Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award 2021
In collaboration with Saatchi Gallery
The Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award 2021, in collaboration with Saatchi Gallery and UK New Artists, provides a significant platform for artists within the first 10 years of their practice. Presenting dynamic artworks from the ten finalists, and awarding £10,000 to the winner and £5,000 to the runner up.
In 2021, we posed the question, ‘Where do we go from here? Is there to be a ‘new-normal’?’
Within this brief, judges sought artists and works that explored the impact and aftermath of what has been a globally turbulent and trialling time – from our relationship to the things we once held close, right through to the pressure and barriers that the pandemic directly presented to our lives.
2021 saw a record breaking 963 submissions, from which the finalists were selected:
Aimee Melaugh | Anne von Freyburg | Catriona Robertson | Jarvis Brookfield | Jukka Virkkunen | Lucy Gregory | Maayan Sophia Weisstub | Molly Kent | Sam Tahmassebi | Wesley George
The exhibition held moments of masquerade, clowning, breath and beauty - in the real, the caricature and the psychedelic. It offered us the opportunity to look anew, to navigate things up close, to weave under and through, and at times play a hand in its kineticism. It is a container of slipperiness, whereby we are invited to hold such slipperiness with care and curiosity as we move forwards and imagine a world.
The finalists exhibition at Saatchi Gallery was curated by Garth Gratrix and was on show from 04 - 07 November 2021, and then in UKNA’s virtual gallery space, The Viewing Room from Monday 8 November - Friday 10 December 2021.
The Viewing Room gallery was designed and built by Ronan Somerville. Ronan is a multidisciplinary designer and Alumni of UKNA, and Goldsmiths, University of London. His work blends the digital and the analogue, with a strong focus on digital surrealism and interaction design. Recent projects of his have explored artificial intelligence, 3D animation, creative coding, audio-reactive installation, and more.
The winners of the 2021 awards were:
Anne von Freyburg (first prize)
Catriona Robertson (second prize)
Jarvis Brookfield (public choice award)
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Image: Linnet Rubaya at the 2019 Award. Photo by Reece Straw.
Read about the 2021 winners
Image: Toby Fowlston (CEO Robert Walters Group) and Anne von Freyburg. Photo by Reece Straw.