The seventh annual Freelands Award has been given to the Nationwide Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. The prize permits the Scottish Nationwide Gallery of Trendy Artwork to host the primary UK museum present devoted to the Tanzanian-born artist Everlyn Nicodemus, which is because of happen from September 2024 to Might 2025.
The £110,000 award—£30,000 of which works to the artist—is given to a UK arts organisation primarily based exterior London to current a significant present, together with vital new commissions by a mid-career lady artist whose “work could not have but obtained the acclaim or public recognition that it deserves”, says a press release.
Richard Saltoun gallery in London represents Nicodemus; her work is “centred on private and cultural trauma… whereas her analysis and curatorial pursuits give attention to the historical past of Trendy African artwork”, in accordance with a gallery assertion. John Leighton, the director-general of Nationwide Galleries of Scotland, says in a press release that the Nicodemus exhibition will span 40 years and embody new works specifically produced for the present.
Final yr, works by Nicodemus have been included within the 1:54 Modern African Artwork honest in London. “Though she has had a protracted profession and been exhibited from Australia to her dwelling nation of Tanzania, she is a discovery for me. Her work is vivid however pensive. In The Omnipresent One (1986), a Madonna-like determine looms throughout the canvas, brightly clothed however bent in some unknown grief or sorrow,” wrote Chibundu Onuzo.
The opposite establishments on the award shortlist included Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (Zarina Bhimji); Turner Modern, Margate (Anya Gallaccio); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (Permindar Kaur) and Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry (Katrina Palmer).
The Freelands Award judges embody Melanie Eager, the director of the Wellcome Assortment; the artist Veronica Ryan; Anthony Spira, the director of the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes; and Henry Ward, the director of the Freelands Basis. The Freelands Basis is a philanthropic organisation based by the media entrepreneur Elisabeth Murdoch.
