LJMU graduate wins Northern Artist Prize
24 January 2012
Liverpool School of Art and Design is delighted to announce that a former student, Leo Fitzmaurice has won the 2011 Northern Art Prize.
The decision was announced last week at Leeds City Art Gallery and the artist was given £16,500 in prize money. Fitzmaurice, originally from the Wirral, Merseyside works in many different media, for example film, installation and found objects.
In December last year, the BA (Hons) History of Art students visited the Northern Art Prize exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery where they considered the work of all of the short-listed artists in the competition and did particularly like the work by Leo Fitzmaurice. His exhibition at Leeds consisted of a film made on Merseyside that was displayed inside a crafted wooden crate, and a combination of traditional oil paintings from Leeds City Art Gallery that he had selected and lined up according to their horizon lines. This meant that the viewers tracked the horizon line across the various paintings even though the paintings themselves were all of different sizes and dimensions (pictured).
Dr Emma Roberts, programme leader said:
"The students and I had a great day out in Leeds and enjoyed seeing such a diversity of work by the competing artists. We were given a guided tour by the curator when we arrived and so all the nuances of the exhibition were explained to us. We were thrilled at the time to know that Leo Fitzmaurice studied at the School of Art and Design and hoped that he would win. To know that he has been successful confirms to us that the School of Art and Design is a great place to study. Last year's winner, Haroon Mirza, later went on to win the Silver Lion Award for the Best Young Artist at the 2011 Venice Biennale."
