£10,000 Comme Ca Art Prize shortlist announced
Five artists will exhibit work for October 8th decision

A shortlist of five has been announced for the new annual prize of £10,000 for contemporary visual art in the North of England, the Comme Ca Art Prize 2003, the biggest art prize funded by a commercial, non-public funded art gallery in the UK.

Claire Turner, director of the Comme Ca Art Gallery in Castlefield, Manchester, the organisation behind the award: "All of the short-listed artists produce highly contemporary work in terms of the creative media they use. The artists’ chosen media range from installations in the style of architectural models to videos with a soundtrack of dialogue and pop songs, from large format drawings to witty cartoon-style illustrations, and even Lego."

The shortlist not only features artists who have exhibited in the North, but also represents the D.I.Y ethos of the emerging community of artists based in the North. They have forged their own alternative galleries, studio operations and publicity networks, and their exuberant attitude and vision results in an edgy, insightful rigour present in the shortlist.

In alphabetical order, the shortlist is:

Matthew Houlding, 36, from Todmorden, Lancashire, constructs installations using mass-produced packaging and domestic building materials, which allude to architectural models. His submitted work ‘Exclusive Waterfront Development Opportunity’ has a powerful relevance in the context of the North’s current physical regeneration.

The Little Artists, 29, are the duo Cake and Neave, who have a studio based in Manchester. The Little Artists have adopted Lego as one of their creative mediums. Their pieces explore the persona and mythology of the contemporary artist. Lego versions of Dali, Hirst’s shark, Gilbert and George and even the Little Artists themselves pop up in their playful digressions on branding and the art world.

David Mackintosh, 37, makes objects and drawings in brush and ink on A1 paper. The freshness and immediacy of the technique contrasts with the bleakness of the worldview expressed. The gloom is leavened by grim humour; titles such as ‘Man walking towards the edge of a precipice under a cloud’ exist alongside more ambiguous images. Among work submitted is a series of paper Baseball Caps tilted ‘Hats for people I hate.’

Paul Rooney, 36, from Liverpool, produces video, sound and performance works. He often interviews people about their everyday experiences in the course of their jobs, and sets these experiments to music. One performance featured a karaoke-style duet ballad based on a call centre phone conversation between a female operator and male caller. Rooney also voiced over a video which records his own part in Ted Robbins’ audience warm-up routine for the TV show ‘Stars In Their Eyes’.

Richard Talbot, 46, lives in North Shields, Tyne and Wear and is a part-time lecturer in Sculpture and Drawing at City and Guilds London Art School. For two decades he has been making very large pencil drawings up to the size of 4m by 5m, of forms associated with maps, landscape and water. He uses geometric linear perspective, a process that produces a complex and almost transparent matrix.

The winner will be selected from the work the five artists choose to exhibit at the Comme Ca Art Gallery, Manchester, from October 8th - the same day the jury decides and announces the winner.

The jury and its chair Stephen Snoddy were unanimous in their shortlisting. Snoddy, Director of Milton Keynes Gallery, chaired the jury drawn from each of the three regions: Lewis Biggs, Director of Liverpool Biennial; Sune Nordgren, Director of Baltic, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; and Carol Maund, Director of Site Gallery, Sheffield.

Stephen Snoddy says: "The short-listed artists show the depth of quality and diverse nature of artists working and exhibiting in the North and represents an exciting beginning for the Comme Ca Art Prize. The short list will provide talking
points, debate and dialogue about contemporary art and galleries in the
North and support artists in the making of new work."

The award, launched in February, received more than 300 entries. Claire Turner, director of the Comme Ca Art organisation, said: "The response was excellent. The shortlist is made up of wonderful talents that will help the Comme Ca Art Prize achieve its aim of bringing the art, artists and galleries associated with the North of England to a wider audience."

The Patron for the Comme Ca Art prize in the first year is Chris Ofili, the artist from Manchester who won The Turner Prize in 1998 and is representing Britain at the Venice Biennale in June 2003. Chris Ofili said: "I am delighted to be Patron as I grew up in Manchester and went to art college in Tameside. I very much hope this new prize will encourage and draw attention to artists working in the North."

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