Phillips is proud to partner with The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) this December to present the third edition of The Sovereign Art Foundation Students Prize London. Established in 2012 in Hong Kong, The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) Students Prizes run in ten countries and is an annual award designed to celebrate the importance of art in the education system and recognize the quality of artworks produced by secondary school students. As official venue partner of The London Students Prize, Phillips will host the 20 shortlisted artworks in a Finalists Exhibition at Phillips London headquarters at 30 Berkeley Square, where it will run alongside New Now from 1-8 December 2022. In advance of the exhibition opening on 1 December, Phillips sat down with artist Caroline Walker, who served as a judge for the prize, to discuss her impressions of the next generation. We also spoke to the 20 finalists about their work, what inspired it and how it was made.
Phillips: What do you look out for as a judge of the prize?
Caroline Walker: I’m looking out for work that combines interesting ideas with a skill and sensitivity for the materials the artist has chosen. I’m most drawn to work which I feel is coming from a personal perspective.
P: What is your impression of the list of finalists?
CW: I think there’s some really ambitious work among the finalists, both in scale, medium and subject, and it’s great to see how varied the work is between the different artists.
P: What advice would you give to the students involved regarding their work and a future in the arts?
CW: I think having a future as an artist is about finding the thing you’re passionate about and really exploring that. One of my school art teachers once said I should only go to art school if I was totally obsessed with making art. I think you do have to be quite obsessed and single minded about it to sustain the enthusiasm and ideas needed for a career as an artist.
Amy Allen, Stream.
Amy Allen, 17, West London Free School
Examining the paintings of contemporary artists such as Claire Woods and Hurvin Anderson, this work has nature at its core. The work has developed from small-scale painterly experiments into a meticulous exploration of surfaces found in more remote settings.
Bethia Turner, Portrait Looking Up.
Bethia Turner, 16, Chestnut Grove Academy
A portrait of the artist’s sister looking up. Completed in response to the topic 'Identity' the subject was chosen due to her prominence in Bethia's life. The use of color was inspired by the work of Matisse, Bacon and Saville, accentuating visible but subtle colors to create a vibrant portrait that matched the pose of the subject matter caught mid laugh. The use of highlight and darker tones for the hair show an accomplished sense of form, three-dimensionality and lighting. While the off-center composition shows an understanding of the rule of thirds. The piece was Bethia's final submission for the Identity project.
Lara Rizzolo Blackman, Portrait of My Mother.
Lara Rizzolo Blackman, 16, Chestnut Grove Academy
This painting was completed in response to the topic of 'Identity.' This large-scale acrylic painting depicts the artist’s mother. Felt to be an integral part of Lara's identity, the familial feeling generated in this piece is achieved by Lara's careful consideration of the framing of the piece. She describes in her analysis how she also thought about the lighting in the work. Using it to indicate a window allowing the subject and viewer to share the act of gazing. Her work was partly inspired by looking at the work of Matisse, but in contrast she portrays the female figure as representative of “female empowerment” through lighting her in a “saint like manner.” Lara also wanted to keep the figure maternal and so made sure to pose her in a natural and familiar way.
Matthew McLuckie, Urban Geometry (V3).
Matthew McLuckie, 16, Dulwich College
‘The art of balance.’ A sculpture that attempts to mimic and reconstruct some of the shapes and forms seen in an urban environment. Inspired by aerial photography of buildings and city skylines, this sculpture also outlines the imperfections of architecture seen in a city.
Ivy Hartley-Drewe, Fragments.
Ivy Hartley-Drewe, 16, Kingsdale Foundation School
This painting explores the concept of a “fragmented mind”; in terms of memory loss. The subject is my grandma, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The person she is has changed and been affected by the disease, and the term “fragments” refers to the fragments of memory she has retained, although they are diminishing over time.
Xi Yang, Doll.
Xi Yang, 16, Dulwich College
Trompe l'oeil painting of an antique doll head supported by an antique carved bone handle.
Sasha Hepburn, Foundations.
Sasha Hepburn, 18, Kingsdale Foundation School
Focusing on the theme of beauty in the ordinary, I reflected on the significance of the houses I have lived in and their impact on making me who I am today. Attaching them to one another in a block is symbolic of how all the seamless memories of my childhood have blended to become the foundation of my identity. I gravitated towards recycling every day, domestic packaging for my template to maintain this idea of ordinary.
Bunny Lawrence McHugh, The Threads Keeping Me Together.
Bunny Lawrence McHugh, 16, Harris Academy St John's Wood
For my piece on the theme of ‘Identity’, I combined the following mixed media: Canvas, Photography and Textiles. In particular, I wanted to express the idea that people’s true selves are often hidden due to societal pressures. I blurred the features of the model in the black and white photo, and sewed her heart and circulatory system on top, showing that people’s true emotions are often hidden under an ordinary façade.
Archibald McCombie, Anchored in Anticipation.
Archibald McCombie, 16, Dulwich College
This piece is an observational pencil drawing of an animation I completed for my GCSE's. The original animation was comprised of many characters, all referencing the famous painting An Experiment of a Bird in an Air Pump. Each of the characters' expressions was my own personal take on Joseph Wright's piece.
Ora Wildman-Green, Denial (First of the five stages of grief).
Ora Wildman-Green, 17, West London Free School
Denial is the refusal to accept the facts of the loss, either consciously or unconsciously. Studying A Level Psychology, Ora has been investigating various mental states, Japanese illustrators and artists such as Hans Bellmer whilst also considering Freud's theory of the uncanny.
Hank Ze, Sanctuary.
Hank Ze, 16, Dulwich College
Mixed media installation of a doll's house. Amidst all of its dystopian destruction is a contrasting room that is perfect and flawless. This is the contrast between utopia and dystopia. The white room is completely devoid of any imperfections; there are no objects cluttered around, rips on the walls, splatters of paint, or fallen scaffolding or beams. It is a room from a utopian world, an idealistic world. The red balloon enhances this sense of utopia through its smooth spherical shape which sharply contrasts with the jaggedness of the destruction in the other rooms, and its red color which symbolizes warmth and comfort. The balloon room, as a result of its utopian nature, is a place of safety and security amidst destruction; a place where the viewer can escape from the dystopian nightmare that has left all the other rooms in ruins.
Chloe Grimes, Ghost Print.
Chloe Grimes, 16, Kew House School
Exploring line in light.
Finlay Tozer, Fountain of Youth.
Finlay Tozer, 18, Kingsdale Foundation School
This piece resembled a newspaper, documenting the lost events of young people while in lockdown. I wanted to show how life stopped for young people.
Grace Morgan, Dad.
Grace Morgan, 18, Kingsdale Foundation School
My painting comes from the idea of people merging into their surroundings. Like me, my dad was born and raised in South East London. In this painting I aimed to incorporate aspects from both mine and his upbringing, culture and physical surroundings. My painting has different layers, a mixture of markings from records from music we have listened to together and blocks and lines representing the places we have grown up in.
Otonye Ibiama, The Pain of Beauty.
Otonye Ibiama, 15, St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School
This piece is a depiction of how harmful eurocentric beauty standards can be, especially for women of color. I wanted to show how mentally and physically harmful they can be through the scars pierced by images showing said beauty standards. I also included several associated words and phrases that I have heard relating to these beauty standards, as though they are being screamed at the subject. I wanted to present a feeling I and many people have, showing how overwhelming and painful it is.
Aristou Meehan, Hydra.
Aristou Meehan, 15, Dulwich College
The title of the piece, Hydra, reflects both the theme and process of the work. By tearing away at the paper and repairing it, the drawing itself became a sort of hydra, with new heads growing from the wounds. A variety of pottery tools and other methods were used to distress the paper — which also allowed the charcoal to stick to the frayed edges better than the smoother areas. This was at first an inconvenience, but eventually the realization came that this could be used to enhance the image and create greater contrast. Ideas of identity and this sort of Jekyll and Hide narrative play into the finished image, with this fractured self-portrait with this malevolent entity lurking in the shadows and looming over them unbeknownst to them.
Adriana Krickic, The City.
Adriana Krickic, 17, St Augustine's Priory
Watercolor of our city.
Arianne Fraser, Covid Catalog.
Arianne Fraser, 17, Bridge Academy
This piece is a reflection of the monotonous routine the world was forced to follow during the pandemic. It’s highlighting that in some places of the world they are still suffering this repetitive nightmare. Cyanotype photography printing on paper, a collage of repetitive photos but each one very slightly different, not in order or aligned, overlapping from one to the next. Each one slightly disheveled, either in its color, its print or with its paper choice. A state of mind.
Maya Williamson, Youth Movement.
Maya Williamson, 18, Kingsdale Foundation School
My representation on youth culture today in an attempt to break down negative stereotypes of young people. Through photography, painting and drawing I wanted to create a vibrant piece that emphasizes the ways in which our youth culture today express themselves.
Eleni Allan Padilla, Vast Implosion.
Eleni Allan Padilla, 16, Westminster Academy
This piece is a surrealist depiction playing on our ties to the landscapes that shape our lives, our perceptions of places and views that are loaded with and rooted in personal stories, myths and things we see in the shadows. A subjective view that is just as true as any other. We find ourselves at the point where the sun, moon and sea meet, at the center of a personal world.
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