About

Nigel Greenwood was a gallerist and curator who was respected for his great eye and for being instrumental in the development of contemporary British art from the 1970s and beyond, particularly in relation to Conceptual art and new media (performance, books, photography, film, video). Artists he showed and supported include Bernd and Hilla Becher, Bill Beckley, Glen Baxter, Marcel Broodthaers, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Rita Donagh, Joel Fisher, Gilbert & George, Richard Hamilton, Alan Johnston, David Lamelas, Barry Le Va, Christopher Le Brun, Brice Marden, Ian McKeever, Keith Milow, Ed Ruscha, John Stezaker, David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle, Ger Van Elk and John Walker. The Nigel Greenwood prize will seek to reflect his curious, intelligent, good-humoured spirit by supporting independent-minded artists who will benefit from time in a studio in a beautiful, quiet environment and from funds to evolve their work and complete projects.

The Prize

The winning artist is awarded £5000 and a three-month residency at a specially built artist studio in the Scottish Borders with an adjoining cottage. The cottage is owned by the Gordon Burn Trust who award a companion literary prize, the Gordon Burn Prize. Nigel Greenwood and Gordon Burn first met when a young Burn contacted Greenwood to arrange an interview with Gilbert and George in 1973. The pair remained lifelong friends. Gordon wrote about Nigel for his collection of art writing, Sex and Violence, Death and Silence. The piece can be read here.

The Selection Process

Each year an anonymous selection committee of up to six individuals are invited to nominate an artist for the prize. The nominators are invited from across the art world and do not include commercial gallerists. Their names are made public once the winner is announced and they are invited to be judges for the following year. The judges are given material about each nominee including a nominator statement and artist statement and in discussion together select the winner from the nominated list. The award is presented annually.

The prize’s advisory panel are Ann Gallagher, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Phoebe Greenwood, Anthony Wilkinson, Catherine Lampert, Rodolphe von Hofmannsthal, Carol Gorner, Brian Boylan and Paul Nesbitt. The panel meet once a year.

Support

The Nigel Greenwood Art Prize is funded by individual giving. We invite you to join our family of benefactors and to play a vital role in enabling us to support artists in a unique and significant way. As a registered charity we welcome all donations, however large or small, and your donation will directly contribute to the sustainability and future development of the Prize.

For gifts of £4000 or more (£1000/annum over four years) we are pleased to discuss ways of recognising your instrumental support, such as named Awards. A donation of £5000 will fund the NG Art Prize Residency award in full, a donation of £1500 will fund the studio for a year and a donation of £1000 will enable us to give an additional research prize.

We are a not-for-profit charity, there is no staff, we are run by volunteers and all funds raised go direct to the awardees and to maintaining the studio and cottage.

For more information please contact supportart@nigelgreenwoodprize.com or contribute via the donate button.