“The East London Art Prize…has allowed me to be experimental and pursue areas of my practice I have never done before…encouraging of venturing out, and has had a great impact on the development of my practice.”
Woo Jin Joo, 2023 shortlisted artist
The 2023 East London Art Prize was judged by Larry Achiampong (artist), Louisa Buck (art critic), Ellie Pennick (Director & Founder, Guts Gallery) and Megan Piper (Director & Co-Founder, The Line).
Selected from over 650 submissions the 2023 shortlist was Alaa Alsaraji, Kat Anderson, David Aston, Lulu Bennett, Damien Cifelli, Phoebe Collings-James, Sophie Cunningham, Cora Sehgal Cuthbert, Ufuoma Essi, Woo Jin Joo, Lulu Wang and Xinyao Yu.
All took part in the 2023 Shortlist Exhibition which ran at the Nunnery Gallery in January 2023. From the exhibition, Kat Anderson was announced as the 2023 East London Art Prize winner and Cora Sehgal Cuthbert as the runner-up. Read more about the winners.
As part of their shortlist award, all 12 artists were paired with mentors as part of the East London Art Prize mentoring scheme, supporting their career development. Over 70 mentoring sessions were set up between the shortlist and their especially chosen mentors, including professional artists, academics, curators, writers, and gallerists.
All 12 artists also went on to take part in the East London Art Prize programme, including talks and workshops with Prize partners British Council, London College of Fashion and UCL East, as well as the East London Art Prize x Whitechapel takeover. Read more about the event programme.
“I really appreciate the help and enthusiasm of all of the Bow Arts team last year, it was a brilliant experience, and as a result has definitely had an extremely positive impact on my practice and has built my network significantly going forward. I am very grateful!”
Sophie Cunningham, 2023 shortlisted artist