Leo Fitzmaurice with his nominator Kate Farrell

Leo Fitzmaurice the winner of the fifth annual Northern Art Prize. Judge Simon Wallis presented Fitzmaurice with a cheque for £16,500 at the prize-giving ceremony last night (19 January) at Leeds Art Gallery attended by over 500 people from the arts, business, public and voluntary sectors.  The remaining three short listed artists; Liadin Cooke, James Hugonin and Richard Rigg each walked away with £1,500.

In choosing Fitzmaurice as the winner, the judges commented:  “The strength of this year’s exhibition and the Prize are testament to the generosity and commitment of all the artists. However, Leo’s work for the Northern Art Prize exhibition in particular is ambitious, risky and compelling.  Drawing upon historic resources and current mobile phone technology, he provides a fresh perspective on the traditional subject of landscape, whilst at the same time pushing the boundaries of his own practice.”

The Northern Art Prize exhibition continues at Leeds Art Gallery until 19 February 2012, showing the work of all four shortlisted artists: Liadin Cooke, Leo Fitzmaurice, James Hugonin and Richard Rigg.

Conor and Ian could you tell us about your involvement in the Northern Art Prize?

Ian Conor and I became involved with the prize in 2010, when we were approached through the Northern Film School in Leeds (where we had just graduated from) to participate in the making of a film about the artists in the prize, as part of an Alumni Production Scheme at the school. Working on this with the people at the Northern Art Prize was a really interesting and pleasant experience the first time round, so when we were asked to make the film again this year, I was really pleased to be involved.

What has struck you about visiting the artists in their studios?

Conor: Not to be too cheesy about it but the first thing that strikes you is how warm and welcoming the artists are. Their studios are very intimate personal spaces, full with things that are very precious them, and they let us have free rein in there.

In many ways their spaces are an extension of the artists, we film a lot of their spaces, wide shots, and small details, they can be very revealing. I say this in horror looking at my desk.

Ian: It has been interesting to me, to see the dedication and focus that the artists have towards their work. In a way, I think the film performs the same function for me as it hopefully does for the viewers of the film in the gallery and wherever the film is eventually shown. It offers a bit of a look at how the artists develop these ideas, and makes you feel more that you can see why somebody would want to dedicate so much of their time to their work. I see filmmaking itself as an endeavour that requires quite a lot of time and dedication to achieve anything that you are happy with, so I feel I can relate to this process a little.

What experience did you have of contemporary art before making the film?

Conor: I’m not an expert, I’ve never studied art. But I have an interest in art and would say I’m familiar with most ‘popular’ contemporary artists, the stuff you find on book shop shelves or the south bank show/culture show/imagine etc. I like those programmes, and would love to film them. And I have learnt a lot from working on the Northern Art Prize, and I have discovered artists I now like a lot through the long and short lists.

Ian: I have a number of friends who are connected with different parts of the contemporary arts scene in Leeds and elsewhere. However, I have always been quite specific to film with my interests, and filmmaking is a job that expands to fill every bit of time that you let it, so this was like an opportunity to spend time looking at a small section of contemporary art that I am pretty sure that I wouldn’t have found the time to do. In that way, it was a really nice opportunity to find out a bit more about it.

What do your own work spaces look like? Pictures would be great?

Ian: Rather oddly, my work-spaces move around an awful lot as a freelance filmmaker. I do a lot of editing work, and at the moment everything is set up in a house in Ben Rhydding. I don’t have any pictures of this or any of my other workspaces that I have used. I work from home some of the time, and kind of like moving from room to room periodically to stave off the cabin fever that comes from spending endless hours in a dark room, editing at a computer. As much as filmmaking can be a social activity sometimes, there is often another solitary part to this, especially if you work as a film and video editor. In each of these spaces though, I start off with something approaching a clean desk, and as the end of the project gets close, things become more chaotic until things are done.

Conor: It’s a desk, I do a lot of my work there and therefore spend most of my time there. It looks like a bit of a mess, but it is where I keep pretty much everything that I own and love.

Do you perceive any commonalities amongst the artists in terms of their work and what it says about
the times we live in?

Conor: One thing we focused on in the film this year was the artists making their work. In the film you see each of them working on something, so that is something they all have in common. My God, I have no idea what that says about the times we live in. As with all time periods is probably much more exciting than it seems at the time.

Ian: I think that each of them has different concerns, and things that come first in their process of working. With the artists in the prize, you can see a willingness to spend time considering their reactions to things. Also, they are reacting to something in the world emotionally, and I think trying to allow viewers of their work to do the same. Maybe this is something common to many artists though.

What ties you to the North?

Ian: I have always lived in Leeds, and I also studied at the Northern Film School in Leeds, so everything I have done and all my friends have been based here. As I am considering studying an MA at some point soon, and it may be that I move for that but I have no reason to think that I won’t end up back here at some point, wherever I end up studying for that. I have travelled a bit for work in the last year or two, and that leaves me feeling like I need to spend some time living somewhere else at some point. Maybe I’ll move to a different country, if I can work that out at some point.

Conor: I don’t think I am tied to the North, I don’t feel Northern. But I was born in Preston and went to Uni in Leeds and now live in Huddersfield. I like the North, it has a lot going for it, I like a lot of music that has come from the North West.

What has been the biggest challenge in making the film?

Ian: The biggest challenge, for me at least, was trying to find a way of shooting each of the artists that differentiated them a little from each other. I hope that this has worked at least a little. Another of the main challenges was trying to make a film that gave a reasonable impression of the artists’ work, in what is a very short film. Again, I hope that this is how the film comes across. As we made it with a small crew of 2/3 people from pre-production until its completion, you get the challenge of being involved in every part of it too. This is very satisfying in one way, but obviously means you deal with all the issues making a short film yourself. All in all though, the process was a pleasant and rewarding one, and I look forward to seeing the work in the gallery when it opens.

Conor: I think time is always a challenge, there never seems to be enough time, no matter how long you’ve got. Its very hard to make a film, never mind a good one, so that’s always a challenge.

Northern Art Prize 2011 Film from Northern Art Prize on Vimeo.

Last night we hosted the private view for the fifth Northern Art Prize exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery and what a turn out we enjoyed! Well over 600 guests joined us to celebrate the show. If you were there can you spot yourself in the crowd?

Old friends?

All photos by David Lindsay

Here’s a sneak preview of the artists’ and work featured in this years’ prize. The full Northern Art Prize film will be released soon but in the meantime enjoy the trailer!

We’ll be talking to the filmmakers Ian Pinder and Conor O’Grady soon too to find out about their experience of making the film and what it was like visiting the artists in their studios.

The Damien Hirst Exhibition is being packed away this week. Soon to be replaced by the Northern Art Prize exhibition.

Cut-Out Men -Early work from the 1980s in the studio/store

We caught up with 2010 shortlisted artist and people’s choice the refreshingly candid Lubaina Himid.

What motivated you to accept the nomination to be included in the long list?

The fact that I had accepted the year before and had been gutted not to have made the short list was actually a strong motivation not to accept, but ever up for risk and possible misery and after some swearing at the e mail on the screen it seemed idiotic to refuse.

I totally believe in the value of showcasing of art made by artists living outside London and as I love living and working in the North I wanted to be part of the NAP (Northern Art Prize) project.

Are there downsides to being a nominated artist?

While still on the long list, having been too vocal about it the year before I kept well quiet the 2nd time around and got on with life, more or less forgot about it so that I lost track of the dates, then the announcement of the short list was a fabulous surprise.

As a short-listed artist with a pretty heavy schedule filled with making, teaching, leading research and curating, it was a challenge to fit the NAP obligations of filming, extra admin, gallery talks and the installation itself into my schedule. However everything was really efficiently supported by NAP and by throwing a lot of my own money at it (up front recouped out of the shortlisted prize winnings) everything worked out well. It’s also exhausting and quite stressful to keep realising every now and then that you are in a competition, and it did occupy my thinking about my plans for the display of work itself, but overall the pleasure of being in another group exhibition in Leeds Art Gallery after 20 years helped to diminish my concerns  a little.

What have you been doing since we last saw you?

In January 2011 I opened my exhibition Tailor Striker Singer Dandy. The show ran from then until April 2011 at Platt Hall Museum of Costume in Manchester.

One of the paintings in my studio at home made for Platt Hall Manchester in January . I still have this one

It was new work ; 5 large framed paintings on paper of African men from across the continent, in clothes hybridised from across cultures and centuries. In addition, to accompany the display, Susan Walsh made a show-reel of images from my sketchbooks and studio with a sound track of Beyonce singing “If I was a Boy”. Manchester Galleries then acquired two of the paintings so I was able to buy the shoes and handbags, prints and drawings, holidays and light fittings I would have bought with my Northern Art Prize prize money -had I won.

In April 2011 I made new work in collaboration with my good friend and artist Susan Walsh for the Project Space Leeds show Hunter Gatherer. The work was called Rub a Tub Senior it was a monument to women and washing. We worked with Artemis to gather a series of wash tubs, wash boards and dollies then added small stone columns and tiny fabric sculptures and a sprinkling of model people. This was a delightful experience in terms of the pleasure of collaboration, the excellence of the venue and the return to Leeds (a city I am slightly in love with)

Installation in progress of Thin Black Line(s) at Tate Britain- on until March 2012

In August 2011 Thin Black Line(s) opened at Tate Britain. I had been working on it since around April 2010. It is a display devised by me and curator Paul Goodwin with the support of Susan Walsh. It’s a group show featuring work from the 1980s by Sonia Boyce, Veronica Ryan, Sutapa Biswas, Ingrid Pollard , myself, Maud Sulter and Claudette Johnson. We are also showing in the space two cases of archive materials from the fabulous Making Histories Collection at uclan as well as hundreds of images on a show-reel by black women artists who exhibited in the show I made in the 80s such as 5 Black Women at the Africa Centre, The Thin Black Line and Black Women Time Now. It’s also possible if you stay in the gallery space for long enough, to catch a glimpse of me on screen looking fab and 30. It’s all in a beautiful room, gallery 5, on the main floor in amongst the Tate collection and is on until March 2012.

And alongside exhibition there’s my role at Uclan as Professor of Contemporary Art at Uclan, where I’m dedicated to teaching the MA Fine Art course, leading the Art & Design staff research team and working with artists across the region.

Who or what is inspiring you right now?
At the moment working in collaboration with Susan Walsh is pretty important, we have made several short films together about museum collections since 2005 and for the Prestival event in 2007 we made a mad film called Earth Life Seen from the Moon but most recently the work for Hunter Gatherer at Project Space Leeds revealed how well we can push each other to think differently both visually and strategically to reach an even wider audience.
It has to be said that I still cannot get enough of looking at East African Textile designs, English 18th century caricature, European typography manuals and episodes of Ironside.

A corner of my office

Where do you go to work?
I work in my studio at home in a large room overlooking my front garden and across the road from a park in which there are several pavilions and a river. I also work in a studio/store near Preston prison in which I keep paintings archive materials, drawings, prints, ceramics and large installations. I remake and repair work if necessary there and use this space to show pieces from as far back as 1981 to visiting curators. Much of the time I work in an office in a little house (The Centre for Contemporary Art) opposite the University library at uclan. This house also hosts the black art archive and a small gallery/display space. It is very cool and very hot, metaphorically speaking.

What does the current list tell you about contemporary art in the North?

It is vibrant, cool, energetic and absolutely indistinguishable from art made anywhere else. Very often it is better because it cannot be complacent or lazy. I think this is good. What it also tells me is that the curators working in the region are inextricably linked to the national and international scene. They have lived and worked in other cities and galleries, have made their connections elsewhere but are committed to the North. In addition they are totally aware of the need to make the region work culturally for themselves, for artists and for audiences and funders.  All the artists are really good for the reputation of the Northern Art Prize  they all fit perfectly into debates and discussions about contemporary practice internationally. There is an artist with a long and well established international reputation; well collected, well known, as well as an artist just emerging strongly who will bring in a young artist audience. There is an artist who has been long listed already several times clearly valued by curators, at least a couple who have exhibited in the city already in the best spaces. Most are well linked to curators who have had influence internationally. The shortlist shows that the people shaping and leading contemporary art in the North know what they are doing.

Question to the other short listed artists from 2010

Why don’t we go out to dinner together sometime soon in Leeds?

So over to Alec Finlay, Haroon Mirza and David Jacques, let’s see if they are up for a reunion dinner!

The judges – Caroline Douglas, Head of the Arts Council Collection; Tim Marlow, Writer, Broadcaster, Art Historian and Director of Exhibitions at White Cube; Simon Starling, Turner Prize winning artist; Simon Wallis, Director at The Hepworth Wakefield and chair Sarah Brown, Curator of Exhibitions at Leeds Art Gallery commented:

“It is an important feature of the Northern Art Prize that there is no age limit on the artists nominated, and the generational span of this year’s shortlisted artists was very broad.  The short-listing process was an important reminder to us that artists produce some of their most interesting work at very different points in their careers and we were impressed to see that the North is a strong site of artistic production.”

Next we begin the enjoyable job of visiting the artists in their studios, with curator Sarah Brown starting conversations about what works will be shown in the exhibition.

The winner, to be announced on 19 January 2012 at Leeds Art Gallery, will receive a cheque for £16,500 while the remaining three artists on the short list each will receive £1,500.

Haroon Mirza Recipient of the Silver Lion for a promising young artist at the ILLUMInations Exhibition Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti Courtesy: la Biennale di Venezi

Guest blog post by Lucy Bannister

The Venice Biennale is the biggest contemporary art show on earth. It’s the place to see and be seen if you are connected to contemporary art; the great and the good of the art world, the wannabes, has beens and the very very rich (and famous) all descend on the Italian lagoon island for the opening week in June.

The best of international art is on display, and quite often the worst too. This year was no exception with some fantastic and some utterly dreadful work on show.

For me it was my first time to the opening gala of prosecco and canapés. And I had a specific mission when looking around the miles of art exhibitions, to find the work of a Yorkshire based artist, Haroon Mirza.

I wrote about Haroon’s talk for the Northern Art Prize in January this year. Since winning the prize he has gone on to have a highly acclaimed solo show at the Lisson Gallery in London and was selected to be in the ‘Illuminations’ exhibition curated by Bice Curiger at the 54th Venice Biennale.

Haroon had two works in the show, one in the Giardini (the large garden site full of permanent national pavilions and a large exhibition hall) and another in the Arsenale (a vast sprawling ex-military factory).

Haroon Mirza The national apavilion of then and now, 2011. Installation (3 sided triangle structure, each side length 809) - Anechoic chamber, LED’s amp, speakers, electronic circuit. Installation view: ILLUMInations, 54. Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte - la Biennale di Venezia Photo: Francesco Galli Courtesy: la Biennale di Venezia

The ‘The National Apavilion of Then and Now’ in the Arsenale (an anechoic chamber with a circle of light that grew brighter as the drone got louder, only to then plunge the viewer into silent darkness) seemed polished but a bit flat compared to his other work. He has become known for art that is created with analogue technology, a deft touch and a clever sonic sensibility. This piece, whilst instantly recognisable as his, used clean, brand-new materials which lacked a layer of narrative and a sense of the artists’ hand.

But then I did find it hard to fully appreciate the work (which should leave an imprint of the light on your eyes when the chamber plunges into darkness) because of the incessant flash bulbs from visitors who were photographing everything and looking at nothing.

Haroon Mirza Sick, 2011. Dimensions variable. LED’s amp, speakers, speaker cable, LCD monitor, strobe, electronic circuits, gold nugget. Installation view: ILLUMInations, 54. Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte - la Biennale di Venezia Photo: Francesco Galli Courtesy: la Biennale di Venezia

For me Haroon’s work in the Giardini, ‘Sick’ (2011), worked very well; nestled into a structure created by artist Monika Sosnowska, the sonic and visual pieces of this installation created a subtle tension, drawing attention through each element of the work until it created a satisfying whole.

The piece formally connects the objects through the rhythm of the sound, drawing out the strained relationships between the seemingly disparate parts that make up the work: a nugget of fools gold bounces on a speaker whilst images of crowds flicker across a precariously placed sheet of glass beneath a rickety construction of 1990s black MDF.

The centre piece exhibition at Venice is a big deal, it is an incredible accolade for a young artist’s CV. But the fact that Haroon also went on to win the Silver Lion – the award for most promising young artist – is surely no fools gold for his career.

In the last few months, since winning the Northern Art Prize, this Sheffield based artist’s career has gone stellar! It certainly goes to show that being based in Yorkshire is no bad thing for an aspiring artist.