2018 Vision Express NI Young Artist of the Year awarded to Alana Barton at The Braid Arts Centre, Ballymena
Young Artists aged 25 to 30 across Northern Ireland were invited to apply for this years Young Artist of the Year hosted by The Braid Arts Centre, sponsored by Vision Express and developed in partnership with Ballymena Rotary Club. The annual Northern Ireland wide competition is a platform for young artists to showcase their work and now in its 5th year the standards each year continue to grow and impress the judges.
First prize is a £1,000 cash prize for the winner to develop their artform, there is also a solo exhibition on offer for the runner up finalist at The Braid Arts Centre.
This year first place in the competition was awarded to painter Alana Barton who is based at The Vault Studios in Belfast, and runner up Jasmine Marker who is also based at The Vault.
Alana received a cheque for £1,000 and Jasmin will stage a solo show in The Braid Arts Centre later this year.
Entries spanned a range of media this year from film to ceramics, installation work to painting and a huge number of entries were received from across the province. These entries were shortlisted down to 13 finalists who all attended the awards ceremony in early January 2019 at The Braid Arts Centre.
Winning Artist Alana Barton was delighted to receive her award and said:
I cannot wait to buy new paints and materials, this is a wonderful honour and I am delighted to have been chosen’.
More images from the exhibition and awards ceremony available at: www.facebook.com/niyoungartistoftheyear
