CARA Student Art Competition

Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) run an annual student art competition. This is partly to raise awareness of the issues that concern the charity, and partly to raise funds, as the shortlisted entries will be auctioned off at a charity auction. The money will support the CARA Fellowship Programme which sustains persecuted and disenfranchised academics from across the globe and facilitates continued academic engagement through periods of sanctuary and practical support. The ongoing crises in the Middle East have meant that they are struggling to keep up with the number of Syrian and Iraqi academics' requests for support.

Open to students on any course (for example Masters). Students must create a piece based upon the theme of Academic Freedom. The dimensions of entries are restricted to A5 (cubed if three-dimensional), however entry materials and medium are not prescribed. They welcome entries that reflect the full range of disciplines, from textiles to fine art, from video to sculpture - conceptual, abstract or figurative - as long as the theme is depicted clearly. You will be asked to submit a written statement along with your entry.

Judging panel for 2015 is Haroon Mirza, winner of the Silver Lion Award at 54th Venice Biennale; Maggi Hambling CBE, artist; Helen Delaney, Assistant Curator at Tate Britain; Ken Done, artist; and Linda Drew, Deputy Director of Glasgow School of Art.

Entry is free.

First Prize £1,000,  Second Prize £500, Third Prize £250. 

To enter, visit: http://www.cara1933.org/art-comp.asp

Kirsty Buchanan in Florence Trust Winter Open

Kirsty Buchanan, St John the Baptist (2014)

Kirsty Buchanan is one of the 12 resident artists at the Florence Trust 2014-15. They are having their Winter Open to mark the mid-way point through their year-long residency. Mulled wine and drinks will be available through the opening night.

Florence Trust, St Saviour's, Aberdeen Park, Highbury, London, N5 2AR. 
Opening: Friday 30 January, 6 - 9pm. 
Exhibition continues over the weekend: Saturday 31 January and Sunday 1 February, 12 - 6pm.




More about the Florence Trust:

Deadline for applications: Early summer, tba

Website

The Florence Trust offers 12 month studio residencies commencing in August each year for up to a 12 artists. Each artists gets 24-hour access to a studio within St Saviour’s, a neo-gothic church in Highbury, London. There are two annual exhibitions in January and July, with a full-colour catalogue and a text by an independent arts writer. Throughout the year they provide mentoring, including with visiting artists, writers and curators. There are peer-critiques, workshops, and exhibition projects. In the past, artists have joined the Trust at a pivotal stage in their careers and used the opportunity as a springboard to establish themselves in the London art scene and beyond.

Open to all artists internationally, including collaborations, and students who will graduate in 2015.

Studio rent is either £225 or £260 per calendar month. This is all-inclusive and covers all aspects of the programme. Artists will need to budget separately for their living costs. Many artists need to work part-time during their residency and this is not a problem as long as they continually use their studio.

Application fee of £10.

BP Portrait Award - Deadline 3 February 2015

Clara Drummond, 'Portrait in Blue and Gold'

The deadline for the BP Portrait Award 2015 is 3 February. It costs £38 to enter. Details on their website. Last year alumnus Clara Drummond and RDS tutor Melissa Scott Miller were included.

Jerwood Painting Fellowships - Call for Entries

You are eligible to enter if you are an ‘emerging painter’, a UK resident, and within the first 5 years of graduating or setting up your practice. Three artists will be awarded a year of mentoring, a £10,000 bursary, and an exhibition at Jerwood Space in May 2016 which will then tour the UK.

It only costs £10 to enter.

Deadline: 5pm, 2 March 2015

Drawn 2015 - Call for Entries

Drawn is a biennial open submission drawing exhibition run by Royal West of England Academy of Art (RWA Bristol). It aims to raise the profile of drawing, exploring it as both an autonomous discipline and an interdisciplinary tool. Submissions are invited from artists who either draw, or explore the concept of drawing in their work.

This year the selection panel includes: Anita Taylor, Jerwood Drawing Prize founder; Kate MacFarlane, Director of Drawing Room, London; Yvonne Crossley RWA, artist and founder of The Drawing Gallery; and artists Tim Harrisson RWA and Fiona Robinson RWA. 

£14-£18 entry fee.

Submissions: 7 January – 5 March 2015

Exhibition: 21 March – 7 June 2015

Full details on their website: Drawn

RCA Work-in-Progress: Open House

First-year students at the RCA are showing work in their studios in Battersea (not Kensington). 17 & 18 January 2015, 10am – 5pm. Website.

Including RDS alumni Anthony Banks, Jake Garfield, and Melissa Kime.

Nikki Gardham Workshop at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Nikki will be running a workshop at Dulwich Picture Gallery this February half term, for 11-14 year olds. ‘Re-Making Landscapes’.

‘Discover landscape through composition. Spend time in the Gallery sketching from the work of artists such as Poussin and Claude and create your own compositions. Using colour and collage, construct a 3D respresentation of the outdoors and develop a portfolio.’

Details on their website.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries Submissions

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2015 submissions are now open and will close on Sunday 8 February 2015 at 6pm UK time. 

The 2014 exhibition has included alumnus Melissa Kime.

'With over 1,400 applications received in 2014, submissions for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2015 are being accepted from 12 January - 8 February 2015. Applications are welcome from final year undergraduates and current postgraduates studying Fine Art at UK art colleges, as well as those who graduated in 2014. We ask for a portfolio of 6 works to be submitted online via http://submissions.newcontemporaries.org.uk/. Following two rigorous selection rounds, participants will be announced in June 2015 with the resulting national touring exhibition offering a compelling picture of contemporary practice.

New Contemporaries alumni include David Hockney, Patrick Caulfield, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Mark Wallinger, Gillian Wearing, Peter Doig and Tacita Dean.

Please click here for the full submissions guidelines and eligibility criteria and see the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Facebook and Twitter pages for further announcements.'

Sophie Charalambous at the Hellenic Centre

Sophie will be exhibiting recent drawings from Greece at the Hellenic Centre in Marylebone. 
The private view will be Thursday 15 January, 6.30 - 8.30pm.
The Friends Room, Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, London, W1U 5AS

Jevan Watkins Jones at Caroline Wiseman

Jevan is having a closing drinks for his exhibition at Caroline Wiseman Modern and Contemporary, at Aldeburgh Beach Lookout 
10th January, 7pm, bring a bottle.

The Aldeburgh Beach South Lookout and The Art House, 31 Crag Path, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, IP15 5BS

"On show will be a body of new collage works which take their lead from the pioneering plant life viewed from the studio door and windows on the shingle and by the sea wall.

He writes, ‘it’s difficult to fix representative images of an image conscious Aldeburgh without falling into cliché and indulging in it’s picturesque charm.

Collage allows me to shuffle - walls, sea, plant, beach, sky, winter - away from eye candy seaside town toward the more elemental underside of a town with an edge.'"

Some of the works on show can be seen here.