The Jerwood Contemporary Painters opens tonight

Claire Pestaille, The Soldier Boys, 2006
Copyright the artist, courtesy Rokeby

The Jerwood Contemporary Painters is the newest outing of the Jerwood Foundation’s exhibitions that promotes young artists. In previous years the Jerwood Painting Prize was restricted to a handful of artists and there was one prize winner. This year however the format offers the opportunity to see work by 30 selected artists who each receive £1,000 participation fee.

The exhibition aims to promote, discover and support imaginative and vibrant practice in contemporary painting and the works are wide ranging in their approach. There is no theme, idea, tradition, or technique shared by all. However, they are united by the particular interests of the selectors: Graham Crowley; David Rayson; and Elizabeth Magill who have selected the artists on the grounds of innovation, critical content, and skill. The selectors themselves are respected artists who work within painting and who spent months pulling together a long list of artists who interest them and who represent some of the debates within the subject. Look out for Duncan Swann’s challenging and controversial work Storyteller, Adam Latham’s creamy confection in Desserted hut andClaire Pestaille’s dark fairytale triptych The soldier boys. Five artists in particular challenge our perceptions of what constitutes a painting. They do not paint in the traditional sense. Each of the artists approach their work in a painterly fashion, each is concerned with the discourse of painting. For example, Damien Roach’s River, trees, cloud, sky is essentially a pile of books. Standing back from this arrangement, you can see a very definite landscape in the colours on the spines. Roach is appropriating a different media for his work, but he treats these books like paint.

The Jerwood Contemporary Painters exhibition runs from 15 February – 31 March at the Jerwood Space, Union Street, London SE1, open 10am – 5pm weekdays and 10am – 3pm weekends. The exhibition then tours from 18 April – 18 May to Bay Arts, Cardiff, and from 30 June – 23 September to The Lowry, Salford Quays. More information: 01372 462190.