News / 26 Jun 2023
Ruth Selina Prize 2023 Awarded
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
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Oliver Davies, 2023
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Oliver Davies, 2023
The annual Ruth Selina Memorial Prize has been awarded to Leeds Arts University Foundation Diploma in Art and Design student Oliver Davies.
The prize includes an award of £500 and is presented to a student on the Fine Art pathway on the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University.
"We felt that throughout the year Oliver has demonstrated an exceptional degree of commitment and enthusiasm for Fine Art practice and his own learning. His work imaginatively touches upon contemporary concerns related to the environment and shows a growing sophistication with how his ideas are presented. He has successfully experimented across a wide range of processes and media showing a a great versatility and range within his practice."
Adam Stone, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design Pathway Leader
On his work, Oliver Davies said "We interact with our environment all the time. We have an impact on our surroundings and our surroundings have an impact on us. Some interactions may be temporary, others permanent. After something is removed, what remains is the evidence of these interactions."
"My work explores this idea of remains, how the remains of something are experienced and how they reflect their environment. Concerned with destruction and reconstruction, specifically of environments, and how the physical remaining features of a location can be used to recreate it."
Oliver Davies, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design student
Creating work constructed entirely of the organic material from the surroundings so that it may then be returned to its place of origin, restoring the environment. Seeking to create pictures, figures and forms that represent figments of the places and times in which I find myself.”
The prize is awarded in memory of Ruth Selina who completed the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University in 2018 and sadly passed away in the first year of her degree course. The Ruth Selina prize has been established by Ruth’s family to celebrate her rich creative life, in particular the period of time spent on the Foundation Diploma at Leeds Arts University.