Room 237

Reynir Hutber  has been announced as the winner of the Catlin Art Prize 2010 today. Hutber is a graduate of Westminster University : B.A (Hons) Mixed Media Art and his work Room 237 (Video installation, Variable dimensions, 2009) has won him the £3,000 prize which is enough for the young artist to run a studio for a year.

The competition was fierce this year with many other great young artists in the final throws.

Alexander Allen was also a close contender for the winning spot. His rugged tower and stretcher sculptures made of un-fired bricks were praised for their historical referencing of the death of industry and physical presence.

Miyo Yoshida’s work was felt to be beautifully produced and presented. BodyCash consists of resin casts of various parts of her body with black market price tags attached. These were born of her investigations into the international body organ trafficking trade, which is becoming globally endemic.

Adam Dix’s new canvases depict dancing figures worshipping satellites and pylons. These beautifully wrought paintings explore the association between communication technology and our desire to communicate.

Viki Matkin produced draped sculptures of petrified canvas which stand eerily in the gallery space. Their figures evoke femininity through the curvature of the fabric, and meditate on themes of veiling and concealment.

Alex Virgi’s paintings are small oval brightly coloured abstract canvases which take the tradition of portraiture as their point of departure.

Video artist Sonny Vadgama’s work Runner is a striking immersive work which revolves around ideas of social entropy and the thermal entropy of the heat of the runner’s bodies.

In the end Reynir Hutber’s work was felt to be especially promising for its coherency and for placing the viewer within the piece itself.

His video/performance art uses looped video footage to make it appear that the viewer is within touching distance of the artist when in fact the installation space is empty. The impact of this strange encounter is a powerful one, and asks a loaded question for our televisual society – are we responsible for what we watch?

Congratulations to Reynir Hutber, we will be keeping a close eye on you.

Author: Ty_Lee

Ty is a lover of all things art - from the classical to the neo classical, his appetite for art is insatiable. Devouring all forms and patterns, he is constantly on the look out for art that elicits emotion reactions within his own continuum and those of others. Always friendly and happy to have a chin wag about the latest art his Buddhist views permeate the kaleidoscope of his vision.