Aesthetica Art Prize: Photographic & Digital Art Showcase

As a celebration of excellence in art from across the world, the Aesthetica Art Prize welcomes entries from artists working in all mediums. Artists may submit their work into any one of the four categories; Photographic & Digital Art, Three Dimensional Design & Sculpture, Painting & Drawing and Video, Installation & Performance.

The prize offers a great opportunity for artists to showcase their work and further their involvement in the international art world. With a prize package including £1000 cash, a group exhibition in York hosted by Aesthetica, editorial coverage in the magazine and publication in the Creative Works Annual, why not submit your work into the competition and see where it takes you?

Previous finalists include Bernat Millet, also shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and Julia Vogl, who won the Catlin Art Prize, was shortlisted for New Sensations: Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4’s Prize and has exhibited at Zabludowicz Collection.

Looking for some inspiration? We have compiled a selection of images from last year’s finalists above. This selection is taken from the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual 2012, available to purchase here.

Jamie Garbutt: Pie, Mash and Mod
Jamie Garbutt is a photographer interested in subcultures, people and the world around him. He describes his day-to-day life as seeing the world in stills. Pie, Mash and Mod is primarily about trying to hold onto something that is no longer there. These two relics of 1960s London collide in the present day; subtle clues to this are in the photograph for the viewer to find: the modern day mug and the Pepsi sign, a logo not used until the 1970s, little clues that point to the deception. The diner is a young man, so he missed out on this golden era, therefore causing him to frequent places time forgot. It is this reluctance to move with the times that draws the two together. Since being a finalist, Garbutt has won various awards for his work and has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the UK.

Ross Calia: The Office
Australian photographer and composer Ross Calia works across both the visual and sonic domains through his practice. His works explores the human condition, both in subject and context. The Office, through the beautiful disorder of the blinds and cubicles to the workers’ daydream stares, is ultimately an optimistic expression of the human spirit; that despite the apparent confines of buildings and suits, our thoughts remain free and unbound. Calia’s talent has been recognised by the National Portrait Photography Prize, the BSG National Photography Prize and the Documentary strand of the Kodak Salon.

EJ Major: Contact Sheet III from the series Shoulder to Shoulder
EJ Major’s work uses both digital and analogue technologies to create photographic constructs that are and are not what they seem. This often involves an element of performance that challenges the veracity of the photographic portrait finding an authenticity in a notion of self-portraiture that involves acting. Major is specifically interested in protest, looking to the Suffragette movement as a historical context for the performance and investigation of protest today. EJ Major’s career has been astounding; she won the Salon Photo Prize in 2011, exhibited at the Helsinki Photography Triennial, had a solo show at Matt Roberts Gallery in 2011 and published a volume of her own work Love Is… in 2011.

Roger Hopgood: Drawing Room with Pheasant
Roger Hopgood is a British artist who uses digital assemblage to reconfigure landscapes and interiors. At the core of Hopgood’s work is a concern with the relationship between place and identity. This image is taken from the series And Then There Were None in which the country house is presented as the site of a “whodunnit” drama. Signs of hierarchy and inequities of wealth and power help to create an atmosphere of misdemeanour and denial, but an additional tension is introduced through the contrast between interior and exterior space. Hopgood’s work has been exhibited internationally and in prestigious locations such as the Ecole des Beaux Arts (Annecy), Turner Contemporary (Margate), Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge) and the Royal West of England Academy (Bristol).

Patrick Hogan: There was a man, beside a wood, he was digging holes
Patrick Hogan is an Irish photographic artist. This image is part of a short picture sequence from 2010 called Solitary, Half Mad. It is a fictional story about a man who lives in a wood and uses photographs taken over a six month period, mostly around the area in rural Ireland where the artist was based. The series combines real images of rooms where people lived and died on their own along with other carefully planned pictures. The resulting body of work borders realism and fiction and presents a psychological story of poverty often at odds with the literary and romantic ideals regarding solitude. Since appearing in the Creative Works Annual, Hogan’s work has been published in a number of international photography magazines. Hogan will be exhibiting in Ireland and abroad in 2012.

Feeling inspired? The Aesthetica Art Prize is open for entries until the 31st August this year. For more information and to submit: www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize