Winners of the Marzee Graduate Prize 2020

We have been hugely impressed by the wonderful work created by  all of this year’s graduates in extraordinary and challenging circumstances. We are delighted to announce the nine winners of this year’s Marzee Graduate Prize:

Faye Butler (RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)

whose work explores memory and the effects of its loss and how we find resilience through identity and collective remembering.

Virginia Escobar (Alchimia, Florence, Italy)

Investigating physical identity and the idea of uniqueness and individuality, Virginia’s face masks challenge how societal standards influence our perception of beauty and ageing. 

Katie Gibbon (Central St Martins, London, United Kingdom)

Katie’s delicate, fragile work reflects her feelings about the environmental crisis and humanity’s impact on the planet. 

Adam Henderson (Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom)

Focused on dismantling social structures through the lens of Ipse Dixit, a Latin phrase defined as ‘a dogmatic and unproven statement’, Adam’s collection is a study on national identity,  patriotism and nationalism.
Levan Jishkariani (Trier University of the Applied Arts, Idar-Oberstein, Germany)

Social structures, rules, laws, educational measures, restrictions, dogmas, systems – these are the starting point for Levan’s work. Transforming thought into material, the pieces  adapt, become part of the body.

Steven Kaplan-Pistiner (Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, United States of America)

Of his work, Steven says, ‘When I approach the wood, the knots are already within. As I carve, the knots, wounds, lighten, loosen…They are objects of tension that bind nothing in place but their own existence… there is no moment of resolution, only development as they are lived with – and this is how we work against alienation.’

Juliette Même (HEAR, Strasbourg, France)

Though small interventions, Juliette’s work reveals the value, the preciousness of things or materials which are supposed to be uninteresting, unnoticed and commonplace. 

Simon Swale (Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand)

Concerned with how we communicate across distance – across geographical borders, time zones and language barriers, Simon’s work considers the potential of objects to mediate the spatial relationship and experiences of everyday life.
Pei Wu (Trier University of the Applied Arts, Idar-Oberstein, Germany)

What forms us? What affects our personality? These are the questions that motivate Pei’s artistic work. The parent-child relationship is fundamental, especially in early childhood but some Eastern cultures, she says, believe that this influence begins even before birth – a bond created through many lives.