Alice Joiner’s practice has evolved from a hidden personal record of emotional and physical experiences, exploring a sense of development and awakening.

Lichtenberg creates representations of the environment and architecture, exploring the complex relationship between humans and the landscape

Åsa Johannesson explores the notion of difference through a photographic practice, predominantly through the subject of non-conforming gender.

Interested in the power of the composition and the use of cinematic narrative, BOY/GIRL’s work explores the meeting of two minds.

Featuring the image Ricky’s Girl, Chloe Hey is interested in themes of identity, female representation, self-objectification and consumerism.

*Main Prize Winner*
David Birkin’s work reflects on the way war is depicted. At its core is a concern for censorship and the edges of visibility, focusing on omissions.

A fascination with the sublimity of nature pervades Erik Hijweege’s work, expressing this in images of towering storm clouds over small cities.

G Roland Biermann’s preoccupation is to find a visual equivalent to the experiences of movement, mobility, change and transformation in society.

Travelling to Cuba, Gillian Hyland observes the ways in which the social and economic factors of a communist regime influence daily life.

Hania Farrell’s practice considers the innate capacity for relatability within humans and highlights commonalities, while questioning issues of identity.

Joachim Hildebrand’s photobook, Wild West, investigates the mythic nature of the region by looking closely at the built environment and urban structures.

The artist is interested in the modern condition and the agency of art to provide a space that encourages critical questions about identity and society.

Offering a close, almost confrontational view, Joseph O’Neill’s work endeavors to envelop the senses, inviting viewers to re-think images of the world.

Exploring Western cultural traditions, Karen Knorr’s critical yet playful dialogue in Love at First Sight, makes reference to the stories of Ovid.

Creating a world just next to our daily reality, in Kumi Oguro’s HESTER, the faces of the female models are often not visible.

Bringing an ambiguous duality of softness and hardness, The View Master simultaneously reveals both the child’s strength and vulnerability.

Fascinated by the beauty and complexity of plants and creatures, Lilli Waters’ underwater environments are reminiscent of still-life paintings.

Lottie Davies’ Quinn series, examines the personal histories, tales, myths and memories used to structure meaning in our lives.

The human condition, people’s identities, and the relationships they have with their environments are the main axis of imagery in Dvir’s work.

After All is a series of photorealistic computer-generated landscape images, examining the ‘elsewhere’ spaces, which the viewer longs for, but cannot reach.

*Shortlisted*
Van de Velde’s photographs aim to preserve memories; even when there is no one left to recall them. Memento Mori is story about the fragility of life.

Experimental photographer and multimedia artist Tacsum, taps into memory and makes abundant reference to context, time and place.

0-100 is an ongoing project of a hundred portraits of people aged from birth to 100 years, in which participants were asked personal questions.

Particularly interested in notions of biography and nostalgia, Vale examines the way that narratives are formed, told and re-presented.

*Shortlisted*
The series McWorkers captures Fast food industry employees who work day in and day out, whilst wearing conspicuous corporate uniforms.

Interested in the relationship between human behaviour and aesthetics, the artist explores the individual’s vulnerability to the power of the image.

Martin explores identity through staging and creating realities for fictional characters, which blurs the boundaries between fantasy and truth.

Largely informed by the Surrealists and the Freudian theory of “The Uncanny”, Kushwah strives to illustrate the complexities of the subconscious.

Aaron Robinson is interested in the interactions between the viewer and their environment, establishing a connection between the two.

In order to represent a universal portrayal of human existence, Alexandra Slava engages with personal experiences through self-portraiture.

Andy Young’s sculptural interpretations of natural forms transform transient beauty into permanent works of art that can transform any space.

Through abstract kinetic statues, pictures and installations, Antal Kelle ArtFormer reacts to current social issues through formal abstractions.

Elisa Artesero is interested in themes of transience and the nature of happiness, creating pieces that place text within different environments.

Emma McKeagney’s assemblages, arrangements and structures are interested in the relationship between artist and material.

By playing with the limits and the possibilities of clay as a medium, Eudald de Juana Gorriz challenges representations of the human form.

Flavio Senoner’s Line Reliefs_2017 makes use of black and white and light and dark, creating movement, plasticity and three-dimensionality.

Despair offers a conceptual approach to body casting. Formed of legs and arms only, it is simply human, transcending gender classification.

Searching for something constant and unchangeable, Broch explores the form and structure of wood in relation to the human mind.

Believing that the accidents of ‘human error’ have potential benefits for how we live, Kakuta explores the intangible gap between the object and the body.

Caldecott renders a distinct distance between the dual functions, using narratives of physical value to intercept and amplify visual systems.

Using the aesthetics of Asian languages, The Circle of Time is a metaphor for comparing the handover of Hong Kong to China, aiming to increase awareness.

Reacting to urban anthropology St James 1976-2017, studies the demolition of the centre in Edinburgh, built in the 1970s.

Gap/Re:Gap visualises the concept of time by overlaying lights, shadows, sounds and air. Driven by electricity, it questions the nature of chronology.

Inspired by the surrounding environment and individuals, Adva Karni’s painting is figurative, using a variety of techniques and surfaces.

By revealing the lives of “the Other”, Caroline Burraway sheds light on issues found on the streets and in the lived experiences of marginalised individuals.

Charlotte Hopkins Hall’s The Council of Nonsense Peering at Wasted Souls was painted in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster in London.

Day Bowman’s work represents journeys taken through cities, suburbs and motorways, exploring the forgotten corners of urban landscapes.

Masked by Shadows (II) raises the subject of identity, exploring the ways in which individuals consciously and subconsciously mask identities.

Frédéric Blaimont treats the canvas as a social stage where, as a director, the artist reflects everyday life, looking for what makes each individual unique.

Moving towards a small-scale exploration of macro ideas, Price plays with composite parts to form a mix of singular yet related forms.

Taking insight from the enthusiasts’ world of collecting, Ian Robinson’s paintings set out to subsume and reveal the qualities in objects acculumated.

Interested in the in-between spaces, between different mediums, Replicate an Effort deals with the blending of photography and painting.

Case for the Defence contemplates our civilisation’s potential for progress, juxtaposed alongside our capacity for destruction.

*Shortlisted*
Exploring relationships with technology, Davis poses questions about the digital epoch we inhabit and the status humans in society today.

The visual and metaphorical starting point for Sliwka’s paintings is the sudden electronic dissolution of an image on a TV or computer screen.

Phillips uses planar form and geometric abstraction as a visual language, creating both small-scale sculpture and embossed print.

Influenced by architecture, Cern works in a systematic and rational way in order to transform everyday objects back to their basic concepts.

Wecerka experiments with figurative, abstract and ornamental approaches, maintaining a keen interest in multidisciplinary methods.

From two-dimensional works to film and installation, Ailsa Yang explores themes of the language, cultural identity and sexualities of diasporas.

Anna Heinrich & Leon Palmer use projection, photography, light, illusion and interactivity to explore the processes behind a world of facades.

Drawn to individual stories and communities, documentary filmmaker, Bella Riza spends time around people, their environments and experiences.

A Navigation investigates journeys and perceptions of sexual identity, anxiety and desire, exploring the role and place of intimacy between women.

Embodying internal landscapes and tackling the subconsious sphere, the artist invents dream realities which are often linked to real contexts.

CJ Taylor’s images question the myth of photography as a static stage, allowing hyperreal fictions to play out their infinite possibilities.

Throughout her practice, Denise Iris aims to defamiliarise the contours of the world by blurring the boundaries between perception and imagination.

Domino Pyttel’s performance-installations deal with the interface between “human” and “animal”, brought to life through light, sound and video.

*Emerging Prize Winner*
Inspired by the visual power of cinema, Electra Lyhne-Gold stages herself in surreal, fictional narratives, inhabiting invented personas.

*Shortlisted*
Fabio Lattanzi Antinori’s practice encompasses sculpture, print, sound, poetry and interactive installations, and considers notions of belief and value.

From film and book to performance and print, Hilary Powell works with overlooked processes, materials, people and places in unexpected ways.

The installations Tapscott creates are temporary and site-determined, functioning as a visual conduit between the observer and the environment.

Jessie Brennan’s installation is a collaboration with the people who use and care for The Green Backyard, a “community-growing project”.

*Shortlisted*
Ocean Wave offers an alternative approach to real-time interaction with nature and a way to rethink traditional artistic creation.

Jonas Eltes employs computers as a tool to study the relationship between humans and the landscapes of the digital world.

*Shortlisted*
Hand-cut line by line, Kwon’s Babel Library is created from disposed editions of Encyclopedia Britannica as the pages drop to the ground.

Addressing notions of performance, physicality, intimacy and subjectivity, Julie Groves’ work negotiates the tension between the self and the Other. 

Luminous Birds animates a flock of origami-style birds suspended overhead. Synchronised lighting and music create the sensation of flight.

*Shortlisted*
In I Am One, a collection of quotes about uniqueness and individuality is heard over images of a densely built-up, highly populated urban area.

Concerned with the questions of where and how can we find wonder today, Laura Kuch asks what would a contemporary Wunderkammer look like?

*Shortlisted*
Developed from a series of earlier works, Web (Encore) was Woodward’s attempt to find a circularly-causal, self-regulating system.

*Shortlisted*
Laughter Project looks at the social and psychological effects of human emotions as the sound device captures and recreates the viewer’s laughter.

You Belong to Me examines Future Feminism and Queer aesthetics in relation to ecological sustainability, gender and sexuality.

Recording sounds from around the world to create musical works, Matthew Herbert captures activities that are familiar daily occurrences.

Interested in the opposition between randomness and the algorithmic, Song Of The Lake restructures physical movement into something we can hear.

Reflecting the minimalist Light and Space movement, Meagan Streader manipulates, reinterprets and extends upon the boundaries of spaces.

Sub Rosa projects the viewer into a vast, hypnotic state of flux in a world without gravity, where one weightless body glides through water.

Bernier’s frequencies (a / oscillation) is part of a body of work tracing links between basic principles of physics, visualisation and sound. 

*Shortlisted*
Noémi Varga’s film The Happiest Barrack, applies the tools of cinematic storytelling whilst considering life in Soviet Hungary.

In Posidònia, visitors find themselves submerged in a ceramic choreography, walking on the seabed where the boat’s anchors are resting.

Rhea Storr’s Junkanoo Talk is an examination of the colourful and sensual world of Junkanoo, a carnival of the Bahamas.

Ahmed’s work explores the formation of characters, cultural narratives and myths through performance, and enchantment in modern life.

Ashraf addresses socio-political concerns and issues of representation by documenting unseen aspects of herself through photography and film.

Sarah Choo Jing’s Art of the Rehearsal is an immersive three-channel video installation, depicting traditional dancers across various cultures.

Using video art, installation, painting and sculpture, Tuchner deals with global social issues such as consumerism and multiculturalism.

Throughout a collaborative project, Asemic Languages, So KANNO + yang02 have explored the possibilities of using a robot for drawing.

By reconstructing places with specific settings, Berta reflects psychological states, translating personal experiences into universal stories.

Exploring the essence of martial arts as a mental state, Xu’s Buddhist-influenced Kungfu encourages viewers to return to the idea of the inner self.

Wright works across film and other mediums to explore the difficult relationship between human vanity and its impact on the surrounding world.

Viktor Witkowski’s The Aleppo Room takes place in Berlin and focuses on a group of museum guides who have been displaced by war.

Experimenting with original creative processes and media, Yani B explores the body and its context in their interactive installation, Trans:plant.