The Moth Art Prize

‘The Moth Art Prize is something special. It means the world to me to have the stories I tell in my paintings recognised in this way. I am so delighted to be in the company of such amazing previous winners, writers and artists. Thank you The Moth for getting the nuances and keeping it real.’ Sheila Rennick

Born in 1983 in Galway, Sheila Rennick has degrees in Fine Art Painting from The National College of Art and Design, Dublin and Byam Shaw School of Art London. In 2007 she was one of 30 selected for The Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize. Sheila was awarded runner up in The Marmite Painting Prize 2016. She was recently selected for Wells Contemporary in the UK. In January 2023 she will have a solo exhibition at The London Art Fair with Kevin Kavanagh Gallery Dublin. Sheila’s work appears in many collections, including The Office of Public Works, Dublin; The Arts Council Ireland; Trinity College Dublin; and Country Bank, New York as well as many private collections. Sheila lives and works in London.

Rennick will receive €1,000 and a week at Circle of Misse in France. Her paintings appear on the cover and in the pages of the winter issue of The Moth, available to purchase here.

WORK BY THE FOLLOWING WAS ALSO COMMENDED

HOSNA DARVISHI

Hosna Darvishi was born in Tehran, Iran (1983), growing up in a multicultural atmosphere where music and the arts were held in great esteem. She completed a BA in Painting and an MA in Graphic Design in Tehran. She now lives in Vienna, where she studied painting with Johanna Kandl at the University of Applied Arts and graduated in 2017 with a second MA. Darvishi has held solo exhibitions in Tehran and Vienna and has taken part in several international group shows.

FELICITY GILL

Felicity Gill is a figurative artist and portrait painter working mainly in oils. She worked as a Storyboard Artist in a busy London Art Studio and the Advertising Agency AMVBBDO before moving to Kent to set up her painting studio and raise her three sons. Felicity teaches Portrait Painting at West Dean College and has been commissioned to paint portraits of, among others, Joan Bakewell, Boris Johnson and Mark Rylance.

STEVEN LABADESSA

Steven Labadessa, a native New Yorker, whose work exacts a preference for hyperbole and psychological texture within the twisted confines of self-portraiture. The roots and tone of his work are supported by many pillars in the myriad expanse of the Arts including the dark avant-gardism of Tatsumi Hijikata’s Butoh, the choreography of Pina Bausch, the performance, video and installation artist, Vito Acconci, the Romantics Poets (Lord Byron & Percy Shelley, in particular) and extending back to the Northern Renaissance (Hans Memling & Jan Van Eyck, notably). Presently lives, teaches and maintains an active studio practice in Providence, Rhode Island.