Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2017 announces winning artists

The Prize has been hugely successful in its third year receiving more than 3,740 artworks by over 1,510 artists, from around the world including artists from Turkey, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Iran, India, Greece, Korea and China.

Aindrea Emelife, Geordia Adamson and Adeline de Monseignat joined this year’s panel of renowned art experts to select 25 shortlisted artworks for the prize, these included works across a variety of mediums including sculpture, digital, painting, photography and other art forms.

Winning Artist – Yuting Wang

The winning artist, Yuting Wang, is a Chinese artist based in London, whose submission 'Pond' - which focuses on the feeling of isolation and loneliness in a technology driven society - will see the artist receive £3,000 and a solo exhibition in the Emerging Artists Gallery in Ashurst's London office between July and September.

Sculpture Prize – Sol Bailey Barker

The Sculpture Prize, with a £1,000 award and solo exhibition, goes to British artist Sol Bailey Barker, whose highly original work was made by heating and hammering 300 bullets, collected in Columbia, into a hand carved spade.

Ashurst Employee Choice Award – Claudine O'Sullivan

The Ashurst Employee Choice Award, which invited Ashurst employees from across the firm's international network of offices to vote on their favourite artwork, goes to Claudine O'Sullivan. Irish illustrator Claudine was selected for her distinctive hand drawn illustrations and will receive the £1,500 cash prize and a solo show.

This year the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize announced an additional prize for East London artists or themed art in collaboration with Rich Mix - an independent arts venue in East London – with a £500 award and solo exhibition this June in the Mezzanine Gallery at Rich Mix. This goes to Ralph Hunter-Menzies, whose artwork is inspired by his interest in marks made through the removal of graffiti, posters and stickers found on streets of London.

Highly commended mentions go to artists Ilsa Brittain, whose work explores ambiguities of perception; Northampton artist Nathaniel Hornsby, who is predominantly a painter in watercolour; and Katy Shorttle, who uses her experience gained working as a medical doctor to inspire her artwork.

The prize is also supported by the UK's leading independent art supplies retailer, Cass Art, who are giving a £500 gift voucher to the winner of the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize to spend on art supplies, and £250 gift voucher for both the Sculpture Prize and Employee Choice Award.

Ashurst's chairman, Ben Tidswell, commented:

"This year's Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize was outstanding and we congratulate the winners and all the entrants on their inspiring range of artworks. We are incredibly proud of the success the Prize has achieved so far and it is our aim to continue supporting the ambitions of promising emerging artists."

Conrad Carvalho, Prize Director and Art Consultant at Oaktree & Tiger, said:

"This year we received entries from even more artists globally, which highlights the attraction of London for emerging artists as well as the effectiveness of the support from Ashurst. Our winner this year, Yuting Wang, highlights our search for talented artists with great potential to develop further their technical skill and theoretical ideas and build successful contemporary fine art careers."

The Prize builds on the success of the Ashurst Emerging Artists initiative, launched in November 2013 to support and mentor up and coming artists and provide them with a platform to showcase their work. Since the launch, the Prize has seen a variety of artists working across different mediums successfully exhibit in the Emerging Artists Gallery at the firm's London office, gaining exposure to a wide and varying audience.

The Prize is complemented with talks providing practical guidance for artists, and an extensive social media presence promoting all entrants, in order to benefit as many participating artists as possible.

For further details of the Prize, please visit www.artprize.co.uk.