develop a new sculptural installation focused on organic, minimal, repetitive craft-based processes. annaberry.co.uk
- Cecilia Charlton is a London-based artist who has worked across a number of disciplines before arriving at her current focus – textiles and embroidery. For Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open she is creating a triptych of human-sized embroideries, which will reference the three Fates from Greek mythology and contemplate our current global situation using the metaphor of thread for life/time. ceciliacharlton.com
- Jahday Ford’s work combines traditional material application with technologically advanced production, such as digital modelling and mould making. He is currently based in Manchester. His commission will extend his current digital-glass investigations using computerised sculpting and mould shaping to create a collection of illuminated glass vessels that feature interactive lighting phenomena using LED sensors. jahdayfordglass.co.uk
- Based in Edinburgh, Vicky Higginson’s practice combines hot glass and cold-working, with glass forms handblown and worked into using cutting, carving and engraving techniques to create vessels and sculptural forms. Her new work will look at the meeting point of folklore and fairy tales with science fiction through crafted objects with an imagined purpose. Constructed from mirrored and neon-lit glass, carved and decorated with personal motifs, and assembled with vernacular materials, these are ‘folk-futurist’ devices to heal the mind. vickyhigginson.com
- Working in collaboration, Francisca Onumah and Helena Russell are silversmiths based at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, famous for its silversmithing tradition and rich industrial heritage. For Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open they are developing a new collaborative installation of tableware pieces made using traditional silversmithing tools that they have restored. Their research includes documenting stories of ‘Little Mesters’ and capturing the living histories of a once-thriving silverware industry in Sheffield, to inform their practice today. franciscaonumah.co.uk helenarussell.co.uk
Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open 2021 is a collaboration between Jerwood Arts and Art Fund in partnership with Aberdeen Art Gallery. The exhibition will launch at Jerwood Space in London from 28 January until 9 April 2022, touring to Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance in summer 2022 before travelling to Aberdeen Art Gallery in the North East of Scotland in autumn 2022.
Find out more:
Read the press release, here.
Read about Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open, here.
Sign up for out Exhibitions and Events monthly newsletter, here.
