Announcing The Signature Art Prize 2012 Winners

DegreeArt is proud to announce the Signature Art Prize 2012 winners.

Over 500 submissions were received, from student and graduate artists from around the world, who entered DegreeArt’s Signature Art Prize 2012 in the hope of winning representation by DegreeArt.com and one of four cash prize of £1,000 each and gifts from our sponsors and now the time has come to announce the winners of this prestigious award.

As the 40 finalists awaited to find out which lucky four artists would be crowned as this year’s Signature Art Prize winners the competition was stiff and unveiled a whole host of emerging talent from the art world.

Tonight at London’s Spitalfields Market DegreeArt’s directors Elinor Olisa and Isobel Beauchamp announced the four winners from the categories of Painting, Photography, Mixed Media and Sculpture as the following;

Seung Ah Paik - Self Watchers

Medium: Painting

Size (H x W x D): 300 x 480 x 1 cm

Emily Macinnes - Rewan

Medium: Photography

Size (H x W x D): 60 x 43 x 4 cm

Matthew Spencer - Fighter Jet In The Woods

Medium: Mixed Media

Size (H x W x D): 122 x 122 x 1.8 cm

Hans K Clausen - Notion

Medium: Sculpture

Size (H x W x D): 125 x 360 x 165 cm

The winners were decided by some key figures of the art scene who took part in the rigorous judging process, including; Mark Westall- Creative Director of Fadwebsite, Marissa Cox- Online Arts Editor for Art Wednesday, Chris Pensa- Owner/Founder of Love Art London , Amira Hashish- Assistant Arts Editor of The Evening Standard, Ryan Lanji - Art Curator, Michal Ohana Cole- 2011 Signature Art Prize Winner in the Mixed Media category and Carolina Piteria- 2011 Signature Art Prize Winner in the Painting category.

Mark Westall of Fadwebsite said of this year’s prize, “It was great to sit down with Marissa Cox, Ryan Lanji and Chris Pensa to help judge the Signature Art Prize from Degree Art. The quality of the entries shows how far DegreeArt have come as an organisation in the last ten years and it was great fun to be involved. What really stood out however was the variety of entries I don't think there were any themes in the work which shows the strength of it being a signature art prize. All the work was very personal to the artist and I think the work showed the immense potential that exists in the emerging art scene.”

Marissa Cox of Art Wednesday spoke about her involvement in the judging process, “Art Wednesday was set up to champion new artists, so to be a part of the judging panel for DegreeArt’s Signature Art Prize that supports work by students and graduates has been an exciting experience. It’s so important to champion bright young things and it was a great opportunity to see the talent and potential that the next generation of artists are offering the art scene. There was some obvious stand-out ‘signature’ work in some of the categories. I found it hard to choose my favourites in Painting as this category was particularly strong, and Sculpture threw up some bizarre, but innovative work.”

The judging was clearly difficult with such strong talent in the Signature Art Prize 2012, however, you too now have the chance to sit on the panel and make another artist a Signature Art Prize 2012 winner through the People’s Choice Award, which is open to the public to vote for their favourite piece. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will also win representation fromDegreeArt and a £1000 cash prize. Voting will close on 29th October, so make sure you have your say, and bring another talented new artist to the fore of the art world.

The Signature Art Prize finalist pieces will be on exhibition at DegreeArt's Execution Room from 4th October until 11th November at the DegreeArt Gallery on Vyner Street in East London.

The 20 finalists on show are:

Painting: Jemma Grundon, Josh Gluckstein, Megan De Greef, Rebecca Byrne and Seung Ah Paik.

Photography: Agata Laskowska, Aindreas Scholz, Chris Mear, Emily Macinnes and Natalie Jane Larder.

Mixed Media: Christopher Eyles, Gonny Van Hulst, Jamie Green, Jenny Leonard and Matthew Spencer.

Sculpture: Benedict Romain and Bruno Jamaica, Hans K Clausen, Harumi Foster, Lola Lazaro Hinks and William Darrell.

Select pieces from the Signature Art Prize 2012 are now available to buy online from DegreeArt.com.