London Students Prize 2021

A drawing based on a photograph of an elderly woman from Nepal. My main focus was to bring out as much detail in the skin as possible to best showcase the age of the individual. This was also my first time doing photorealism.

As we meander through our lives we sometimes forget the impressions we leave on the world. This photograph explores the intertwined impressions we all create without knowing. A wake of subconscious choices for others to pass through, maybe changing their world forever.

Photograph of a Modroc body cast and pomegranates: The inspiration for this piece came from the fusion of questions and challenges I faced around my health with Frida Kahlo’s work, specifically her plaster corsets. With it I wanted to inspire reflection on how female fertility is viewed within our society.

The medium used in this artwork is acrylic on wood and the theme of my work was to distil the natural essence of city life and buildings to simplistic art forms. I wanted to capture the spirit of the city and express them onto a wooden canvas. The painting is primarily inspired by the works of Piet Mondrian and his notion of simplifying natural elements such as trees into pure forms such as squares and other shapes.

Photography of the different forms found from ink

This painting was inspired by the Artist Jusepe de Ribera and his painting of the penitent Saint Peter. The Artist used oil paints to replicate the style of the “old masters”. Using techniques like under painting and impasto. The Artist wanted used lighting effects to achieve an impression of depth.

Inspired by the work of Francesca Woodman, Luisa has made a disturbing and exhilarating digital work which also has a strong performative aspect.

This painting is meant to overwhelm the viewer, show them how a delicate young person can be engulfed by themselves and the harsh reality of not quite knowing who they are.

A series of personal paintings exploring the role the pandemic has played in everybody’s lives and to represent fragmentation as memory loss, breaking apart a life, a love. They were based on the artist’s deceased grandfather and his time-weathered hands and elegant fingers; his old and wise face, ravaged with age and most startlingly, memory fragmenting and fading into dementia, hollowing him out. Finally, the space he left behind, most obvious and painful, beside her grandmother on the bed they shared, it’s unforgiving pink bed-spread shaping the space like a lost landscape.

Ella had been exploring drapery and was also inspired by the compositions of Paula Rego. She then made a bold etching from a dramatic photoshoot.

India studies History of Art and Art and she wanted to create an engaging self-portrait with reference to an iconic artwork.

Selina had taken photos of a figure inside surrounded by plants. She had been considering how to subvert expectations of what could be in a convention still life and portraiture project. The striking and surreal composition was also inspired by Paula Rego and Gregory Crewdson.

Lady of Fruit is an ode to the traditional appreciation of organic materials, in this case fruit, and also a bittersweet acknowledgement of their waning symbolism in this increasingly globalised era, where they can be acquired without difficulty or expense. It combines the 17th century and the 21st, the latter represented through the seated lady who surveys the rotting still life before her with a doleful gaze.

This past year was a difficult one, but it was also the year when I began to properly explore art. These two pieces were created from the culmination of dreams, experiences, songs, ideas, etc, that accompanied me in this time, as well as the exploration of various new mediums and techniques. Taking elements of all these things, I incorporated them into the composition, using quite a vibrant colour palette as well as using different mediums, such as gouache, watercolour, gold, etc, to create the final piece.

My final piece from my recent project focusing on the aims of the surrealist movement. With this particular painting I was investigating the techniques of Max Ernst – removing conscious intention from art, to liberate it from the brushstroke. After collages of created spaces from my memory, thinking about the idea of the mental landscape, I decided to merge the ideas together to take it forward.

In response to Liam Wong, Monty had been investigating the effects of light pollution in his neighbourhood and turned a seemingly mundane image into an electric cyberpunk vision also inspired by Blade Runner.

Inspired by Olafur Eliasson ‘Speed of Your Attention’ made up of perfect lenses in a reflection of an occurrence in nature, I disrupted the perfection of his environmental activism work to reflect the stark reality of natures present & future by contaminating the lenses. The use of lens is in reference to the selective attention of society looking through the glazed ‘lens’ to view the destruction of our world, even though we are a part of it inherently dooming our personal future. Climate activist work usually displays sights of outstanding natural beaty to promote what we should be trying to save. I believe this mode of delivery ineffective as the art is too pretty to make a statement, and should be shifted to something more negative on what is happening now and what will happen. Psychologically the human brain has a higher change of processing information into the long-term memory if it is negative which is perfect for the now problem of climate. Resonating darker images with the audience hopefully will inspire more action and change.

This photo is a part of a series of double film photographs I have taken on the tube and in stations. What I particularly love about this image is how without knowing how the images would frame, I was still able to frame the man on both the escalators and the train. With this photo, I wanted to convey the feeling of being trapped in routine, just as the man is encased in the train.

Utamaduni translates to the word “culture” in my mother tongue, Swahili. This painting captures the essence of what it truly means to be Tanzanian. My mother, in a traditional fabric known as kitenge is stood in front of a vibrant background displaying the colours of the Tanzanian national flag (blue, green, yellow and black). As a second-generation citizen it can be easy to lose touch with your heritage and so reminding yourself of your motherland is essential in knowing who you are as an individual.

An architectural sculpture inspired by the work of Bodys Isek Kingelez. Part of a body of work by Georgios Pavlibeyi exploring fantasy.