Catlin Art Prize shortlist announced

40 artists feature in the Catlin Guide, a beautifully produced annual publication that picks out some of the most promising young artists in the UK. Of those, seven have made the shortlist for the Catlin Art Prize and will be included in this year’s exhibition, which opens on 2 May at the Londonewcastle Project Space in London. The prize supports artists as they make the transition from art school to a professional career.

The winner of the Catlin Prize is selected by a panel of judges, but visitors to the exhibition can also weigh in with the annual Visitor Vote. Who do you think should win? Here’s the full shortlist with examples of their recent work:

Mr. & Mrs. Philip Cath (Goldsmiths)

Mr. & Mrs. Philip Cath in their studio, London, self-portrait

The pair, who began their formal collaboration at Goldsmiths, make monumental vanitas-style paintings from elaborate enactments and installations in their own studio.

Sarah Fortais (Central Saint Martins)

Things Being What I Want Them To Be And Not What They’re Supposed To Be, Sarah Fortais

NASA and Greek myth come together in Sarah Fortais’s bizarre scenarios, which evoke familiar narratives but push them to the point of absurdity. Special mention for her frequent references to Apollo – pictured here with Daphne.

Virgile Ittah (Royal College of Art)

For Man Would Remember Each Murmur, Virgile Ittah

A world apart from traditional waxworks, Ittah’s ghostly figures explore the idea that identity can’t be superficially captured, but is constantly being shaped, refined, and sometimes eroded by life.

Lara Morrell (Central Saint Martins)

From the series, ‘Twelve Apostles’

Morrell uses wire, string, hay and clay to create her unnerving figures. This series is based on the twelve apostles and their attributes, but sits uncomfortably outside of art-historical styles, recalling guys or scarecrows and other uncanny human stand-ins.

Neil Raitt (Royal College of Art)

Untitled, Alpine, Neil Raitt

Neil Raitt’s alpine series turns vast landscapes into repeating, interlocking patterns, mixing the decorative with the sublime.

Dennis J. Reinmüller (Edinburgh College of Art)

Player 1, Dennis J. Reinmüller

Reinmüller’s colourful installations have something of the cartoon or video game about them, but in this case, Player 1’s rather alarming fate draws attention to the violence at the heart of much of our daily entertainment.

Jakob Rowlinson (The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art)

Facial Poetics Appendix (puppeteering Adrien & Virginia), Jakob Rowlinson

Face puppeteering is carefully scripted and mapped out – each volunteer has their expressions manipulated by an unseen conductor in a bizarre inversion of motion capture.

The Catlin Art Prize is at the Londonewcastle Project Space, London, from 2–24 May 2014.