| The winner of The Moth Art Prize 2021
Blanca Amorós was born in Elche in Spain in 1990 and now lives in Vienna. She studied art in Munich, Vienna and Valencia, where she obtained the Facultad de Bellas Artes’ Award in 2013. She graduated from the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Munich in 2018. Her work has been exhibited in Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Taiwan. In 2015 she won the Nazarte Award in Valencia, and in 2019 she won the Fischer/Collegen Kunstpreis Special Prize in Stuttgart.
‘I consider the artists who have won The Moth Art Prize to date to be exceptional painters. It is a real honour to be part of this group and I am truly grateful.’ Blanca Amorós
Work by
Christy Burdock, Komachi Goto, Sally Roberts, Tess Glen, Sophie Herxheimer and
Uzma Sultan was also highly commended.
The
winner of The Moth Art Prize 2020
Craigie Harper was born in Aberdeen and studied painting at Gray’s School of Art and drawing at the Royal Drawing
School in London. He lives and works in a Camphill Community, which supports
young adults with learning disabilities, where, when he's not painting in his
studio, he organises and teaches art workshops for the residents.
‘Being selected for The Moth Art Prize was a real surprise.
I am particularly delighted to have my recent paintings featured in The Moth – a prestigious honour, given the standard of
work curated in the magazine.’ Craigie Harper
Work by Elisa Filomena, Brian Kielt, Sarah Leonard, Andrew Leventis,
Cathy Lomax, Thomas Macgregor, Colleen Quinn, Rhiannon Salisbury, Julia
Silvester and Michael Wann was also highly commended.
The winner of The Moth Art Prize 2019
Geraldine Swayne studied
Fine Art at Newcastle University and in 1990 won a Northern Arts Travel Award
to paint and make super-8 films about Voodoo in New Orleans. She then moved to
rural France, living as a portraitist and making a series of large outdoor
paintings. In 1992 she moved to the UK and became a pioneer special effects
designer in London, and later in Los Angeles. She has made numerous
experimental films, including ‘East End’ with Nick Cave, and for ten years was
a member of the artist-initiated band Faust.
She recently exhibited at the Fine Art Society and Turps in the UK, and
Aeroplastics in Brussels. Her work has appeared in group shows at the Saatchi
Gallery, the Jerwood and the Barbican in London.
‘I am very honoured to receive The Moth Art Prize. It feels pretty rare to be
acknowledged for what I can paint, rather than what statement I can write. The
Moth Art Prize is very much an artist’s art prize. I am
counting the days till I can unpack myself at The Moth Retreat and make some
new work in that beautiful part of the world.’ Geraldine Swayne
Work by Samantha Ellis Fox, Adam Hennessey, Brian Kielt, Jennifer McRae, Eve Pettitt & Emerson Schreiner was also highly commended.
The winner of The Moth Art Prize 2018
Gregory Mortenson teaches portrait drawing and painting at Grand Central Academy in New York. He grew up in Utah, and he credits his father and grandfather as being two of his earliest role models in art making. He attended Southern Virginia University on a wrestling scholarship, then after completing his degree in art returned home to study life drawing and painting. In 2006 he moved to New York to further his education in classical technique with Jacob Collins at the Grand Central Academy of Art. Mortenson travelled with his wife to Port au Prince ten months after the earthquake in 2010, to help build housing and, moved by what he calls ‘the beauty and triumph of the human spirit’, he set about making sketches of the children as they waited in hope for a new home and school. He returned in 2013 to teach art at an orphanage, and completed several more figurative studies, which featured in his 2015 solo exhibition Zion’s Children at Arcadia Contemporary in New York.
‘I’m over the moon about winning The Moth Art Prize. The Moth has always been brilliantly curated, with exquisite artwork and thoughtful writing throughout. And a couple of weeks in the countryside is exactly what my artist soul needs.’ Gregory Mortenson
Work by Diarmuid Delargy, Tazia Fawley, Ellen Heck, Hollis Heichmer, Robert C. Jackson, Alex Kanevsky, Michelle Kettle, Raha Khademi Langroudi, Eilish McCann and Alex Russell Flint was also highly commended.
The winner of The Moth Art Prize 2017
Bradley Wood is a figurative painter born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and he studied art and design at Art Center in Montreux, Switzerland and new media and installation at CalArts in Valencia, California. He has had solo exhibitions and was a Pulse Prize nominee at Pulse Art Fairs in New York City and Miami. In 2016, Bradley had his second solo show with Angell Gallery, Toronto, and his work featured in the acclaimed ‘Human Condition’ exhibition in an abandoned hospital in Los Angeles. Solo presentations at VOLTA, New York and Art Central, Hong Kong followed in 2017. Bradley currently lives and works just outside New York City.
‘I am so grateful to the folks at The Moth for awarding me this prize,’ says Wood. ‘I think getting out of New York for a bit will be healthy. My exhibition schedule has been really hectic over the past few years so I’m definitely looking forward to the solitude. It will be an amazing and much-needed time to regroup, reflect on my work and tinker with some new ideas. I’ve actually always been quite affected by my environment, probably more than I realize. So it’ll be really interesting to absorb the area and see how it affects my work there.’ Bradley Wood
Work by Michael Wann was also highly commended.
The winner of The Moth Art Prize 2016
David Piddock was born in the Midlands in the UK, studied Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools in the mid eighties and has been in London ever since. Now in mid-career, his work is widely collected and in public collections including the Museum of London. He is represented by Adam Gallery and has just completed an exhibition at the Muse Gallery. ‘A lot of credit should go to The Moth, always wonderfully idiosyncratic and beautifully designed, for launching the prize and responding to figurative painting, largely ignored by the contemporary art scene,’ says Piddock. ‘We have nothing like it in the UK.’ David Piddock
Work by Carrie Marill and Sarah Leonard was also highly commended. |
