Amelia Seren Roberts wins the Surface Gallery X UKYA City Takeover prize.
Photograph by Chris Hallam
Photograph by Reece Straw
UK Young Artists and Surface Gallery are delighted to announce that Amelia Seren Roberts is the recipient of the Surface Gallery X UKYA City Takeover prize. Amelia will receive a one week solo exhibition at Surface in 2020.
Jez Kirby, Exhibitions Coordinator for Surface Gallery said,
"It was such a tough job deciding the prize winner. The standard of work for the UK Young Artist Takeover at Surface Gallery, both in terms of the range of skills on display and the creative use those skills were put to, was incredibly high. We had an extremely difficult time coming up with a shortlist and an even harder time deciding who should receive the prize. There was much deliberation and not a little procrastination on part of the judges. However, we were continually drawn back to Amelia's textile work, and for me, this is the work that lives most strongly in my memory of the exhibition.”
Photograph by Reece Straw
Born in South Wales, Amelia Seren Roberts is an artist, writer and educator currently based in Nottingham.
Following graduation from Loughborough University [2015] and Cardiff School of Art and Design [2016], Amelia works primarily across textiles and installation, recent works involve the application of traditional Welsh quilting techniques to the representation of Welsh mythic heritage and popular cultural imagery. Amelia is currently working to establish links between the re-presentation of traditional Welsh folklore in Lloyd Alexander’s ‘The Chronicles of Prydain’, and subsequently Disney’s ‘The Black Cauldron’, with the dissemination and diminution of traditional Welsh cultural narratives in contemporary Anglo/Western popular culture.
Amelia has developed her practice alongside the ExperiMentor programme at New Art Exchange and is currently Backlit’s Art Writer in Residence and co-founder of nott\s\poke regional art review blog. As a founding member of KÜHLE WAMPE collective, Amelia has recently shared work alongside Backlit Gallery at Tate Exchange, London as well as working towards a solo exhibition at CheapCheap, an independent artist-led exhibition and testing space located at Lombard Method, Birmingham.
On winning the prize, Amelia said,
“Having initially moved to the city after experiencing the wealth and diversity of its contemporary arts provision and community, it's hugely encouraging that UKYA chose Nottingham to host its 2019 City Takeover. The Surface Gallery Prize is just one example of the legacy of this hugely ambitious, international Festival and I'm grateful for both the recognition of my practice and a chance to continue my engagement with Surface Gallery as one of the longest-running artist-led spaces in the city"
UKYA is delighted to be able to support such a rising talent and we look forward to seeing this project develop and will share news of the exhibition as it comes.
UKYA City Takeover took place 7-13 February 2019 across Nottingham. 250 artists from across the UK, Europe, Northern Africa, China and Korea presented their work, from visual arts to performance; poetry to film; digital arts to music at cultural spaces and unusual places across the city.