SCAF Emerging Artist 2024 Exhibition - Catalogue - Perception

2024 AWARD
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Exploring the
Subject of Perception

Scott Creative Arts Foundation

2024 AWARD
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Exploring the
Subject of Perception

Introduction
The SCAF Emerging Artist Award was
created to encourage and support up
and coming artists who are living in the
Yorkshire region.
The intent of the award is to bring
recognition and awareness to outstanding
visual artists in the region who are at the
early stages of their career and who have not
yet established a reputation as an artist
amongst art curators, buyers, critics and the
general public.
The creation of the award was one of the
most emphatic wishes of the Foundations
benefactors, Michael and Eileen Scott, and
we are delighted to exhibit the submissions
from our 2024 finalists.
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

Perception
For this year's award the subject for the
submitted pieces and our current exhibition is
Art is the story of perception. Perception in art
is deeply complex including the subjective
response of the viewer, the intention of the
artist and external influences such as social
pressure that seeks to persuade us to interpret
something in a certain way.
Perception in art is also deeply intwined with
psychology. Our brains are hard wired to see
structure, logic and patterns to help us to
make sense of the world we live in. Survival
often requires rapid interpretation of our
surroundings and to that end our brains have
evolved to continually make shortcuts to
speed up the process of visual perception.
These shortcuts are often exploited in art
and design.
Congratulations from all at SCAF to our
talented finalists.
The 2024 Emerging Artist Finalists
Becky Long-Smith
Gareth Bell
Imo Dunkley
Louise Ventris
Mouse
Vanessa Oo
Zoe Maxwell
Zoe Phillips
Mia Mai Symonds
Emerging Artist 2024 Award

Judging Panel
Dr Sue Armstrong
Artistic Director & Trustee of SCAF
Sue Armstrong is the Founder of the Scott Creative Arts
Foundation and the current Artistic Director. Sue was a close
friend of Michael and Eileen Scott and is dedicated to realising
their wishes through the work of the Foundation. Providing
support and encouragement to emerging artists was a
major priority for the Scott’s and to be holding the fifth SCAF
emerging artist award is a testament to her commitment to
SCAF. Sue, like the Scotts is a passionate believer in the value
of the synergistic relationship between arts and science.
Robbie Fife
Artist
Robbie Fife (b.1988 Harrogate, UK) lives and works in North
Yorkshire. Fife completed an MFA in Painting at The Slade
School of Fine Art, UCL, London (2014) and has twice been
an artist-in-residence at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
– Connecticut, USA (Nov/Dec 2015) and Carraig-na-gcat,
Ireland (Sept 2019).
Selected recent exhibitions include Native, Willoughby Gerrish,
Thirsk Hall Sculpture Garden, Thirsk (solo) (2023); Locals,
Willoughby Gerrish, Jermyn Street, London (solo) (2022);
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2022);
Kist, Oliver Projects at 155a Gallery, London (solo) (2021);
Without You My Life Would Be Boring, Staffordshire Street
Studios, London (2020); Used For Glue, Studio 2, Staffordshire
Street Studios, London (2019); Odds, The Other MA (TOMA) at
Royals Shopping Centre, Southend (2019); Summer Exhibition,
Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019); 9 Artists: Thin House,
London (2018); Nightswimming, LLE at Mission Gallery,
Swansea, Wales (2018); Sightseers, g39, Cardiff, Wales (2018);
ODDS, Studio 7, Assembly Point, London (2017); Outhouse, May
Project, London (solo) (2016); Robbie Fife, Paulina Michnowska,
Jacopo Natoli, News of the World, Deptford, London (2015).
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

Jess Kidd
Multidisciplinary Artist and SCAF EAA 2023 Winner
Jess Kidd is a Yorkshire Based multidisciplinary artist, with a
current focus on mixedmedia painting. She graduated from
Central Saint Martins in 2008, however, her practice has reemerged
recently, after serious illness in her mid-20s. Jess is
inspired by art that provokes people to reconsider the familiar.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) informs both her creative
process and her subject matter. She aims to challenge people's
thoughts towards where we live, encouraging celebration
and appreciation. She loves to experiment, play with and
manipulate materials, and is driven by a passionate intention
to convey her interpretations of reality. Alongside winning the
SCAF Emerging Artist Award 2023, Jess was also awarded the
Joan Day Bursary by South Square Centre, Thornton, resulting
in her first solo exhibition. She has exhibited both individually
and in group shows and runs occasional workshops.
Eloise Ross
Art & Design Project Officer at York & Scarborough Teaching
Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust and Freelance Photographer
Elly enjoys working on collaborative and community-based
arts events/social projects and regularly sees how the power
of art can enhance people's experiences. Her role within the
hospitals involves engaging patients, visitors, and staff in a
creative way to help improve their stay, visit and place of work
through exhibitions, music, participation and enhancements
of the hospital environment. The aim of these varied artistic
practices is to provide opportunities for people to feel included,
connected and inspired via an ongoing programme of artistic
exhibitions and events at the different Hospitals. In her
freelance work Elly has worked for many different organisations
in the Yorkshire region and she has acted as a judge for
several photography groups and curated Arts projects. What
she loves about the arts is how it engages interest; provides a
positive experience; breaks down barriers and preconceptions;
stimulate memories; promotes collaborations and provides
respite or space for reflection. She is excited to see what
artistic talents can be discovered and shared to a wider
audience in 2024 by the SCAF Emerging Artist Award.
Emerging Artist 2024 Award

The title, rewoven rainbow refers to a passage
from the poem, Lamia by John Keats (1820). Keats
expressed sadness at what he felt was the reduction
of natural wonder to cold facts. A rainbow, no-longer
a goddess but refracted light entering the retina.
BECKY
LONG-SMITH
Rewoven rainbow
Lino print and hand
embroidery on paper
60cm x 60cm
‘…Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine -
Unweave a rainbow…’
Human perception is, in this case, more than the
individual’s visual experience - it is the body’s
chemical and emotional responses to what one
sees. To perceive a rainbow we must first separate
light into its component parts but it is only through
the interweaving of these ‘visual components’ with
knowledge, memories and emotions that we truly
perceive anything at all.
www.beckylongsmith.com
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

The Caregiver depicts Jim, a tattoo
artist who has worked in studios in
London, Brighton and Leeds.
GARETH BELL
The Caregiver
Oil on MDF
89cm x 67cm
In 2008, Jim started to notice changes
in his mum, Christine’s, behaviour.
It began with mild episodes of
confusion, but over the next few years
progressed into something
that couldn’t be ignored.
In 2016, Christine was diagnosed with
early onset Alzheimer’s Disease.
At this point, Jim moved back up north
to care for his mum. Over time, her
world has shrunk, her failing memory
narrowing the lens through which
she perceives her life and those
in it. Throughout this time, Jim has
remained a constant presence for her.
As Christine’s perceptive faculties
diminish, so Jim’s perceptions have
changed too: as well as caring for his
mum, he’ll soon be a father himself,
bringing what’s important into even
sharper focus.
This piece aims to challenge our
perceptions - of caregiving, of
masculinity - as what we see, and
how we interpret what we see, only
ever tells a fraction of the story.
Emerging Artist 2024 Award
www.garethbell.art

IMO DUNKLEY
Sense
Photomontage
61cm x 51cm
In response to the theme of 'Perception', I asked a
group of participants in the Leeds nightlife scene
to photograph their nights out using digital and film
cameras. Before I gave the participants the cameras,
I interviewed each participant about how they
perceived the cultural significance of nightlife and
their viewpoints on its past, present and future. After
this conversation, I sent them on their separate nights
out and asked them to document the entire journey.
It was intriguing to see what each participant focused
on, whether that be people dancing and celebrating,
the paraphernalia that's involved, or the venues they
went to. After developing and printing the photos,
I collaged the photographs together onto a board,
to create a homage to nightlife, exploring the range
of feelings and emotions associated. A symbolic
group night out.
www.imodunkley.com
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

During the late 1970s and early1980s Wilma McCann,
Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Patricia Atkinson,
Jayne McDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen
Rytka, Vera Millward, Josephine Whittaker, Barbara Leach,
Marguerite Walls and Jacqueline Hill, were murdered
by Peter Sutcliffe.
LOUISE VENTRIS
13 Portraits - Threads
through time
Oil on Panel
100cm x 100cm approx
During the investigation there was a perception that
the women were ’not innocent’ and somehow guilty or
responsible. The perception that these women, some of
whom were sex workers were less valuable and had an
effect on how seriously the Police took the killings.
Portraits in history have been used to show the beauty,
wealth or power of an individual. There is a permanence
to a painting and I wanted to create oil portraits of each of
these women to acknowledge their value.
Emerging Artist 2024 Award
www.louiseventris.art

Mimesis is an output of an on-going exploration into
the visual manipulation, exposure and emphasis of
the woven structure, a re-presentation of a form and
material which fills our everyday.
MIA MAI
SYMONDS
Working across processes and practices of sculpture,
weaving and image-making, these explorations are
made to interrupt the perception of this ubiquitous
but unseen everyday structure, whilst expanding the
possibilities of its material language.
Mimesis
Hand-woven silk
trapped in art-glass,
wooden frame
72cm x 72cm
www.bymiamai.com
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

My work is an introspective look at our connections with
infinity. The work is comprised of a hand painted wooden
carving, divided in the middle with acrylic mirror panels.
The reason for the mirror is to show connected infinities
in untouchable dimensions. The idea that infinities and
connections can “cross” dimensional space is a big part
of my overall artistic concept as it could lead us to answer
surrounding our own consciousness.
MOUSE
Infinite Connection
Wooden and acrylic
mirror sculpture
50cm x 80cm x 50cm
(approx.)
Emerging Artist 2024 Award
www.instagram.com/wyartistmouse/

Four prints capture the unseen energy, magic and tension
in a given moment. A cross forms in the middle: the flag of
England and a medical emblem.
1. "Alright" is a casual English greeting. You pass a
stranger; there is an instant judgement. Time shifts;
you see something different. You never see the whole.
VANESSA OO
Alright
Screenprint and
letterpress
on paper
91cm x 95cm
2. “Alright" might be an unexpected voice next to marks
like these. As a British-born person of Chinese/
Burmese origin, there is sometimes a disconnect
between how I perceive myself and how I am seen
from the outside.
3. "Alright" means satisfactory. We say we are alright
when we are not. A bland label hides the complexity
beneath.
www.vanessaoo.co.uk
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

The painting, Skirting Board Lake, combines
multiple scenes to encourage the viewer to question
perception and accuracy of recollection. This process
compresses time and place to create a confabulated
scene, a false recollection. A place where trees are
either floating, hovering slightly or just swaying in
the wind.
ZOE MAXWELL
Skirting Board Lake
Oil On Canvas
100cm x 90cm
Within the landscape of the painting, internal and
external features are merged. The title of the work
brings attention to the skirting board, wrapping around
the perimeter of the body of water. But the ducks are
stood, or sat, not floating. There are reflections and
then there aren’t. The surface seems to be water,
yet also contradicts the typical qualities. All these
subtle contradictions create a dreamlike and
disorientating setting, challenging typical perceptions.
Emerging Artist 2024 Award
zoecmax.wixsite.com/zoe-maxwell

ZOE PHILLIPS
‘If I gave you a bowl’
Mixed Media: Porcelain,
brass, oak leaves,
beeswax, resin
31cm dia. approx:
13cm deep
Why an oak leaf? Because the Oak tree is traditionally
seen as a symbol of strength, it’s majestic and reliable.
Solid and grounded. And from little acorns, mighty
oaks grow.
If I gave you a bowl…
If I gave you a bowl, you’d know what to do with it?
If I gave you a broken bowl? Then what?
It’s useless right?
Wrong.
Lens shift.
Perspective.
….seeing the world differently doesn’t mean we are
‘broken’.
It means, all it takes is a change of perspective to value
the human in all of us.
If I placed this ‘broken’ bowl in a museum, is it’s story
and existence worth more?
Change the environment.
Shift the perspective.
www.deckleandhide.co.uk
Scott Creative Arts Foundation

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2024
Becky Long-Smith
Gareth Bell
Imo Dunkley
Louise Ventris
Mia Mai Symonds
Mouse
Vanessa Oo
Zoe Maxwell
Zoe Phillips
Scott Creative Arts Foundation