ANNOUNCEMENT: The Platform Graduate Award 2022

The South East Contemporary Visual Arts Network announces graduates taking part in this year’s emerging artistic talent award

The Platform Graduate Award was established by the Contemporary Visual Art Network South East (CVAN SE) in 2012 to support emerging artists to further their practice following graduation.

This year’s award is supported by six partner arts organisations from across the South East and West, including Aspex Portsmouth; MK Gallery in Milton Keynes; Modern Art Oxford; Phoenix Art Space in Brighton; Arts University Plymouth; and Turner Contemporary in Margate.

CVAN South East and its partners are pleased to announce the graduate artists selected for the first stage of the award, which sees their work displayed in exhibitions across the region.

To read an artist statement by each participating artist, please click here.

Platform Artists 2022

Aspex Portsmouth

7th October – 23 December 2022
Besma Alwesmi, and Annabel Miller (Arts University Bournemouth); Sam Atherton, and Zayd Menk (UCA Farnham); Amanda Berridge, and Amy Standing (University of Chichester); Shalom Nuhu, and Thaïs Verhasselt (University of Portsmouth); Erica Cannon, and Beth Givens (Solent University, Southampton); Eleanor Brown, and Annabel Tennyson-Davies (Winchester School of Art, Southampton University).

MK Gallery

2nd September – 2nd October 2022
Anna Candlin (University of Hertfordshire), Anisa Riaz Murshed (University of Bedfordshire), and Chloe Smith (University of Northampton).

Modern Art Oxford

22nd September – 2nd October 2022
Lydia Freeman (University of Reading) 

6th – 16th October 2022
Kyra-Sky Foster (Oxford Brookes University)

20th – 30th October 2022
Liz Davies (Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford)

Phoenix Art Space

1st – 30th October 2022
Neil Eastell (University Centre Hastings), Robin Lake (University Centre Hastings), and Tia Phillips (Greater Brighton Metropolitan College).

Arts University Plymouth

11th – 31st August 2022

Sue Bown, Liam Brooks, Joanna Haskins, Karmin O’Brien, Ashanti Hare, and Stella Olivier (Arts University Plymouth); Hayley Barker, and Emma Davis (University of Plymouth).

Turner Contemporary

27th October – 13th November 2022
Wiktoria Sikorska

16th November – 4th December 2022
Sara Jabot

7th – 31st December 2022
Simone Swaine

5th January – 29th January 2022
Constandina Herodotou

The next phase of Platform will see the partner organisations each shortlist a finalist, from which one outstanding graduate will receive a £2000 bursary and 12 months of mentoring support. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges, including a representative from each partner and a guest artist, with previous years seeing Mikhail Karakis, Harold Offeh, Rosalind Nashashibiand, and Tai Shani contribute to the final decision. 

“This award provides a much needed springboard for artists graduating from our local Universities. It could not happen without the enduring engagement of our Higher Education partners, and of course this year’s four host venues in the CVAN South East network. My thanks go to them all, and most of all to the artists themselves who have amazed us despite the pandemic disruption of their final year”, says Oliver Sumner, Manager of CVAN South East.

The winner of the Platform Graduate Award 2022 will be announced in a ceremony this winter.

Images (top left to right): Mystic, Sue Bown, Plymouth, 2022; Simone Swaine, Rags to Riches, 16ft of stitched found textiles, installation view at UCA degree show, 2022; Annabel Miller, Moore and the ubiquitous form, Installation view at Arts University Bournemouth, 2022; (bottom left to right) Blockwork, Neil Eastell, 2022; Kyra-Sky Foster, Black Hole as Metaphor, Barrel, 2022; Chloe Smith, Squircle Inter-Changing, still from animated code, 2022.