5 Brewer Street
Oxford
OX1 1QN
The 2023 Emery Prize winner is...
Will Lowry
William Lowry is an artist who combines drawing, printmaking, sculpture and sound to probe themes of personal and collective memory, masculinity and queer desire, myth and modernity.
"In Acheron (2023), my degree show installation, I staged a piece of elaborate architecture with an accompanying original soundtrack, recalling imperial-ecclesiastical structures and triumphal ceremonies. The idea was to subvert these in an off-kilter hellscape (in classical myth, Acheron is one of the rivers in Hades) that was theatrical, unnerving and poignant."
Terminus — William Lowry
Saturday, March 2nd - Wednesday, March 6th, 11AM - 4PM daily
Private View: Friday, March 1st, 4PM - 6PM
‘Terminus’ showcases an extensive body of new drawings, sculptures, and original music. It draws on both contemporary and classical imagery to explore existential questions of continuation and finality. Images of hippodromes, racetracks and amphitheatres call to mind the crumbling vestiges of dead empires and civilisations, while depictions of wrestlers, soldiers and sportsmen conjure up associations of control, subjugation and domination. These images, among others, are presented either as spotlit drawings, within backlit-sculptures, or as light projections, forming a complex network of objects both large and small. They sprawl throughout the dimmed gallery space, terminating with a larger installation piece which towers at the far end of the gallery. Meanwhile, an original soundtrack hums in the background, creating an atmosphere which is poignant, hopeful, yet also menacing.
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William Lowry's exhibition will also feature a sound performance followed by an artist's Q&A on Sunday, 3rd March. This event is free, only requiring an RSVP on this form.
Will graduated from The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford with First Class Honours in 2023, and has also been awarded the Ashmolean Museum’s Vivien Leigh Prize
As part of the Emery prize there will be a solo-exhibition of Will Lowry's artwork in the Pembroke Art Gallery in Spring 2023.
About the Emery Prize
The Emery Prize is an annual prize award to a Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, BFA or MFA finalist student. The inaugural prize was awarded in 2018 and has continued each year, to support emerging artists within the Oxford University community and to encourage engagement with contemporary art in the wider Oxford community. Named after the founder of the Pembroke College JCR Art Collection, The Emery Prize reinvents the collection’s historic links to the Ruskin School of Art, by finding new ways to support contemporary art practice through providing a platform for exhibition.
