GAVIN TURK (Chairman)

”I am looking forward to chairing the judging of The National Open Art Competition this year. I think it is among the leading open art competitions in the country...celebrating the quality of contemporary artists across the UK”.

Gavin Turk was born 1967 and educated in art at Kingston, Chelsea and The Royal College of Art where, in 1991, he made his infamous blue heritage plaque for his final year show. Purchased by Charles Saatchi, this launched his career. He became an important member of the Young British Artists movement and later in 1997, he was a part of the controversial Sensation exhibition at The Royal Academy. Since then he has won the £25,000 Woolaston Prize for Sculpture at The RA Summer Show and with his partner Deborah Curtis drives and administrates the very successful and dynamically active children’s charity “The House of Fairytales” involving a host of well known British artists in events around the country. In 2010 Gavin was the lead artist in ‘Fleet’ which showed contemporary art along the Suffolk and Essex coastlines and throughout the year he has had exhibitions around the world in Malaga, Korea, Paris and South Africa and Germany.

CATHERINE LAMPERT

“It is exciting to participate in a competition where the object is to have fresh eyes and no expectations. The association with the town of Chichester, and its art-friendly populace and amenities, is another enticement.”

Catherine Lampert is an independent curator and art historian. She was Senior Curator at the Hayward Gallery, a member of the Arts Council and then Director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 1998 – 2001.  In recent years she has curated exhibitions of the work of Frank Auerbach; Auguste Rodin and Lucien Freud.  In 2007 she was made Visiting Professor, University of the Arts, London and a member of the Art Fund International. This year she has curated two shows, the Miquel Barceló for La Caixa in Barcelona which has been seen by more than 500,000 people. The other was Francis Alÿs, ‘Le temps du Sommeil’ for the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.

LISA WRIGHT

"I feel privileged as the 2009 winner of the prize to be invited onto the judging panel for 2010. I look forward to viewing and selecting the works for the competition which historically has celebrated the breadth and quality of both abstract and figurative work across the UK."

Lisa Wright was born in Kent in 1965 and lives in works in Cornwall.  During 1990-93 she attended the Royal Academy Schools. After these post graduate studies Wright produced work centred on children and in 2003 won the Hunting Art Prize. In 2007 she was selected for ‘Art Now Cornwall’ at Tate St Ives and in 2009 won first prize in The National Open Art Competition...Chichester. Lisa is a regular exhibitor in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In 2006 Lisa Wright was invited to be artist in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. The company was embarking on Michael Boyd's acclaimed production of the History Cycle – eight plays charting 100 years of English history with the same group of actors. This extraordinary ensemble project lasted two years. Lisa is a part time lecturer in fine art at University College Falmouth and represented by The Beardsmore Gallery in London.

FRANCIS HODGSON

Francis Hodgson is the photography critic for the Financial Times and the former Head of Photographs at Sotheby's, London. A specialist in photography of many years’ standing, he was for some years the manager of the print room at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. He later founded and directed Zwemmer Fine Photographs and was director of photography at Photonica, a major stock image library.  He was also a director of content at Eyestorm, the online art dealership. He has acted as representative and agent to many photographers, and has been a writer and broadcaster on photography for many years. He also helped conceive and is on the judging team for the Prix Pictet, the world’s most valuable photographic competition with a first prize of 100,000 Swiss Francs.  In another life, Hodgson authored Only the Goalkeeper to Beat (Macmillan 1998) a highly praised study of the role of the goalkeeper in soccer!