The Turner prize nominee Rory Pilgrim and the Venice Biennale artist Hayley Tompkins are among the recipients of this year’s Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Awards for Artists. The £75,000 awards were granted to five artists and five composers.
In the wake of the ongoing cost of living crisis, the awards are timely. “Unique in its no-strings-attached funding model, the [Hamlyn] awards for artists allows recipients to use their award as they wish, providing them the freedom to develop their creative ideas, alleviating the pressures they may be facing,” says a press statement.
Tompkins was part of a trio of artists, alongside Corin Sworn and Duncan Campbell, who showed works in the Scotland + Venice exhibition in 2013. Her installations combine painting with a variety of other media, including found objects, digital films, photography and furniture. “It still hasn’t felt real yet, but I do know with more resources there will be room for me to feel and move a bit differently now,” she says in a statement.
Pilgrim’s work explores how “activism, spirituality and music can create spaces for connection”, adds the statement. Bristol-born Pilgrim was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2023 for their commission RAFTS at Serpentine Galleries and Barking Town Hall. “After working on many intensive processes, [the award] gives invaluable breathing space, autonomy and financial security to find joy and excitement in creativity,” Pilgrim says.
The other successful artists this year are Georgina Starr, who is known for performance works such as Androgynous Egg (2017), Dublin-born artist Racheal Crowther and the learning disabled artist Linda Bell. Judges include Joe Hill, the director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Melissa Blanchflower, a senior curator at Turner Contemporary in Margate, and Sheryll Catto, the artistic director of ActionSpace.
Since 1994, Paul Hamlyn Foundation has made 377 awards to artists with over £12m in funding; Phyllida Barlow, Yinka Shonibare and Alberta Whittle are among the previous recipients. Five composers including Daudi Matsiko and Ayanna Witter-Johnson were also recognised.
