Review: ING Discerning Eye 2025

Last Thursday I went to see the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries - on my four art exhibitions on one day extravaganza! (The feet have told me not to do it again!)

The event celebrates a wide range of art media, from print to sculptures, from all regions across the UK. The exhibition celebrates small works, and so entries must have a maximum height of 50cm including framework

Three different exhibits of the six which make up the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2025

I've been covering the ING Discerning Eye exhibition since 2007 and every year it's a pleasure to see the huge range of small artworks hanging in the three galleries.

This year the open entry has been impressive and very big and you'll never ever see as much artwork in these galleries as you will in this exhibition!

Below you can find out about:

• The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition - and why it is different from any other exhibition you will ever see
• The Six Exhibitions - by six different selectors
• how to see the exhibition

(but not the prizes....)

About ING Discerning Eye Exhibition

All works must be within the maximum size limit of 50cm including frame.

Like most decent art competitions these days, it has

• a reputable backer The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition
• the exhibition is sponsored by ING Bank. Hence it is known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.
• offers prizes - including the ING Purchase Prize, worth £5,000. Awards will be given out to the winners in a prize giving at the start of the exhibition.
• been running since 1999.

The three key differences are:

• ALL the artwork is small
• the six selectors change every year AND each selector curates their own exhibition. In effect, there are six small exhibitions across the three galleries at the Mall Galleries by:
• two artists - 
• two curators
• two collectors
• The selectors are solely responsible for their own selection; selection is not by committee.
• Selectors can also invite artists to exhibit 
• The balance of their exhibit comes from selecting artwork via the open entry AND the selectors must choose at least 33% of their section from the open submission.

Personally speaking - having browbeaten most of the FBA Societies into understanding that if you are going to call something an open exhibition, then you need to have a very significant proportion from the open entry. (ASA regulation | The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) etc.) They got the point - they cannot be misleading!

• I intially suggested two thirds member / one third open
• most are now near 50:50 - which has been a shot in the arm for all those with aging members who'd like to be able to paint less and need new members!

Sadly ING has not yet tightened up on their advertising of this art competition - and still need to address this.

More than 730 artworks by 529 artists have been selected from a staggering 6,500 entries, reflecting the breadth and vibrancy of contemporary British art.

REALLY?  All selected from the open entry???

Anyway - enough of important technicalities....

Members Preview  

I attended a Members Preview - which is a new venture by the Mall Galleries - and one which I very much hope will be repeated. 

I have virtually given up going to Private Views at the Mall Galleries to meet up with very old friends and the artists and get their pics with their paintings. That's because somebody is ignoring the limits on number re health and safety and there have been huge numbers around about the time of the Awards Ceremonies (which can also be tedious and long). Plus for those of us who are now in their 70s (and have osteoarthritis), lack of seating on such days is a major deficit.

The new Director
of the Mall Galleries

By way of contrast, the ING has several previews - one of which was the Members Preview - which came with tea, coffee and pastries and was so much more pleasant than the normal "bunfight" attended by every artist and their multiple friends! I beamed and went round thanking everybody for having such a good idea.

Hopefully this is going to be replicated for Buyers' Previews which I have been muttering about for some time as one of the things that needs to be reintroduced at the Mall Galleries. This exhibition of course had one!

There were two impressive speeches - which makes a change:

• one from the new Director of the Mall Galleries - introducing himself and hinting at changes afoot (such as Members' Previews)
• one from (I think) the Chair of the DE - which was the best speech I've heard introducing an exhibition in YEARS!!

Last year I moaned about there being too much art with 685 artworks on the wall. This year there are 730 artworks. 

Oddly with fewer people in the exhibition, it felt less crowded and it was easier to see the work on the walls. I still wish that selectors would stick to a ceiling of 100 artworks each because I found that some exhibits - particularly those on the long walls were overloaded and more difficult to appreciate.

Below I list how many each chose next to the name of the exhibitor.

 

The Six Exhibitions

You can identify what the selector likes by what they choose to hang - and also how they like to show it.

I'm now going to write about them in the order I liked them!

Facebook Albums on my Making A Mark Facebook Page

You can see all my pics of all the exhibitions on my Facebook Page

• ING Discerning Eye (Part 1) 47 items (West Gallery)
• ING Discerning Eye 2025 (Part 2) 43 items (North, East Galleries and Drawing Bursary)

Dr Chris Stephens (122 artworks)

Chris Stephens is a leading British art historian and curator, currently serving as Director of the Holburne Museum in Bath since 2017. Prior to this role, he spent over two decades at Tate, notably as Head of Displays and Lead Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain. 

A very long exhibit - split into mino exhibits

I really liked this one because I completely identified with the way it was hung. It's exactly how I hang art in my own home.

He had seven mini exhibitions on his wall - plus the 3D work on plinths. It really helped with the challenge of looking at the artwork along one long wall - which is not easy as it all begins to merge.

NOBODY HAS EVER DONE THIS BEFORE! Or at least if they have I can't remember them - and I've got lots of reviews and pics to look back on.

Yet to me it's so very obvious. You group the artwork and show it as if you were hanging it at home. It also makes it more coherent and easier to digest - and believe me when viewing 700+ artworks in one exhibition you need anything that helps to make it easier to look at it. I spotted what I think were themes about:

• patterns 
• urban landscape
• figures in a context + everything which didn't fit anywhere else
• still life
• people and portraits
• monochrome landscapes + 2 monochrome 3D works of people

The best bit was the monochrome mini exhibition - although I rather suspect this included some people he's invited to exhibit.

The monochrome section at the end of Dr Christ Stephens

His 3D artwork in front of his wall exhibits were also interesting.

Fried eggs (Towards Eggstinction) glass on cast iron griddle by Lynn Purcell
and ice cream 

Curtis Holder (139 artworks)

Curtis Holder (b. 1968, Leicester) is a London-based artist known for his large-scale works on paper in graphite and coloured pencil. Rooted in intimate conversations with his sitters, Holder blends dialogue and drawing to explore identity, emotion, and human connection. His work centres on individuals whose experiences fall outside dominant cultural narratives, including Black and Brown people, Queer identities, and others whose stories are overlooked

Curtis got most of the North Gallery and made very good use of it. Of course having two rooms and all those shorter walls at angles helps enormously when grouping artwork - and it did not look at all crowded.

Oddly having the most artwork must mean you get the most wall space on which to show it...

View of part of the North Gallery

In general, I liked this exhibit because he included more drawings, more monochrome and more interesting 3D artwork

a mostly monochrome wall of drawings and portraits

I particularly loved this 3D wall below of artwork that is or suggests diverse surfaces and tactile stimulation within a very constrained colour palette. It looked great and I think this was one of the best "exhibit" wall within the whole exhibition.

Class Act!

Nicholas Scott (112 artworks)

Nicholas got what I think of as "the Brian Sewell Corner". (see Review: ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2011). It's a really difficult part of the West Gallery - with walls at right angles and disconnected. However I think he did well.

Nicholas Scott spent his professional career in the real estate industry, where he built and successfully ran his own business. After selling the company and retiring a decade ago, Nick shifted his focus to personal passions and giving back to the community. He now works part-time on a pro bono basis for a charitable organization, contributing his time and experience to causes he cares about. In his spare time, Nick enjoys delving into the world of pop art—researching its history and collecting iconic prints that capture the spirit of the movement

His exhibition featured the very fine Bronzes of pears and other fruit by Veda Halloews - which are outstanding (and expensive)! I've seen them before and every time I see them I just want to stroke them!

Bronze Fruit by Veda Hallowes - who uses fruit as a metaphor for the female form
plus small ceramic fruit by Esther Neslen

You do have the benefit with this particular exhibition slot of the long mezzanine wall which is very often used to display small works in other exhibitions in the Mall Galleries

The Mezzanine Wall - hung by Nicholas Scott

Rosie Millard (127 artworks)

Rosie Millard OBE is a journalist, described on X as “Liberal luvvie Philip Larkin would have loathed.’. Despite this she is President of the Philip Larkin Society.
She was Arts Correspondent for BBC News for ten years, and Arts Editor of the New Statesman for a bit less than that. She led Hull 2017 City of Culture, which explains the gong.

The central section of Rosie Millard's very long exhibit
on The Mall wall in the West Gallery

Her exhibit struck me as being very colourful and a tad girly.

She had some fun items throughout her exhibit.

These two made me smile

Polly Morgan (110 artworks)

Polly Morgan (b.1980) is a British artist living and working in Gloucestershire. Self-taught with no formal education in art, she works in taxidermy, concrete and polyurethane. She is interested in creating deceptions, with sculptural facsimiles made from painted casts and skin, as a way of exploring false narratives in our increasingly polarised and digitised society.

Richard Ansett (East Gallery) 117 artworks

Richard Ansett is a fine art, social documentary portrait photographer. He is a passionate, vocal advocate of the medium as an art form, talking and writing candidly about the realities of a life in photography. Richard is increasingly focused on enabling a new generation and those from marginalised communities to develop a relationship to photography.

One of the mainly monochrome walls in Richard Ansett's exhibition 

I'm not quite sure why, but I am invariably least impressed by the exhibition in the East Gallery - and so it was again this year.

I'm not sure whether it's the way they section off the gallery to provide a cloakroom area - which in turn messes with the lighting. 

Being a photographer explained the quantity of photography in his exhibition.

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Postscript - Prizes

I've been looking for where the prizes have been announced - and to date can only find it on Instagram - which is useless as a record of achievement over time.

This spoils my annual count up of which selectors picked the artists who won the prizes - and who got the most?

How to see the exhibition

The exhibition is free to see and open daily until Sunday 23 November 2025.
Where: Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1
Times: 10am – 5pm (closing at 1pm on 23 November)
Admission: Free