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Top prize for artistic friends in the North
ARTISTS Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie have won the first Northern Art Prize.
The Lake District-based duo who call themselves "Somewhere" collected the prize and a cheque for 16,500 at a glittering ceremony at Leeds City Art Gallery last night.
Their winning works – the Japanese-inspired Honesty Table; Bata-ville: We Are Not Afraid of the Future, a film about the closing of two UK shoe factories, and Living With The Tudors, where the artists took part in an historical recreation, will be on display in The Headrow gallery along with the other three finalists' works until February 10.
Today one of the prize's founders said she hoped future winners of the Leeds-based contemporary art prize open to artists living and working in the North would one day come from the city.
Catherine Blanshard, Leeds City Council's Chief Libraries, Arts and Heritage Officer, said: "It was sad that we didn't have one artist from Leeds on the shortlist this year but that was in part why we set up this award.
"We had spotted the gap in the visual arts in Yorkshire and the need to say to artists they can live and work successfully in Leeds. The prize is guaranteed for another two years so it would be brilliant if we could have a winner from Leeds by year three."
The Northern Art Prize is supported by Armley-based design and communication agency Logistik, the council, and business and design consultant Arup with additional support from Arts & Business Yorkshire.
Wakefield-born Martin Creed, 2001 Turner Art Prize winner and one of the four judges, said: "For me the winners' work was extremely interesting and very funny – it made me laugh, but it also immediately captured my attention."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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