UWTSD Fine Art student celebrates first class degree and award win

University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Swansea College of Art Fine Art student Jess Parry is celebrating a double achievement this month: she has graduated with first-class honours degree and has also won the Haydn John James Layton Painting and Drawing Prize.

Jess’ lecturer Professor Sue Williams entered her for the prize, which focuses upon excellence in painting and drawing by students who have worked very hard to achieve great progress under difficult circumstances. 

The prize was judged by a selection panel made up of industry experts, including respected Swansea-based artist Professor Marc Rees.

“I was immediately struck by the power and visceral quality of Jess’ work and this was just upon viewing it digitally; in the flesh it would be even more potent,” he says. “She cleverly merges the sinister and the seductive with a nod to Francis Bacon’s bloody triptychs but with her own butcher’s knife twist - subverting traditional craft techniques into something more disturbing and disruptive, though at the same time beautiful.

“Her body of work blends the performative, the very personal and the political into poignant scenes and studies with forensic precision. Jess is a worthy winner of this year’s Haydn John James Layton Painting and Drawing Prize and I look forward to seeing how her practise develops in the future.”

Jess says her paintings, sculptures and drawings reflect her interest in the visceral and grotesque.

“I try to capture the inside of the body – I think of it as an extension of my body,” she says.

Her win came as a total surprise, because she did not know that her work had been entered for the prize.

“I’m ecstatic about it – it means a lot,” she says. “There was a day between me receiving my final grade for my degree and finding out I had won the prize – I couldn’t believe it.”

She faced significant challenges in completing the work after her studio time was cut short because of COVID-19.

“I was so involved within my studio practice - my degree show space was my studio space, so to lose that way of working practically overnight immediately provided a new challenge to think outside the box and find a new way of working,” she says.

“I had no choice but to adapt to a new space immediately in order to continue to produce my work at the intensity and level I was working at in my studio space before Covid. My bedroom in my parents’ house was the answer to that and is where I am still working right now.”

This posed its own challenges, in that she often works on a very large scale, so she had to adapt to the space. However, she feels that inhabiting the same space as the work for so long has helped her to scrutinise and hone her work.

“I have become more involved than ever in my work as I am literally sleeping and making my work in the same place,” she says. “Without Covid, my practice wouldn’t have shifted so much - my perspective has really changed as a result of this new intensity I find myself in."

Her next aim is to take a year out and then apply for a masters in Painting or in Fine Art starting in autumn 2021.

“Swansea College of Art has been incredible - the lecturers are so supportive,” she says. “They really encourage and challenge you within your work. I wouldn’t be where I am in my work without them pushing me to figure out what I want within my practice – I loved every moment and will really miss it. “

Caroline Thraves, Academic Director, Art & Media, says she is delighted with Jess’ achievements.

“Jess is a very well deserving recipient of the Haydn John James Layton Painting and Drawing Prize. She has worked exceptionally hard under challenging personal circumstances. Her level of skill in painting and drawing is of the highest standard.”

Further Information

Rebecca Davies

Swyddog Gweithredol Cysylltiadau â’r Wasg a’r Cyfryngau

Executive Press and Media Relations Officer

Cyfathrebu Corfforaethol a Chysylltiadau Cyhoeddus

Corporate Communications and PR

Tel: 01792 483695
Mobile: 07384 467071
Email: Rebecca.Davies@uwtsd.ac.uk