The Artist Prize: Longlist

Lesley Bunch: Shadow Sculpture 40, oil on aluminium, 60cm x 50cm, 2026

‘Shadow Sculpture 40’ has been longlisted for the Artist Prize, co-founded by Zealous and Firstsite Colchester.

The Artist Prize is a new £30,000, open art prize awarded to a single UK-based artist, alongside a solo exhibition at Firstsite in 2028. The Longlist includes 200 artists whose work has been scored by over 80 curators and artistic Directors from ACE-funded arts organisations across the UK.

A final selection panel will select 20 shortlisted artists to exhibit together at Firstsite from the 30th January – 16th May 2027, and the eventual winner in March 2027. The panel includes…

Jeremy Deller — Artist (Turner Prize winner, 2004), Ryan Gander — Artist (conceptual; Lisson Gallery), Maria Balshaw – former Director of Tate, Ekow Eshun — Curator / Writer, Louisa Buck — Contemporary Art Correspondent (The Art Newspaper), Sook-Kyung Lee — Director (The Whitworth), Mariam Zulfiqar — Director (Artangel), Sally Shaw MBE — Director (Firstsite), Katrina Brown — Director (Common Guild), Joe Hill — Director (Yorkshire Sculpture Park), Julie Lomax — CEO (a-n, The Artists Information Company), Alayo Akinkugbe — Art historian / curator (author “A Black History of Art”), Pita Arreola — Digital Curator / Writer (arebyte / author “Digital Art: 1960s–Now”), and Tabish Khan — Art Critic (Londonist, FAD)