Society of Scottish Artists and Visual Arts Scotland offer and range of awards for artists exhibiting at their Annual Exhibitions. These awards benefit artists in different ways, a selection of cash prizes, residencies, exhibition opportunities or materials are on offer. This year, for the first time the SSA has partnered with &Gallery to offer an award for outstanding abstract work. The selected artist is invited to exhibit at &Gallery located on Edinburgh's prestigious Dundas Street. For 2018, the recipient of the &Gallery Award is Annie Mulvey for her work ‘An Elegy of Sugar Coated Cyst’. Annie graduated in 2017 from Gray's School of Art. Specialising in painting, her practice stems from our obsession with preserving history and memory. Annie also received the OPEN New Graduate Award for her degree show with an invitation to show at the exhibition. &Gallery at 17 Dundas Street, Edinburgh We asked Avril Nicol, founder and owner of &Gallery how it all started for her, about the &Gallery Award and why she selected Annie Mulvey's work.
"After graduating in 2001 from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) degree in Tapestry, an opportunity arose to take up studio space at a newly opened arts centre. In addition to spending time in the studio, I assisted with art classes and curating exhibitions there. Playing an integral role in the organisational development of the art centre, I became the general manager and retained the position until 2013. I have also been Director and Project Coordinator of Forth Valley Art Beat, Central Scotland’s open studios and art event, since its inception in 2010. These experiences in both organisations encouraged me to set up a venue for contemporary art in the Forth Valley area. "&Gallery first opened in Bridge of Allan offering a six weekly programme of exhibitions of visual and applied art, it was an enjoyable three years however in order to grow the business I felt the time had come to make the move to Edinburgh. &Gallery will be celebrating one year on Dundas Street this March, it has been a fantastic experience so far hosting eleven exhibitions showcasing UK and internationally based artists. "The partnership between the SSA and &Gallery feels a particularly good fit as a number of members of the Society have featured in our inaugural year's programme. It is a pleasure to offer an award during this year's OPEN Exhibition, with many fabulous artists to choose from I am delighted to give the exhibition prize to recent graduate Annie Mulvey. "I loved the scale of Annie’s piece ‘An Elegy of Sugar Coated Cyst’. I like that it isn’t obvious at first if it is a painting. Annie’s work will complement the existing programme of artists who exhibit in the gallery and look forward to working with her." &Gallery presents a year-round programme of exhibitions, throughout March the gallery will host a two-person exhibition of reductive abstract painting by Scottish artist Michael Craik, whose work can also be seen at OPEN, alongside Jeffrey Cortland Jones an artist from Ohio. We look forward to seeing Annie's work at &Gallery in the near future. &Gallery is an contemporary art gallery located at 17 Dundas Street, Edinburgh. For more information on &Gallery please see http://www.andgallery.co.uk Comments are closed.
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