New Lecturer Wins Fine Art Award
A newly appointed lecturer at University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Swansea College of Art (UWTSD) has won an award for her submission to a prestigious exhibition.
Holly Slingsby recently joined UWTSD’s teaching team as a lecturer in Fine Art, swapping Margate for south Wales to continue her successful career and artistic practice after working as a visiting lecturer at Winchester School of Art.
Last week, it was announced that she had won the Exeter Contemporary Open at the Phoenix Gallery in Devon.
Exeter Contemporary Open is an annual exhibition, featuring a small selection of works chosen from hundreds of entries submitted by artists from across the UK. It forms a major highlight of the South West’s cultural calendar and a vital springboard for the careers of emerging contemporary artists.
Holly’s work, alongside that of 13 other artists, was selected by Gemma Lloyd (Independent Curator), Judith Carlton (Director of Southwark Park Galleries) and Phoenix Gallery Curator, Matt Burrows. All exhibiting artists were eligible to win the 2023 Award Fund, an Additional Award and an Audience Choice award.
Unable to choose one overall winner and one additional winner, the judging panel took the decision to celebrate the three most outstanding artists from an extremely high-calibre shortlist, which were Holly Slingsby, Anna Brass and Richard Phoenix. The 2023 Award fund was equally split amongst them.
Holly’s winning work (pictured in above two photos) is a video performance entitled An Enclosed Garden, which combines the shared experience of lockdown gardening with figures in isolation: Homer’s Penelope, anchoress Julian of Norwich, abbess Hildegard von Bingen and the Virgin Mary.
Shot in four gardens in Kent, the piece evokes monastic herb gardens and medieval paintings while exploring the relevance of these women as emblems of solitary contemplation. Compost heaps are included as reminders of the possibility of generating something new from discarded remnants of the past.
Holly said: “I am delighted to be one of the 2023 Exeter Contemporary Open winners. This year’s exhibition includes a brilliant selection of works and it is a real pleasure to be included and recognised within this context. I am grateful to the selectors Gemma Lloyd, Judith Carlton and Matt Burrows for their endorsement of my practice.”
Professor Sue Williams, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at UWTSD said: “It is a great pleasure to have artist Holly Slingsby join our Fine Art team. Her artistic credibility adds yet another important layer of expertise and practice to our already internationally established team. It is excellent news that Holly is one of the winners of the 2023 Exeter Contemporary Open.”
Swansea College of Art at UWTSD is currently 1st in Wales and 21st in the UK for its Fine Art programmes (The Guardian University League Tables, 2023–24).
The exhibition at Exeter Phoenix is open until Sunday 5th November, and Holly’s work can be explored at hollyslingsby.com or @hollyslingsby .
Note to Editor
Biography
Holly Slingsby (born 1983, UK) is now based in Swansea, Wales. She studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, and at the Slade School of Art, London.
Slingsby has had solo exhibitions and performances across the UK and around the world. In 2018 she published an artist’s book with Publication Studio London and The Bower.
Further Information
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