Art Next Northern Art Prize: whittled down to four! July 8, 2011 Today the NAP shortlist for 2011/12 was announced, from an inital twelve we now have four. One turns everyday things into architectural installations, another paints thousands of intricate marks in grids.

Since Haroon Mirza won last years prize he went on to claim the Silver Award at the Venice Biennale. The NAP sure is a prestigious achievement, yet our interview with Mirza in the June issue of Article Magazine, taught us that securing a place in the shortlist is actually the main accolade for any Northern artist. Less so being number one, the coming months will be the most rosy for the latest NAP selections; Leo Fitzmaurice, Richard Rigg, James Hugonin and Liadin Cooke.

This shortlist will form an exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery and a programme including interviews and events.

Particularly enrapturing are Leo Fitzmaurice’s work with everyday items like found folded cigarette packet-tops from around the world.

Richard Rigg also puts together everyday furniture in unexpected, backwards forms.

Also James Hugonin who paints into vast grids a beautiful array of tones using a tiny paintbrush. Painstaking and visually mind boggling.

Actually, check out the ‘keen artisanship’ of Liadin Cooke, so varied in media, from watercolours to stone or aluminium sculptures, the artist follows her lines of enquiry. The exhibition featuring all four artists will give us plenty to go on, and concerns over who’ll net the final prize are rightfully a distant preoccupation. Approach this shortlist as a celebration of Northern art practice!

Jane Faram