TOBY PATERSON
WINS THE UK’S LARGEST ART PRIZE

Beck’s and the Institute of Contemporary Art are delighted to announce that TOBY PATERSON has won BECK’S FUTURES 2002, the UK’s largest prize for art, with the total prize monies now increased from £65,000 to £67,000.

Paterson, 28, collected his cheque for £24,000 from BJÖRK at a gala event at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts on the Mall this evening.

He won Beck’s Futures for his large-scale, colour-rich dramatic wall painting, We Fall Into Patterns Quickly, along the ICA’s 69 foot concourse, based on an architectural façade designed by Lubetkin in 1951; a painting on perspex of the 1951 Hallfield primary school, shown in the same space; an eloquent wall painting, Sunlit Emergency Exit, and a stack of maquettes of fictional building fragments entitled We Fall In Patterns Too Quickly (2002).  

Mark Francis, chair of the judges: “We are fascinated with the way Paterson translates complex architectural motifs from the lost dreams of post-war modernism, and turns them into an aesthetic and social enquiry.” 

Toby has exhibited widely in Scotland and internationally.  His work is realised in a number of forms, from large-scale wall paintings to smaller paintings on perspex. He deals mainly with post-war architecture, often informed by his own skateboarding journeys.  

Asked what he’ll do with the prize money, Toby replied: "Get my car resprayed - it's a Saab 99 from 1983.  I’ll also live on it and pay for materials and my studio and buy everyone at the ICA a drink!" 

Toby recently designed and constructed a skateboard park in the Royston Road area of Glasgow. Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo show with Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, a joint show at the Tramway, Glasgow, and with Denys Lasdun, Erno Goldfinger, Mary Martin and Victor Pasmore at the Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds in October.  He has recently exhibited in Aberdeen; Glasgow; Casey Kaplan, New York; Dundee and the Bongo Club, Edinburgh.   Toby Paterson is represented by the Modern Institute, Glasgow.  

Andy Neal, Beck’s: "Beck's Futures is recognised for supporting emerging contemporary artists.  Beck's has been a major sponsor of contemporary art in Britain for over 17 years and has become associated with experimentation and innovation in all fields of modern art. The calibre of all the short-listed artists this year is testament to this and we are delighted to be supporting them at this crucial stage in their career.”  

Each of the remaining nine shortlisted artists were awarded with a cheque for £4,000.  The winner was decided by an independent panel of judges: Saskia Bos, Marianne Faithfull, Harland Miller and Julian Opie.  The chair of the judges is Mark Francis. At the same ceremony, WAYNE HEMINGWAY announced student ANJA KIRSCHNER as the winner of BECK’S FUTURES STUDENT PRIZE FOR FILM AND VIDEO, collecting a cheque for £2,000; the runner-up, Margaret Salmon, was awarded £1,000. Originally four further artists were due to receive £500, but due to the strength of the work submitted, eight were finally chosen: increasing the prize monies by £2,000 to a total of £67,000.   The Student Prize was judged by Andrew Kötting and John Warwicker.

 

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