ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition

The ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition is currently on at the Mall Galleries in London and I visited last Friday. 

Unlike other exhibitions, five days later there's nothing much which comes to mind when trying to recall it - apart from a few pieces which were standout ones for me. That's essentially because it is overloaded with small artworks but maybe something else as well.....

paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture in the ING Discerning Eye 2024

The exhibition is unique because of the way it is put together.

Six people - two artists, two critics and two art collectors - pick what they like best from the open entry and also get to exhibit artwork by artists they like. 

The selectors this year are listed below - together with some views of their individual exhibits

You can also see the exhibition online - by selector. I'm putting the link underneath each pic of their exhibit below

Artists

• Adebanji Alade - current President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters; he also features regularly on the BBC’s The One Show
• Nina Murdoch - She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1989-93) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1993-96), and was the winner of the inaugural Threadneedle Prize (2008).

part of the exhibit by Adebanji Alade (134 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/adebanji-alade/

part of the exhibit by Nina Murdoch (105 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/nina-murdoch/
(who had the most difficult and fragmented space - next to the cafe)

Critics

• Paul Carey-Kent - he has weekly column for FAD art news, does monthly interviews for Artlyst and freelances for various art news publications. This is his blog post about the exhibition and his chosen artworks
  
• Will Gompertz - an English journalist, author and art critic. He was the BBC's arts editor before becoming he Barbican Centre's Artistic Director in June 2021 and the director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in 2024.

part of the exhibit by Paul Carey-Kent (119 artworks) in the North Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/paul-carey-kent/

part of the exhibit by Will Gompertz (107 artworks) at the end of the West Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/will-gompertz/

Collectors

• Carol Leonard - has been dubbed the ‘doyenne of boardroom head-hunters’ by the Financial Times.
• Gabrielle Blackman - one of the country's leading interior designers.

two walls of the exhibit by Carol Leonard (115 artworks) in the East Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/carol-leonard/

part of the exhibit by Gabrielle Blackman (124 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/gabrielle-blackman/

What seemed very weird to me this year is that I found it quite difficult to distinguish between the individual selectors - with the exception of Will Gometz and Paul Carey-Kent - who happen to be the art critics - who both produced quite distinctive "looks" to their two exhibitions. 

Who knew it would be the art critics who would present me with the best visual experience?

Lessons from this Exhibition 

The thing about this exhibition, which is its unique distinction - a wealth of small artwork - is also what makes it very difficult to view on occasion.

I usually come out feeling as if I've just had a visual overload.  But there's overload and then there's indigestion.

Now the thing is I visit the Mall Galleries very regularly throughout the year to see the annual exhibition of the national art galleries which are based there. they also fill all three galleries BUT I don't have the same experience with them. That's because they typically hang around 350 artworks and rarely more than 450 artworks.

This exhibition had more 300+  MORE artworks to view....

Too Much Art this year

artwork hung in three or four rows around the west gallery

Bottom line this year's exhibition has got A LOT MORE ART TO VIEW - because the artwork is small.

Plus this year I think there is MORE than ever - but I might be mistaken. It certainly felt like there was more than ever - and indeed the numbers of works hung/exhibited certainly suggest this to be the case

Featuring 685 works selected from over 6,000 submissions to a UK-wide competition

685 artworks is, I think, the most ever exhibited in all the time I've been visiting this exhibition. 

The lesson for the future

I think the lesson from this - if anybody is listening - is to:

• REMEMBER LESS IS MORE
• limit every single Judge to no more than 100 artworks - and if they want less, less is fine
• limit every Judge to having no more than 25% of the work exhibited from artists they have invited.
• place an absolute emphasis on artists who are new to the Mall Galleries - for no other reason than this also then makes the exhibition a refreshing change for the viewing public.

(I noted half the ROI Council were hanging towards the left of Adebanji Alade's exhibit!)

In saying this, 

• most years judges pick around about 100 works
• most years, judges choose most of their exhibit from the open entry and do not load the exhibit with work by the artists they know

I think I'd have liked it a lot more if there had been around about 100 less artworks in the spaces.

Frankly, I'd really really like this to be an exhibition which is ONLY items selected from the open entry. There's plenty of good artwork out there - you just have to choose it.

If the selectors want art by artists they like included, I'd love it if they were limited to no more than 10 works which fit the EXACT same criteria as all the open entry pieces.

What I liked 

I'm going to highlight the artwork that I liked and circled around or around more than once - although some of this appears in the prizewinners below

This year the 3D sculpture particularly appealed to me.

I loved every single bronze by Veda Hallowes and confess to stroking them an even nudging them to see if they were made of what I thought they were. The very best was the absolutely gorgeous fig.

Bronzes of fruit by Veda Hallowes - chosen by Will Gompertz

Lush (a Fig) by Veda Hallowes

Bronze 16 x 15 x 15 cm

Selected by Nina Murdoch

I also adored this piece by Judith Symons and kept walking around it.

Martin by Judith Symon
ceramic sculpture 30x20x20cm

Prizes and Prizewinners

This is an exhibition which has a number of worthwhile prizes. 17 artists received over £12,500 in prizes on the opening night of the exhibition.

I wasn't looking at the exhibition from the point of who won what - and it was also incidentally quite difficult to spot any of the prizewinners!

They are.....

• ING Purchase Prize, £5,000: Max Hembrow, The Author. (I wasn't a fan)
• Discerning Eye Founder’s Prize, £2,500: Felicity Gill, Fluorescent Pink. (a tad gimmicky)
• Discerning Eye Chair’s Purchase Prize, £1,000: Paul Newland, Incoming Mist, Winter.

Discerning Eye Chair's Prize

Paul Newland
Incoming mist; winter pm

oil on board, 27x38cm

Paul Newland NEAC RWS has been one of my favourite oil painters for a long time. He has a wonderful touch when painting atmospheric landscapes which are very ordinary and very magical. This was the first photo I took on entering the East Gallery - I knew exactly who had painted it from 10 feet away.

• Mervyn Metcalf Purchase Prize, £500: Judith Symons, Chair Study. (I preferred the blue vase which I loved)
• Tabish Khan Critic’s Purchase Prize, £200: Yvan Rolly Nembot, Lydol. (Impressive - all his works sold)

Tabish Khan Critic’s Purchase Prize
Yvan Rolly Nembot
Lydol

• Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary, £1,500: Gerry Davies, for his 3 entries from the series Flood Story.
• Cityscape Prize, £300: Dominic Mallin & Laura McEwen, Umbrella Shop.

Cityscape Prize, £300

Dominic Mallin & Laura McEwen,

Umbrella Shop.

Paper, card, mount board Mixed Media

Selected by Nina Murdoch

I thought this was a very innovative and outstanding artwork which really caught the eye and at the same time was visually appealing.  Their USP is that they produce

3D collage artworks of unique buildings from a bygone era

• Landscape Prize, £300: Lee Madgwick, Container (not a fan)
• Sculpture Prize, £300: Ben Russell, Modus.

Sculpture Prize £300

Ben Russell

Modus

Portland limestone 23 x 29 x 20 cm

selected by Nina Murdoch

It was very difficult to stop myself from touching this. It was so very, very pleasing to the eye. What I really wanted to do was tuck it under my arm and sneak out of the gallery with it!

• Portrait Prize, £300: Ruth Fitton, Attitude (study) (very eye catching)
• Print Prize, £300: Cathryn Kuhfeld, Lake Como. (nice cormorant)
• Parker Harris Mentoring Prize: Victoria Rees, Vic, You Have 45 Minutes. (quite striking)

Seven regional prizes, worth £250 each, were awarded by the board of Discerning Eye to outstanding talent around the UK:

• Wales: Richard Prentice, Anthropogenic Lidded Vase.
• North of England: Richard Baker, Unit 5.
• Northern Ireland: Hannah O’Hagan Guinness No.3.
• Scotland: Donald Macdonald, Paper No.1.
• South of England: Louise Lawton, Thirteen.
• Midlands: Michelle Heron, Waiting Room.
• London: Liane Lang, Circle Stone.

Midlands Prize
Michelle Heron
Waiting room

How to see the exhibition

The exhibition is free to see and open daily until Sunday 24 November 2024.
Where: Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1
Times: 10am – 5pm (closing at 1pm on 24 November)
Admission: Free