The Threadneedle Prize 2014

‘The body breathes and sees, while the brain works to tell us what to see’. Sacha Craddock, the guest curator at this year’s Threadneedle Prize for figurative and representational art, argues in her accompanying essay that – for all the triumphalism of abstraction in the 20th century – our appreciation of art remains rooted in its relationship to the human form. ‘It is obvious that we cannot help measure in terms of ourselves, not just one to one, our width and breadth, but also our own experience…The work selected for The Threadneedle Prize will…cover a tremendous number of ways of saying what a figure can mean, aspire to, or even fail at’.

The Threadneedle Prize was established in 2008 to champion contemporary artists who engage with and extend the tradition of figurative painting. Six artists – Sue Williams A’Court, Thomas Allen, Sarah Ball, Tina Jenkins, David Teager-Portman and Craig Wylie – were shortlisted this year for the £20,000 award. This week, the winner was announced as Tina Jenkins. In addition to the prize money, she will also get the opportunity to stage a solo exhibition at the Mall Galleries in 2015.

The shortlisted work is currently on display at London’s Mall Galleries alongside a complementary exhibition, selected by Craddock, which explores more widely the state and direction of figurative art today.

Click on any image to open the slideshow of shortlisted works:

‘The Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today’ is at the Mall Galleries, London, until 11 October.