Awards

Helen Kincaid

Helen’s paintings explore themes of threat and anxiety, considering how these states affect our perception of the world around us. When viewed through a veil of anxiety, unremarkable environments and domestic objects take on an unsettling detachment. This is evident in the images of ceramic figurines which Helen entered into the Salon Art Prize. Objects such as these are usually kept as reassuring symbols of innocence, however the artist’s painted representations create hovering, haunting memories. Helen stated ‘I am totally delighted to have won the Salon Art Prize.

"It’s an incredibly diverse and supportive event, with great selectors and generous sponsorship, providing a really significant platform for artists – it’s been fantastic to be involved" Helen Kincaid

John Jones is delighted to award Helen £500 of Artist Surfaces materials, £1000 prize money and a solo show at the John Jones gallery space.

More Information

Selection Panel

Patricia Bickers (Editor, Art Monthly),
Pippa Hale (Director, Project Space Leeds)
Robert Leckie (Exhibitions Curator, Gasworks)

Julie Cockburn

“I am delighted to have won the Salon Art Prize 2010. I really appreciate the time and support from Matt Roberts, the selectors and John Jones, and it is great to be involved in such an affirming and inclusive competition.”

Cockburn’s work centres around the act of defacement, in an attempt to both blemish and embellish by splicing, smothering and stitching. Central to their creation is the cache of found images – neglected photographs from car boots, studio shots of 1950s movie stars, pages torn from American high school yearbooks become playthings for the artist to ‘embellish, manipulate, torture and caress’. The portraits that Cockburn selects for her maverick mark-making are united in their status as images once dazzling but now defunct. She explains the allure of these outcasts and faded icons as their potential for redemption through a re-possession and re-visioning: ‘I feel I have a right to them, that they are mine for the taking, or rescuing even’.

"I was honoured to be asked to select the painting element of the Salon Art Prize. The standard of work was very high, making the selection process very difficult. I'd like to think that my selection demonstrated the variety of painting practices across the UK. The winner of the main prize, Julie Cockburn, is an artist who I have admired for a long time, and I know her solo exhibition at Matt Roberts Arts and John Jones will be superb."

Peter Bonnell, Artsway

Please click here for information about the Julie Cockburn solo show at John Jones

Salon Art Prize

Selection Panel

Peter Bonnell Curator, ArtSway
Kate MacGarry Director, Kate MacGarry Gallery, London
Richard Birkett Curator, ICA

Tim Bailey

Salon Art Prize

Selection Panel

Ceri Hand, Director of The Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool
Gordon MacDonald, Editor and Head of Publications at Photoworks, Brighton
Margot Heller, Director of the South London Gallery