The Valeria Sykes Prize Exhibition 

An exhibition of paintings by the North of England’s most promising young artists. Twenty four northern artists have been shortlisted for the first ever £10,000 New Lights award by a panel of independent judges representing the arts world.

This new award aims to act as a springboard for the region’s young painters and to showcase the vibrancy of northern contemporary art.

The shortlisted paintings have been selected from 232 entries by judges Kate Brindley, Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and a National Advisor for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Art Funding Programme; Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Arts Society and William Tillyer, the international artist who comes from the North East.

The 2011 prize, named the Valeria Sykes Prize after the main sponsor, was open to artists aged 23-35 who either live, or gained an arts degree, in the North of England.

http://www.newlights.org.uk/prize