LSA Student Award logo

sponsored by 

Cank Street Gallery logo


Leicester Society of Artists is pleased to announce the shortlist for the LSA Student Award 2018

Da Hyoung Choi, BA Fine Art (Part B), Loughborough University
Bethany Fowkes, BA Design Crafts, 2018, De Montfort University
Joanna Groves, BA Fine Art, 2018, De Montfort University
Omeiza Haruna, BA Fine Art (Year 2), Loughborough University
Shannon Iero, BA Fine Art (Year 1), De Montfort University
Jemisha Maadhavji, BA Fine Art, 2018, De Montfort University
Alice Miller, BA Fine Art (Year 1), Loughborough University
Lis Naylor, BA Fine Art 2018, De Montfort University [tbc]
Francesca Onesti, BA Fine Art (Year 2), Loughborough University
Emma Stewart, BA Fine Art, 2018, De Montfort University
Charlie Townsend, L3 Extended Diploma in Photography (Year 1), Leicester College

Da Hyoung Choi
Loughborough University
BA Fine Art (Part B)

Painting by Da Hyoung Choi

Da Hyoung Choi, 'Into the Habitable World: Eye', acrylic on canvas

"My work archives existing documents as literature and film footages and translates them into paintings. I get rid of paragraphs or scenes that are problematic to human rights in classic literature or films and make a new original. Second, I recreate the past images that have disappeared from history with the current image. 

I layer the archived images on the canvas to make a new original. To represent with new images based on archived documents, the more layers I build on the canvas, the more abstract image with the texture is created, and the image that has existed or disappeared in the past becomes tactile as well as visible."

Bethany Fowkes
De Montfort University
BA Design Crafts, 2018

Glassware by Bethany Fowkes

Bethany Fowkes, 'Memphis', glass

"As a designer and maker, I am inspired by patterns and colours that are around me. The Memphis movement and pop arty feel is of particular interest to me, due to the vibrant colours and graphic patterns that it contains. Taking this into my own practice, to create modern glassware that captures the very essence of Memphis, the graphic patterns, shapes and vibrant colours and also taking influence from Scandinavian style glass.

I gained first-hand experience, during a placement with Devereux and Huskie during their collaboration for Syngergy II . . and I pushed my own practice further by creating pieces that had varied colours,  whilst creating symmetrical shapes for the exteriors."

Joanna Groves
De Montfort University
BA Fine Art, 2018

mixed media painting by Joanna Groves

Joanna Groves, 'Aberystwyth' mixed media

"My work is founded upon my love for the seaside environment and exploring the marks, textures and movements within the sea. 

Each work is based on a different photograph that I have taken, as the colours and marks are a reflection of different days and seaside locations. Each piece starts with a silk screen print, which is an edit of my own photography, bringing my initial source material back into the final pieces of work. 

The pieces are built up of numerous layers by using acrylic, emulsion, watercolour and spray paint, colouring pencils, chalk and pastels. I have travelled around various coastlines in Wales to photograph the sea, capturing the atmosphere of the place and time – which heavily influence the differences between the pieces. I want the viewer to resonate with how I feel when making the work and viewing the sea."

Omeiza Haruna
Loughborough University
BA Fine Art (Year 2)

3-D artwork by Omeiza Haruna

Omeiza Haruna, '100 Days and Counting', glass bulb in resin

'And Counting' is one of my more experimental projects. Its primary focus revolves around time and the way it is depicted with regard to everyday, household objects. It calls attention to the discarded and decayed and invites the audience to find a beauty in the obsolete.

Each time construct (resin cube) has a title to reflect the approximate time period the object encased within it would take to decay.

The objects are cut up into different layers, with the lowermost layer being fresh material and each subsequent layer having decayed an increasing amount of time. The uppermost layer of each object is exposed from the resin allowing their continual degradation and decay in real time, highlighting time as a process over a product.  

Shannon Iero
De Montfort University
BA Fine Art (Year 1) 

Image by Shannon Iero

Shannon Iero, 'Consruction in Fog', black & white emulsion

My paintings reflect several different emotions and issues I’m currently dealing with such as depression, anxiety and trauma. I was use large brushes, spatulas, knives and any other tools to scrape on and off layers of black and white emulsion to create different surfaces. Beginning with constructions and buildings, which developed into looking at myself and my body. 

The background, although plain grey in my photographs, became this tattered, dripping smudge of shades, almost like the world around me is crumbling and falling away. The scratchy, textured process creates an isolating atmosphere for the pieces. It’s my intention to share my mental pain with the viewer through my artwork. 

Jemisha Maadhavji
De Montfort University
BA Fine Art, 2018

Painting by Jemisha Maadhavji

Jemisha Maadhavji, 'The Spark of Light' (detail), oil on mdf

When do we appreciate our own selves, who we are as individuals? I am not interested in painting people that everybody knows,  people that are famous, I am interested in people that are unknown to me, to the world.

I find my subjects from sources such as social media and day to day life, I approach them via messaging. I see them as my celebrities, icons, people that are special to me. I am interested in capturing these figures as who they are but in a rather dramatic and iconic way by using props. They are based on photographs which I take in a photography studio, using coloured, lighting and warm lighting. My Models are from different communities. Some are White British; Lithuanian, Italian, Indian. Fashion designers to psychology students. . The figures stand in front of a flat coloured background so the figure is the centre of attention.

 

I don’t really think about the likeness when I’m painting them its just a process of discovering who they are and how I see them. This is what painting does - discovering the subject through paint and that’s what I feel I’m doing when I am painting.

Alice Miller
Loughborough University
BA Fine Art (Year 1)

Painting by Alice Miller

Alice Miller, '45 Hours', acrylic on paper

I have an interest in painting, ceramics and analogue photography, amongst other methods, and work primarily on a small scale. Recently, I have produced a series of small paintings which possess elements of unease in composition and focus. In this way, I enjoy introducing narrative and encouraging scrutiny from the viewer due to the very small scale and detailed nature of the work.

In the past, ideas of comfort relating to environment and particularly domestic interiors has greatly influenced my work; the idea that a home in terms of both a metaphorical concept and a physical entity is inextricably linked to identity and memory.

Lis Naylor
De Montfort University [tbc]
BA Fine Art 2018

 

3D work by Lis Naylor

Lis Naylor, 'Vernal', steel plaster, hay, lime dust

Immersed in the English countryside I embrace the changing seasons and the freshness of the land.

I love the aromas which go hand in hand with the outdoors and the tactile feel of natural materials.

 

My work is derived from the earth. A statuesque steel armature made from iron and carbon, chosen for its durability and strength, gypsum mined from the ground and mixed with sand, water and hay collected from my limestone hay store then rendered to finish. It is a celebration of the female form in movement, a discreet gesture, ephemeral in its execution and a reflection of my close engagement with humanity and nature.

Francesca Onesti
Loughborough University
A Fine Art (Year 2)

pastel by Francesca Onesti

Francesca Onesti,' Through the Ice Cave', chalk pastel on paper

My work has been developed from an affective connection to environments where I feel detachment from society, spiritual closeness and affinity to the sensory elements, in particular by the experience of old-growth forest and glacial environments in British Columbia, Canada.

I have explored themes of isolation/detachment, escapism, place, sensory elements, geological/spiritual force and memory; and within these: elements of chance, light/contrast, visual texture, scale.

Whilst the imagery of my work is strongly based in reality, my practice has progressed as an exploration of fragmentation and abstraction. Sensory elements are also reflected through the use of organic materials such as handmade cotton paper and chalk.

Emma Stewart
De Montfort University
BA Fine Art, 2018

painting by Emma Stewart

Emma Stewart, 'Grey #2', oil paint on mdf

Emma Stewart is an abstract painter whose work discovers relativity of colour and process. Subtle shifts in hue render voids of contrasting tones which reinstate three dimensional illusion in two dimensional surfaces.

The interplay between the additive and subtractive process, delineating light infused darkness, constitutes an enquiry into the relativity of colour and a consideration of the syntax that surrounds space, time and form.

 

The deceptive appearance of space employs an importance of polychromatic lustre and spatial illusion, through the presence of warm and cool hues which appear to advance and recede, whilst the interaction of light and the relativity of colour effect how hue and tone is perceived.

Charlie Townsend
Leicester College
L3 Extended Diploma in Photography (Year 1)

Photograph by Charlie Townsend

Charlie Townsend, 'The Homeless', photograph