Outset Contemporary Art Fund has launched a three-year partnership between 2017-2019 with Tiffany & Co., which made seven rent-free studios in London available to outstanding MA Fine Art graduates from the capital’s finest art colleges.
For the first edition of the prize in 2017, the seven winners were selected from world-renowned art schools (the Royal Academy, the Royal College of Art, Chelsea College of Arts, Slade School of Fine Art, Central Saint Martins and Goldsmiths University) by Richard Moore (Divisional Vice President – Store Design & Creative Visual Merchandising, Tiffany & Co.), Margot Heller (Director, South London Gallery), Sam Thorne (Director, Nottingham Contemporary), Eddie Peake (Artist) and Justine Picardie (Editor-in-Chief, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country UK). The prizes were bestowed to Daniel Curtis, Tomasz Kobialka, Natalie Kynigopoulou, Jiaquing Mo, Fani Parali and Simona Sharafudinov.
The Tiffany & Co. x Outset Studiomakers Prize provides a 12-month rent-free studio space to seven graduates from London’s premier art schools, allowing them to refine their practice. The project is part of the strategic private-public partnership – Studiomakers – to sustain the flow of ideas and talent in London through securing accessibility to creative workspaces.
Tiffany’s legacy with the arts dates back to its founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, an original trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his son Louis Comfort Tiffany, a pioneering designer and jeweller of the American Art Nouveau movement. Tiffany continues its commitment to arts and culture with the recent support of the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition at the Tate Modern in December 2016 and a long-term sponsorship of the Whitney Museum of American Art biennials in New York City in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Jade Blackstock, Royal College of Art, MA Performance – Myself In Three Vessels
Performance artist Jade Blackstock is behind the aforementioned work comprising of her own scream, a bucket of water and a bulging sack suspended in the centre of the gallery space. “In my practice, themes of race, femininity, loss and resistance tie together with explorations of spectacle, constructed identity and social commentary. I tend to make very material-based performances, to produce visual and fragmented narratives which combine the conceptual, historical and physical qualities of materials with the physicality and limitations of my body,” she says.
Daniel Curtis, Wimbledon College of Art MFA – Oh, not that guy
Sculptor Daniel Curtis is also a comedian and a writer, and he is currently producing a book with his wife and creative partner. An alumnus of Wimbledon College of art, his work is driven by form. “I fabricate and compose shapes, colours and surfaces until there is a charged relationship between them,” he says. “Like characters in a play, I form structures to be in active conversation with one another, their dialogue held in a frozen tableau.” One of his pieces, made of powder coated steel, raw steel, copper, emulsion, spray paint and wood, also showcases Curtis’ way with words; it is titled: People standing around at an after work party. People that you think you recognise, seeming familiar, but that you can’t quite put your finger on, making you wonder if you know them at all.
Simona Sharafudinov, Central Saint Martins, MA Photography – Haus of Perestroika
Beside the ephemera of Blackstock’s performance lay a body sheathed in pink latex, its head concealed within the illuminated maquette of a house. The body belonged to artist Simona Sharafudinov, whose work Haus of Perestroika asks the viewer to reimagine the cities of tomorrow by confronting their fear of homelessness. This work was first performed in 2016 for 30 hours over a period of five days at an exhibition in Hackney, London. “My interest lies in questioning the process of image-making in relation to exiled identity and idealised systems of value,” says Sharafudinov.
Natalie Kynigopoulou, The Slade, MA Fine Art Media – I caress you, you caress me, without unity
Natalie Kynigopoulou, a graduate of The Slade, showed an installation piece that incorporated sculpture, video and sound. An oversized spool of pink cotton lay beside a potato on a plinth, a planted tree and a small garden shed. Projected on the back wall was a video of various natural phenomena. “I work between photography, objects, more recently early animation and 16mm film,” the artist says of her practice. “Sound has recently also become particularly important.”
Jiaqing Mo, Chelsea College of Art, MA Fine Art – Variation of Flowers
Jiaqing Mo’s work incorporates video, installation and performance, exploring communication between humans and animals, and the relationship between humans and nature. “My art centres upon the construction of ideas, covering video, theatre, performance and installation,” she says. “My themes are always about relationships, time, endless instability… But each piece has a specific theme via the different objects and atmospheres I have created.”
Fani Parali, Royal Academy of Arts, Post Graduate in Fine Art – The Wingspan Measurers 3
Opening the show was Greek-born Fani Parali, who presented a performance piece. The work, titled The Wingspan Measurers 3, took the form of a Da Vinci-esque contraption occupied by a drag performer, miming to an operatic soundtrack. “I have been living London for the past seven years,” says Parali. “I have worked in the theatre as a scenic artist for more than 15 years, making props and painting backdrops, which puts my practice into a particularly performative context.”
Tomasz Kobialka, Goldsmiths, Master of Fine Art, MFA – Pearl Diving for Wyrms
One of the more interactive works at the exhibition came from Tomasz Kobialka; hardly surprising considering that Kobialka has a professional background in gaming and digital design. He presented a video work, installed in a green-screen space with a low ceiling, lending itself to an immersive experience for the viewer. “Central to my practice is a critical interest in technology,” the artist explains. “I often use the devices of technological progress in order to examine the cultural conditions which contribute to technological production.”
This project was supported by:
