New Light Prize Exhibition Comes To Harrogate 12 October – 5 January

The hugely popular New Light Art Prize Exhibition will be arriving at The Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate from Saturday 12th October until Sunday 5th January 2025.

A celebration of Northern talent, this free exhibition shines a light on the incredible artistic flair that the Northern region has to offer, rewarding local artists with grants, solo exhibitions and mentoring. The exhibition features the FIVE winning pieces, as well as those from 121 shortlisted artists who impressed the esteemed panel of judges with their unique artwork.

This is the final stop of the prestigious 2023/24 New Light Art Prize exhibition which has so far been shown at the Bankside Gallery in London, the Gallery at Rheged in Penrith, The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle and the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead. Artists from across the North – or those who have close associations with the North – were invited to submit their entries over the course of three months last year. Following a gruelling judging process, the winners were announced in September 2023.

The exhibition has been hugely popular at every gallery we have been to on our journey so far. We are so grateful for all of the galleries, sponsors, judges and artists who have taken part as we celebrate the diverse talent we have in the North of England. We have launched our first ever Sculpture Prize in 2024, sponsored by The Biscuit Factory Foundation, to fantastic reviews. We are thrilled to bring the exhibition to an end at The Mercer Art Gallery, it is a wonderful gallery and this is a particularly fitting celebration as we visited The Mercer on its first tour 15 years ago.Rebekah Tadd, CEO New Light Art

The Mercer Art Gallery was built 200 years ago as the Promenade Rooms, used as a place for spa visitors to socialise. It later became a theatre, then Town Hall before its rebirth as the Mercer Art Gallery in 1991. The event will be sponsored by McInroy & Wood, personal investment managers and Raworths LLP Solicitors in Harrogate.

Karen Southworth, Curator at The Mercer Art Gallery, says: “We were proud to host the first New Light Prize Exhibition 15 years ago and we’ve watched this amazing event go from strength to strength since then, bringing the work of Northern artists to such a wide audience. We’re looking forward to bringing the 2023/24 exhibition to North Yorkshire.”

The exhibition is free to attend and will include the following pieces of winning work:

‘Lockdown’ by Frances Bell - winner of the Valeria Sykes Award and £10,000.

Frances has lived in Wooler in Northumberland, not far from Newcastle, for the past 20 years. Born in 1983, after developing an early interest in drawing and painting, she pursued art and art history, making her way to Florence to pursue classical training at Charles H. Cecil Studios in 2001 for three years, where she taught sporadically for the further seven summers. Since completing her training, Frances has been a full-time professional portrait and landscape painter, exhibiting internationally and across the UK.

‘Bog Bumper Emerging from the Moss’ by Robert Cook

Robert is the winner of the £2,500 Patron’s Choice Award.

Robert lives in Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire. After graduating in scientific illustration at Blackpool & The Fylde College, Robert worked as an illustrator before going into teaching, sharing his knowledge of drawing, painting and passion for nature as a lecturer in scientific illustration. Since leaving education, he has worked as a wildlife artist honing his craft.

‘During the Endless Night She Felt Herself Losing Her Mind’ by George Melling

George is the winner of the Emerging Artists Award sponsored by Saul Hay Gallery, where the winner has been awarded mentoring, professional advice and an exhibition at Saul Hay Gallery George is from Preston in Lancashire.

After finishing his MA at Chelsea College of Art, George taught at Kingston University before moving back to Lancashire in 2000 where he set up his own painting practice. Working as a butcher two days a week to enable George to focus on his artwork for the rest of the week, his current body of work draws on images from photographs of family and friends from childhood, representing an interrogation of the past, what we inherit, what we cherish and what we discard.

‘Bewick’s Place’ by Neil Bousfield – winner of the Printmakers’ Prize

This prize is sponsored by Zillah Bell Gallery – where the winner will receive a solo or group exhibition at the Zillah Bell gallery in North Yorkshire, host to some of the UK’s very best printmakers’ shows.

Neil was born in Middlesborough and grew up in the coastal village of Marske-by-the-Sea and Redcar in North Yorkshire. He studied at Cleveland College of Art & Design in Middlesborough and Teesside University, Middlesborough. He now lives on the North Norfolk coast. He works within the discipline of relief printmaking and contemporary wood engraving. ‘Bewick’s Place’ comprises 16 small square blocks to represent a grid or a plotting and mapping method, which have been engraved, cut and printed using the reduction method. Each block has been engraved in sections and printed as one.

‘The Art of Balance’ by Christine Stables

Christine is the winner of Purchase Prize.

Christine lives in Stockport in Cheshire. After working as a textile artist for many years, Christine became an abstract painter in 2019 so that she could mix and use her own colours to suit her work. She uses acrylic paint, glazes and inks, and in her winning piece ‘The Art of Balance’ she uses organic shapes, created with loose white lines, showing off the colour orange by using contrasts in textures, translucency, opacity and complimentary colour.

The Art Prize Exhibition will be at the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate from 12th October to 5th January 2025.


About New Light
New Light is run by a dedicated group of people who are passionate about the visual arts in the North of England. They rely entirely on donations and sponsorship for funding. Established in 2010, the organisation celebrates and promotes Northern art, supporting both well-known and emerging artists by offering some of the region’s best awards and opportunities with the biennial New Light Prize Exhibition. They also run Art for All - an education programme which includes talks, workshops and school projects. www.newlight-art.org.uk