We were pleased once again to be offered the opportunity to sponsor a prize in this years Nottingham Castle Open. It’s as always a privilege to be able to support our customers and clients in their endeavours, particularly those that reach out to a wider creative community. The Nottingham Castle Open has transformed itself in recent years through thoughtful curation and skilled judging, becoming a well respected ‘must see’ selection of the best in contemporary arts from across the region.
This does however make selecting a winner for the John E. Wright Prize increasingly difficult. This year we decided to change the nature of prize slightly – working with the technical team at John E Wright, with guidance from Castle staff, will provide advice and materials to create a unique print edition of the winners work. The signed ‘Artists’ Proof’ (or number 1 of the edition) will be permanently added to Nottingham Castle’s works on paper collection, and the edition will be offered for sale online through the Nottingham Castle Open website.
After much consideration our chosen winner was Matthieu Leger. Matthieu is a graduate of Falmouth School of Art and has exhibited widely since graduating in 2009. It was felt that Matthieu’s work, with its skilled execution and graphic nature would offer great scope for reproduction.
Artists Statement
Matthieu’s work explores ideas around systems, space, shape, material and form. Drawing references from the history of painting alongside his interest in electronic music, Sci-Fi and the scientific pursuit of understanding the make-up of our universe; Matthieu creates a re-interpreted and fabricated vision exploring the reality of how we perceive the world.
We look forward to working with Matthieu on the editioned print and watching progress as an artist.
More information about Matthieu can be found on his website and social media profiles which are included here;
http://www.facebook.com/legermatthieu
https://instagram.com/matthieulegerartist
https://twitter.com/MatthieuLeger
For more information about the Castle Museum & Art Gallery and to view their forthcoming events please follow these links;
www.nottinghamcastleopen.com
www.nottinghamcastle.org.uk