The Selection Committee
The panel of judges is headed each year by Louis Singh, director of Beaux Arts Gallery London. In addition, four experts from the contemporary art world are also invited to participate, bringing the total on the panel to five. Members have included established artists, gallery owners, art critics and writers, art dealers, art enthusiasts involved with our selected charity, and celebrities who may or may not be publicly recognized as accomplished artists.
The judges are volunteers who generously donate their time and expertise, viewing hundreds of entries online and in person, in the end selecting approximately 180 works which comprise each year's exhibition. For details about this year's members please see below.
The 2011 Selection Committee
Stuart Semple, Artist - LondonStuart Semple is a British painter who has achieved widespread critical acclaim as a provocative image-maker, social commentator and visual spokesperson. His worldwide blockbuster exhibition schedule humbly grew from sales of his drawings for just a couple of pounds on eBay. Quickly his following expanded furiously and by the age of just 21 he had sold over 3000 works and held his first sell-out solo exhibition in London. He now exhibits worldwide, curates for leading institutions and writes for national publications, including a column for Art Of England. His canvases are preserved in the Getty, Langen, David Roberts and Niarchos foundations.
Semple's curatorial projects continually receive critical reviews. It is this dedication to supporting creativity that led to the doors opening on Semple’s Aubin Gallery (a collaboration with eccentric British clothing brand Aubin & Wills) in 2010, instantly causing a widespread recognition of Redchurch Street as the new hub to see the best of Britain’s new artistic talent.
Large scale solo exhibitions have been held in London, Hong Kong, New York and Italy, with the opening of his most recent London show ‘Happy House’ being broadcast live by the BBC on the eve of the 2010 General elections.
Giles Baker Smith, GBS Fine Art - Bristol - LondonGiles Baker-Smith has been working at the heart of the London art world continuously for 25 years, specializing in nineteenth and twentieth century British and European painting, and contemporary art.
In 1993, he left to found the Blue Gallery. The contemporary market then was not the frenzied headline-grabbing Leviathan of today. Aside from the few major dealerships, London offered a modest, if eclectic, scattering of contemporary galleries. The initial intention of the Blue Gallery was to offer a platform for younger artists, often recently out of college, in a period when it usually took many years before any sort of recognition would be accorded.
It was one of the earlier galleries to embrace photography as a medium and it also showed a willingness to explore new aesthetic avenues. In essence, the Blue Gallery provided a platform for artists, who, irrespective of fad and fashion, produced work of clarity, vision and accomplishment.
In 2006, the Directors of the Blue Gallery decided to go their separate ways and Giles founded GBS Fine Art an independent fine art consultancy and dealership.
Martin Newman, The Mirror - LondonMartin Newman is the art critic and assistant news editor at the Daily Mirror. He graduated from Sydney University with a degree in literature and fine arts in 1991 and has worked as a journalist for almost 20 years and an art reviewer for the past dozen. He professes to liking all forms of art from classical realism to snow sculptures and video installations, and believes that art = beauty.
He said: "Someone once said 'There is no such thing as bad weather, just different kinds'. I feel the same way about art, because I know even if I'm not into it or don't get it, it's pretty likely someone else will. Great art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, and artists need encouragement not a kick in the teeth. What they are doing is trying to capture beauty: beauty in the moment, beauty in the real, in struggle, in ugliness, in truth. They are creative souls driven to a noble calling, and there talent and insight washes over and benefits us all."
Laura Noble, Diemar/Noble Photography - LondonLaura Noble is a London based Artist, Writer and Director of Diemar/Noble Photography, a new Commercial Gallery in the heart of London's West End. She lectures regularly and is the author of 'The Art of Collecting Photography' and primary essays in the following monographs: 'Crazy God' by Yvonne De Rosa, 'Chrysalis' & 'Circus' by Anderson & Low, 'London' by Lluis Real. She also contributes to magazines including: Eyemazing, Snoecks, LIP, Photoicon, Image, Next Level, Foam & Leisure Center and is Editor at Large for Photoicon Magazine.
Louis Singh, Beaux Arts Gallery - London“St Ives in the 1970s was a somewhat lazier place than today. Late morning deals were customarily made with cigarette in one hand and glass of sherry in the other. Back then my father had the Wills Lane gallery which ensured my mind was constantly flooded with images of the St Ives School as soon as my eyes had opened. When I was ten my parents opened the Beaux Arts gallery in Bath which continued to nurture these Cornish roots.
These days with a sister gallery in London, minus the sherry, not much has changed. I busy myself by keeping the gallery from growing old by steering some youth and raw contemporary talent, towards its doors."
The 2010 Selection Committee
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Louis Singh, Associate Director Beaux Arts Gallery - London |
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Mark Foxwell, Printer - Genesis Imaging | |
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Lisa Sharpe, Art Dealer |
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Ben Hanly, Modern and Contemporary Art Specialist |
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Susan Stockwell, International Contemporary Artist. |
The 2009 Selection Committee
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Louis Singh, Associate Director Beaux Arts Gallery - London |
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Angela Conner, International Sculptor | |
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Moussy Salem, Contemporary Art Dealer |
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Richard Martin, Founder & Chairman of Children of Peace, Former Art Dealer | |
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Sir John Bird, Founder of the Big Issue, Art Enthusiast & Artist |
The 2008 Selection Committee
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John Hurt, Actor & Artist |
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Sir John Bird, Founder of the Big Issue & Artist | |
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Eddie Chambers, Professor of Art History, Art Critic & Writer |
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Peter Suchin, Contemporary Art Critic, Painter & Curator |
