A new prize of £500 for a contemporary review of The London Group Open 2025.
This is a new award, to be judged by the art writers Jean Wainwright, Sue Hubbard and John Bunker. In its first year, the brief is being put out to the RCA only, who are very enthusiastic about the project. The aim of the prize is to encourage budding new critics and to attract them to visit and review future London Group shows.
The judges will have 5 days (15th – 19th of November) to agree the winner and 2 runners up as the prize giving will be on the 20th of November from 6pm-8pm. There will be one prize, but we will display the best three at the prize giving event on the 20th of November and publish them in The London Group Newsletter.
About the judges
John Bunker is an artist, writer, curator and educator living and working in London. John has had numerous reviews, catalogue essays and articles on art and artists appear in magazines, on-line journals and gallery publications. In 2018 he co-founded an online journal instantloveland.com dedicated to writing about the histories and potential futures of abstract art.
“In these most challenging of times, this terrific London Group initiative will go a little way to help nurture a new generation of art writers; and, just maybe, give us a tantalising glimpse into the future of art criticism.”
Emeritus Professor Jean Wainwright is an art historian, critic and curator living in London. Her areas of expertise are in contemporary art and photography with her writing linked to primary source interviews. Her Audio Art Archive (begun in 1996 and numbering over 2000 interviews) is continuing with 177 of these in the Tate Archives. She has published numerous essays, in refereed journals, chapters in books and published monographs. Wainwright was the consultant and archivist on Andy Warhol’s America a three-part documentary for BBC2 (2022) and has appeared on a number of TV programmes and radio broadcasts talking about contemporary art and Andy Warhol including the BBC, Channel 4 and on radio. She has curated a number of international exhibitions. In her mentoring and teaching she supports both established and emerging artists and writers.
“I very much support new critical writing and am excited to be involved in reading the reviews related to the London Group Open. This is a great imitative for emerging critics and a great encouragement for new talent.”
Sue Hubbard is an award-winning poet, novelist and an acclaimed art critic. As an art critic for 30 years she has written regularly for Time Out, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday and The New Statesman and contributed to many leading art magazines including the RA Magazine, Apollo, Irish Arts Magazine and Elephant. She is now a senior writer on Artlyst. Her selected art writings Adventures in Art were published by Damien Hirst’s Other Criteria.
