The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics.Each of the selectors has curated an exhibition from works by artists they have personally invited to exhibit, as well as artworks submitted through the Open Call for Entries. The result is six smaller exhibitions within one, each with a very distinct personality.
The unique nature of the ING Discerning Eye is that the exhibition looks very different every year - because both selectors and the way they like to hang their chosen works varies each year.
Unfortunately my osteoarthritis was playing up yet again (it's the timing - wet November evenings are never good for mobility!) and so I missed a lot of the Artists PV last Thursday - and went home before the prizes were announced as I can't stand without sitting for any length of time. However thanks are due to Parker Harris who let me photograph in the period between the end of the exhibition for that day and the opening of the PV. Which means I have photos which actually show you what the exhibition looks like rather than a lot of people's heads with paintings peeping out behind the heads!
This post will highlight:
- something about each of the six mini exhibitions in the galleries
- artwork I liked
- who won which prize (and which curator chose the work!)
- name of the artist is to their website (or a gallery website) - where you can see more of their work
- title is to the work on the ING Discerning Eye website.
Artist: Dan Coombs
artist and writer, currently visiting professor at Haute École d’art et de design in Geneva,
An eclectic choice by Dan Coombs |
Louisa Crispin had to bend at the knee in order for me to get a photo of her Decaying Eringium without it being swamped by the painting above! |
Dan Coombs's approach to curating the exhibition:
- he invited 60 individual artists to each select one work to submit to the exhibition - however he has no knowledge of what was arriving until he came to hang the exhibition.
- He selected a further 78 works from the open entry and created what is possibly the biggest ever exhibition in the history of the ING Discerning Eye.
When I looked at his wall again with this in mind it made complete sense!
It makes me wonder whether each of the exhibitions should have a short narrative by the curator next to them commenting on how they selected works and hung them. I think visitors would find it very interesting.
Prizewinners
Surge Tide, Saligo Bay (£1,750) by Chris Bushe |
- ING Purchase Prize £5,000 - Surge Tide, Saligo Bay (1/26) by Chris Bushe
- DE Chairman's Purchase Prize £1,000 - Standing Nude 1/40 (8x6 - Oil ) Helen Davison
Huge congratulations to Helen Davison Discerning Eye Chairman's Prize Winner at #INGDiscEye Exhibition '16, now @mallgalleries #prizewinner pic.twitter.com/HtodaQC88t— Parker Harris (@ParkerHarrisCo) November 17, 2016
Artist: Chris Orr RA
Royal Academician Chris Orr RA.
He commented on the process of selection.
So what is good and bad in Art, and how do the judges choose one picture as opposed to another? In the selection process the works come at you thick and fast, brought in by a team of art handlers. You must make an instant decision. This has to be intuitive. Like going to a very large party you quickly work out who you want to talk to. There are second thoughts, for and against, but no time to do research or look for corroborating evidence. You have to trust your judgement built over years of looking. I remember the shock when I first went to Art School and was told that there was no progress in Art and that the definition of the bad in Art had changed many times. This is the last bastion of an unreasonable world where intuitive feeling trumps all the myriad orthodoxies.
Chris Orr's exhibition is in the Threadneedle Space. |
‘I like pictures that tell a story. As well as the stories of life around us, the source may be an anecdote, the overheard snatch of conversation (mobile phones are a gift) the poem or the novel. I also have a soft spot for things that in themselves are stories. The process and evolution of a picture are part of its personality. A work might have gone through many phases of success and failure, testing and editing, clarification and mystery before it is settled, so storytelling in one form or another is the business of Art. Perhaps it all goes back to our ancient ancestors who sat around the fire repeating tales, scratching in the sand, singing songs to confirm and develop human experience.My friend Jane Gardiner is an example of how an artist can have success if you keep submitting work of quality on a regular basis. Jane is now regularly selected for art competition exhibitions in London - despite living some distance away (Glasgow). Last year it was Lynn Painter-Stainers and this year it was the BP Portrait Award and the ING Discerning Eye.
Jane Gardiner with her painting Under Van Dyck |
(Left to right) Tea Bowl Universe, Tea and Tea Bowl and A Bowlful of Water each £500) Contemporary wood cut prints by Nana Shiomi |
One of the nice things for printmakers is that although the priced work is the framed work, printmakers also have the opportunity to sell more unframed copies of their fine art prints
Antony Gormley's Dog by Mychael Barratt ethcing 19 x 18 " |
Prizewinners
- The Wright Purchase Prize £500- Pear Shaped 6/27 by Laura Critchlow
- North of England Regional Prize £250 - Follow that Pig 6/86 by Simon Plum
Huge congratulations to @simonplumiam , Regional Prize Winner at #INGDiscEye Exhibition '16, now @mallgalleries #prizewinner #smallart pic.twitter.com/uxEaIDfo33
— Parker Harris (@ParkerHarrisCo) November 17, 2016
- East Anglia Regional Prize £250 - Bar - Back and Beyond, The Salisbury (Study) 6/98 by Michael Smee
Collector: Celia Imrie
well-known television, film and theatre actress
‘I am so excited to be given this chance to invite my favourite artists to join in this vast and spectacular competition. Of all fields in the Arts surely getting started as an artist must be the hardest. So if this occasion helps display their talents to a wider audience I am very happy.
I really liked Celia Imrie's wall of small works below the Mezzanine. It seemed to be mostly people selected via the open entry as there were few works by the same artist - although it included a couple of pairs - including one pair in the centre by Fiona Masterton which kept drawing my eye. There are more small works on her website which are also delightful.
The Blackberry Bush and Little Wild Corner of Urban Life by Fiona Masterton |
Crashing wave by Felicity Flutter |
Prizewinners
- DE Founder's Purchase Prize £2,500 - 'Hope' Gospel Oak Station, Nocturne 4/8 (11.5 x 9.5 - Oil on Canvas) by Martin Brown - an Australian living in London
- Scotland Regional Prize £250 - Lone Rider 4/99 by Eugenie Vronskaya
Winner of the DE Founder's Purchase Prize 'Hope' Gospel Oak Station, Nocturne by Martin Brown (11.5 x 9.5 - Oil on Canvas) |
Collector: Ian Mayes QC
Master of the House at Middle Temple and Chairman of the Temple Church.
Exhibition of works by Ian Mayes - invited works featured at the centre One of the prizewinners 'Loss' is on the left of low plinth Another "Nude on Blue" is in the middle of the wall |
Being a selector meant that I could invite old friends, which was the easy part. Choosing off a conveyor belt only sixty works from the open submission of more than two thousand was a bruising process. Conducted in a well-mannered but highly competitive spirit – a bit like practice at the Bar – selectors needed to react fast and instinctively. Around three to five seconds were allowed to decide whether to include or reject a work. He who hesitated would see a prized work ending up on a fellow selector’s wall.I did a double take when I saw the six photographs of Bob Dylan by Ann Marie Velez Wood in the middle of Ian Mayes wall. Click the link in her name to find out more about them.
Photographs of Dylan in camden by Ann Marie Velez Wood |
Prizewinners
- The Meynell Fenton Prize £1000 - Nude on Blue 5/130 by Neale Worley RP NEAC
- The Humphreys Purchase Prize - £750 Loss 5/122 by Mark Wiles
- Midlands Regional Prize £250 - Knight Errant 5/46 by Toddy Hoare
- West Country Regional Prize £250 - Evidence #2 5/106 by Roger Stephens MRBS who describes himself as an architectural stonemason and carver
Critic: Michael Glover
poet and art critic whose criticism is frequently seen in The Independent and The Times
Michael Glover's exhibition in the North Gallery had a very different feel due to the objects selected and the hang |
Pieces from the open were punctuated by groups of 3 or 4 works from invited artists. The most striking of these were the riff of three portraits by Hughie O'Donoghue of a man with a bandaged ear which I instantly shorthanded as the Van Gogh pics. This was all before I found out that he was a painter member of the RA! ;)
Bandaged Era I, II, and III by Hughie O'Donoghue RA |
Prizewinners
- St Cuthberts Mill Award £250 - Cloudburst 3/66 (12x12 - Watercolour and Pencil) by Caroline McAdam Clark RWS
- Wales Regional Prize £250 - The Descent 3/39 (17x17 - Oil on Panel) by Christopher Holloway
- London & South East Regional Prize £250 - Bengal, Yarhzeit 3/57a by Gerry Judah
Critic: Sacha Craddock
Art critic, writer and curator and co-founder of the Artschool Palestine.
Sacha Craddock had the end and main feature walls of the Main Gallery for her exhibition |
‘Discerning Eye provides the opportunity to consider a broad range of painting and sculpture, albeit of a prescribed scale. Once immersed so much can and does emerge. I of course enjoyed choosing the artists I admire to contribute, but I also always cherish the opportunity to select from an open send-in. The fellow selectors and I spent an intense, good-natured and often competitive day together. I wonder how it will turn out: while not pretending to actually curate the mass of work I have selected and asked for, I look forward to attempting to bring forward the quality in each.’I particularly liked some of the sculpture and ceramics in Sacha Craddock's exhibition. In particular, Sheila Kelley's Gingko and Firefly Bowl. (Sheila also has a blog called Tips for the Potter)
Gingko and Firefly Bowl by Sheila Kelley |
Prizewinners
- The DE Sculpture and 3D Work Prize £250 - Structure with half cylinders (Yellows) 2/92 by Henry Pim
Exhibition Information
Venue: Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
Dates: 17 – 27 November 2016
Hours: Open from 10am – 5pm daily.
Admission: Free.
All works are for sale: www.discerningeye.org
The Show is sponsored by ING Commercial Banking
Related Links - 2016 and previous years
You can find out about the artists who have been selected in previous years - and see their websites - and see what the artwork actually looked like hung on the wall in previous exhibitions in my blog posts below.
2016
2015
- ING Discerning Eye 2015 - Call for Entries
- ING Discerning Eye 2015 - Selected Artists
- Prizewinners - ING Discerning Eye 2015
2013
2012
- ING Discerning Eye 2012 - Selected Artists 01 Oct 2012
- Owen Bullet wins £5000 ING Discerning Eye Prize 21 Nov 2012
2011
- ING Discerning Eye 2011 - Selected Artists 12 Sep 2011
- ING Discerning Eye - selected artists archive published 11 Aug 2011
2010
- ING Discerning Eye 2010 - selected artists 25 Sep 2010
- REVIEW: The ING Discerning Eye exhibition 18 Nov 2010
2009
- Exhibition Review - ING Discerning Eye 2009 16 Nov 2009
2008
- Who's been selected for the ING Discerning Eye 2008? 10 Sep 2008
- ING Discerning Eye 2008 - Prizewinners 15 Nov 2008
- ING Discerning Eye 2008 - a review 13 Nov 2008
2007
- ING Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries 24 Nov 2007
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