Visitors to Friday's private view take in one of the prizewinners; Louise Brown's "I aint seen the sushine since I don't know when." © 24 Hour Museum
The Sussex Open 2005, a bi-annual open-submission exhibition for artists living or working in Sussex, opened on Friday February 4 at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
Running until April 9, 2005 the exhibition aims to reveal the diversity and wealth of talent to be found in the region. This year’s theme: ‘Words – Imagination, Fantasy and Tales’, celebrates the opening of Brighton’s Jubilee Library on World Books Day March 3, 2005.
Mary Jane Ansell, Above and below I (Red). © 24 Hour Museum
At a brief awards ceremony at the gallery on Friday February 4, Sue John, deputy leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, presented two individual prizes of £250 each to Mary Jane Ansell for her oil portrait Above and below I (Red) and to Jennifer Merrell for her two pieces constructed from Ink and bleach on paper – “Tiny Dancer” and “Once upon a time”.
“Our choices are both surprising and unsurprising,” said Sue, “you must remember that drawing and forming letters is not something that should be taken lightly and most of our choices reflect this complexity.”
Jennifer Merril, Tiny Dancer. © 24 Hour Museum
For Mary Jane Ansell, who has recently exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and featured in the Daily Mail-sponsored ‘Not the Turner Prize’, the award represents something of a homecoming.
“It’s lovely to win this because this is my home town," she said. "I normally show in London so it’s nice to win something here.” Mary Jane will be using the £250 to plough into materials for her next project.
Suse Evans' Untitled 2 won the Spectrum Photographic award for best photography. © 24 Hour Museum
A further prize was awarded to Louise Brown, who received the Frame Factory Prize for her small drawing of a skeleton “I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when.”
Cecile Graham’s oil painting of a child reading a book, “The Re(a)d Book” scooped an award provided by Clarkes Stationers and a further Spectrum Photographic award of £250 for best photography went to Sue Evans for her portrait study, Untitled 2.
Cecil Graham, "The Re(a)d Book." © 24 Hour Museum
The selectors for this year’s exhibition were Turner Prize nominated photographer Richard Billingham, County Arts Officer for East Sussex Hilary Lane and Joanne Bushnell, Director of Aspex Gallery in Plymouth.
“Essentially we tried to choose the most honest work – work where you could see the artist was taking from something they had seen and experienced from their own life histories,” said Richard Billingham, “rather than deriving work from existing imagery.”
Louise Brown, "I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when." © 24 Hour Museum
Given the themes of Imagination, Fantasy and Tales, it is unsurprising that most of our choices contained an implied narrative or an invitation into a created world,” added Hilary Lane.
The exhibition features a wide range of painting, drawing, etching and photography – with a smattering of 3-d and sculpture. Taking up two galleries of the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery the show runs until April 3, 2005 – admission is free.
