Brewers Towner International: We Have a Winner!

Image credit: Daniel Bartholomew

Last year, we announced our long-standing partnership with Towner Eastbourne continues with the sponsorship of the Brewers Towner International, an open call exhibition of contemporary art. The second edition features a range of artists, local, national and international, coming together to share work which addresses the theme of SANCTUARY.

Image credit: Daniel Bartholomew

The Brewers Towner Award of £10,000, which we are proud to sponsor, is given to one of the exhibiting artists alongside mentoring from the Towner team.  The winner of this prestigious award has been announced as Harald Smykla. 

Find out more about Harald and his incredible work here>>

Image credit: Daniel Bartholomew

Following an open call, 23 artists were selected by an esteemed panel including Elizabeth Price (Turner Prize winning artist), Sepake Angiama (Artistic Director, Iniva), and Noelle Collins (Exhibitions & Offsite Curator, Towner Eastbourne). This same panel met on Saturday 21 October to choose the winner from the exhibiting artists.

Image credit: Harald Smykla

“We are delighted to announce that Harald Smylka has won this year’s Brewers Towner Award.  His convincing and direct work appeals to us all and is highly accessible whilst remaining complex. The London based, German artist makes images which ‘rewild’ press images, providing respite from the ‘bad news’ in the form of colour and texture. The exhibiting artists this year were of a fantastic caliber, and Harald’s work in particular was appropriate to our theme of SANCTUARY.”

Noelle Collins, Exhibitions & Offsite Curator

Image credit: Daniel Bartholomew

19 artists are part of the exhibition and a further four, meanwhile, are to present a concurrent public programme this season including film screenings, artist talks and performances. 

The artists include a number based on the South Coast - Nigel Caple, Sharon Haward, Kevin Hendley and Benjamin Phillips & Amy Fenton who live and work in East Sussex, as well as Graham Ellard & Stephen Johnstone, Hicham Gardaf, and Edward Liddle who are based in Kent. 

Artists based elsewhere in the UK include Maud Haya-Baviera who lives in Sheffield, and Ufuoma Essi, Melanie Jackson, Amanda Kyritsopoulou, Dene Leigh, Karen Russo, Lara Smithson and Harald Smykla all based in London. 

Christophe Lennox lives and works in Norway, and Steph Goodger, lives and works in France. Work presented includes moving image, photography, drawing, painting, installation and live performance.

Image credit: Daniel Bartholomew

“The open call for Brewers Towner International is an opportunity to recognise and appreciate how artistic communities are reflecting and responding to the economic, political, cultural, and environmental changes that are unfolding in the contemporary moment. Artists have studied the places that have become a sanctuary throughout the pandemic - finding solace in the studio, the home and the landscape. The resulting exhibition brings together a community of artists, makers and storytellers, examining subjects as varied as pattern, memory, identity and the migratory experience”

Mark Brewer

Image credit: Daniel Bartholomew

To find out more about the exhibition and Towner Eastbourne, please click here.