After much anticipation, we are delighted to announce the five winners of the Manchester Open Awards 2024.
Each award has been chosen by a selection panel, except The People’s Choice Award, which has been chosen by you – the public! Each winner selected by HOME Granada Foundation Gallery and Castlefield Gallery will receive a bespoke artist development package managed by HOME and Castlefield Gallery to help guide and invest in their practice. We can’t wait to see what’s next for these talented artists! Continue reading to discover this year’s winners.
The awards were designed and made by designer/maker Joe Hartley with clay dug from his own clay pit.
See the award-winning artworks up close for yourself! The Manchester Open exhibition continues until Sun 28 Apr. Click here to book your free ticket and explore our free events programme.
HOME: Granada Foundation Gallery Solo Exhibition
Lizzie McLoughlin, Here at last
We are used to seeing the ethereal mother and child, not the caesarean scars, placentas, blood, and the overwhelming real emotions. This is Savannah’s freebirth, her previous baby was stillborn, the baby crash landed “like an asteroid”, into her partner’s hands…and cried, just like she’d asked him to for the last 9 months.
Castlefield Gallery: Artist Professional Development Award 1
Naomi Harwin, A daily attempt to stay grounded
Naomi Harwin specialises in sculpture and installation. Her interactive and mixed media artworks explore our senses and how they connect us with our bodies, others, and the environment. She is influenced by sensory design, architectural scenography, play, and aims to foster moments of connectivity and shared experienc
Castlefield Gallery: Artist Professional Development Award 2
Kay Shah, A Visceral Longing
Kay Shah is a British-Pakistani artist from Manchester with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the Manchester School of Art. Exploring themes of distance, isolation, and cultural identity, they investigate liminality as a response to sociocultural and interpersonal relationships within the landscape of contemporary society.
Castlefield Gallery: Artist Professional Development Award 3
Rowland Hill, The Exploding Threat
Rowland Hill works site specifically, creating environments that sit between performance and installation. She makes decorative and exuberant collages in 2D and video form. The Exploding Threat is part of an ongoing series of works with found imagery that allow her to intensely reencounter small details from art she loves.
The People’s Choice Award
Titus Agbara, In The Spirit of Rushcart
The People’s Choice Award is voted by the visitors of the Manchester Open exhibition. The winner of this year’s People’s Choice Award depicts an ancient tradition in Saddleworth dating back to the 13 hundreds, where parishioners processed through their village bearing rushes to place on the floor of their church. This artwork depicts a scene of the Rushcart Festival’s shindig in exquisite detail. Born in Lagos, Agbara attended the School of Art and Design, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi and graduated with Higher National Diploma in Painting and General Art.
He has to his credit many group shows, private commissions and solo exhibition in London, Africa and abroad and has participated in art residency with Professor Ablade Glover and with Kofi Setordji under the sponsorship of Ford Foundation. Agbara was Sky Art Portrait Artist of the Year 2014, and Sky Art Landscape Artist of the Year 2015 and 2016.
Image credit: Chris Payne