Paul Hamlyn Foundation Announces 2023 Awards

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation on November 8 named the ten artists and composers who will receive the organization’s 2023Awardsfor Artists. The honors, presented annually, are England’s largest of their kind. Each award is for £60,000 (about $73,000) and is disbursed over three years with no attendant restrictions—welcome at any time, but especially so now. “It’s a tough environment for artists at the moment,” said foundation chair Jane Hamlyn, who leads the visual arts judging panel, in a statement. “These awards help artists to focus on what they do best. With no strings attached, they are free to decide how the award can best support their life and practice.”RelatedHELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION SUED FOR “DESTROYING” PAINTER’S LEGACYBMA CREATES PAID INTERNSHIPS HONORING VALERIE MAYNARD As they are every year, the individual awards were divided evenly among the camps, with the prevailing artists including social-worker-turned-multimedia-artist Helen Cammock, a Turner Prize co-winner whose practice investigates themes of Blackness, femaleness, and power; and Turner nominee Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.), a QTIBPOC (queer, trans, intersex, Black, and people of color) collective embracing sound, art, and activism. Rounding out the artists’ group are Jamie Crewe, who explores issues of community and self through media including sculpture, drawing, video, music, and performance; filmmaker Imran Perretta, who examines identity, migration, and belonging through the lens of his own South Asian background; and sound artist Ain Bailey, who places field recordings and found sounds in the service of works centering notions of silence and absence and addressing the built environment.

The winning composers comprised Nneka Cummins, Edward George, Hyelim Kim, Francesca Pidgeon (Dilettante), and Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy. Established in 1994, the awards are meant to assist artists and composers at what the foundation describes as “timely” points in their respective careers, whenever that might be: There are no age limits associated with the prizes. The organization to date has distributed more than £10 million among 347 artists and composers, including Phyllida Barlow, Sonia Boyce, Jeremy Deller, and Yinka Shonibare..