Woon Art Prize winner’s work exhibited at BALTIC39

Striking artwork from the winner of prestigious Woon Foundation Art Prize 2014 has gone on display at the Gallery North this month.

Ramona Zoladek, the 2014-2015 Woon Tai Jee Fellow, had her work Loop exhibited at Gallery North on Wednesday 16 September. The work in Loop has been made as part of the year-long Fellowship and will be on display until 9 October.

The graduate of the Anglia Ruskin Cambridge School of Art explores the relationships between nature, architecture and objects in her work. Ramona’s art revolves around ideas of growth and ruin, as well as the history exposed by these objects and architectural units as they interact with nature.

Using time, process and their impact on materials taken from the junctures of these relationships, such as the kinds of materials found at construction sites and builders’ merchants, her work suggests structure, strength and durability, whilst simultaneously appearing vulnerable as though we are seeing these sculptures at a critical moment prior to their collapse or abandonment.

The Woon Foundation Painting and Sculpture Prize, in partnership with Northumbria University and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, offers an exceptional opportunity for students currently in their final year of undergraduate study in the United Kingdom. Final-year undergraduates of Fine Art Painting and Sculpture in the UK are invited to compete for the prizes.

The prize was launched in 2012 and the inaugural winner was Holly Hendry, who completed her Fellowship in September 2014; Ramona Zoladek, holds the Fellowship until September 2015, and the latest winner is Kayt Hughes, a Nottingham Trent graduate, who takes up her fellowship in the next few weeks.

The Woon Prize was created by Northumbria University law graduate and philanthropist Mr Wee Teng Woon along with his three brothers who together make up The Woon Foundation. The combined £40,000 competition prize, supported by the Woon Foundation is equal in value to Britain’s biggest art award, the Turner Prize.

Northumbria University and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art provide both staff and students with direct industry exposure and live project opportunities. This month sees applications open for another prestigious award for artists through the University. The Warwick Stafford Fellowship, hosted by Northumbria at the BxNU Institute for Contemporary Art at BALTIC 39, is an annual award aimed at early to mid-career practitioners in Fine Art.

 The fellowship offers artists a structured opportunity to advance their practice and research for a twelve-month period whilst engaging with a stimulating community of professional artists, students, Fine Art Researchers and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art partners. Applications are now open, so for more information visit: www.northumbria.ac.uk/warwickstafford