Jerwood Makers Open 2012 artists announced

7 Dec 2011

Following an open call for entries, we are delighted to announce the five artists selected to make new works of craft for Jerwood Makers Open 2012.

Nao Matsunaga, James Rigler, William Shannon, Louis Thompson and Silvia Weidenbach will each receive a £7,500 commission to realise their proposals, which will then be exhibited as part of the JVA programme at Jerwood Space, London in July 2012 before touring within the UK. 

The five winners were selected from over 200 applications by an independent panel comprising Felicity Aylieff, ceramic artist, James Beighton, Curator at mima, Middlesbrough and Lauren Parker, Head of Contemporary Programmes at the V&A, London. 

They comment: 
"From a very strong field of applicants we feel that these five artists have an energy, a curiosity and a strong sense of inquiry that is vital to today’s practice. We were struck by how this diverse group was connected by a deep sensitivity to the ways in which material - glass, ceramic, enamel, plastics - can be stretched, manipulated, even subverted, to produce extraordinary work. They share an innate understanding of how the nature of their material underpins the ideas they wish to communicate.” 

Download the PRESS RELEASE.

Image: Nao Matsunaga, Big Animal or Everything is a Machine, 2011