It’s official, the 2015 HIX Award has been won!
The recipient of this year’s exciting art prize is Allyson McIntyre who has just completed an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, and in fact applied for this award whilst finishing up her degree.
Founded in 2013 by famed restaurateur Mark Hix alongside CNB Gallery director, Rebecca Lidert, the award is designed to provide young, emerging artists a platform to show their work, in hopes of giving them that first boost they need following graduation. In a sense, the prize works to set artists off in the right direction post-university, which of course, gives it a special place in our hearts here at ArtAttack, where we strive to help student and graduate artists jumpstart their artistic futures.
This year, there were hundreds of applicants from all over the world vying for the prize, but from 19 eventual finalists, Allyson reigned supreme. In fact, the choice of Allyson’s painting, ‘Moon Cries for Ferdinand,’ was practically unanimous amongst the 22 judges, which included Tracey Emin, Liz Murdoch, Ivan Massow, Dylan Jones and one of our personally favourite people, Mark Inglefield of Albany Arts Communications.
To select the ultimate winner, the judges dined together in the gallery, savouring lunch provided by Hix’s own Tramshed (yum!) whilst discussing and debating the merits of the various artworks. The prestigious panel then scored each piece out of a possible 5 and Allyson was beyond-a-doubt, the artist of choice.
Of Allyson’s winning painting, Tracey Emin praises, “This work was a massive surprise, I was really impressed with the confidence.’
Congratulations Allyson! May this be the first of many triumphs to come!
– India Irving
For more information on the HIX Award, please visit their website.
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