Award Winners … Three Art Work Winners … 1st. Simon Monk for Black Country, New Road’s album ‘Ants From Up There’. 2nd. Bart Balboa for Birds In Row’s album ‘Gris Klein’ 3 rd. Illustration by Jake Blanchard for Richard Dawson’s album ‘The Ruby Cord’ Conceptual And Multi-layered Painting Style Wins 18th Annual Art Prize.
The winning ‘Ants From Up There’ sleeve design is just one image from a series of still life paintings inhabiting two worlds at once – one being an every-day reality and one filled with fantasy and imagination.
The album artwork brought the ‘plastic bag paintings’ to a new audience and, for the artist, started as a solution to the problem of how to make a still life oil painting in the 21st century, without it being old fashioned, whilst demonstrating how a painting can dignify a cheap or otherwise insignificant object. Monk’s mission has certainly been achieved here and is enhanced by the additional paintings in the series, which feature on the album’s deluxe box set.
The archive spans seven decades of iconic album art, curating all 50 nominations for Best Art Vinyl 2022, together with an outstanding commemoration of iconic album artwork over the years from 1949 to present day.
Enjoy the Wall of Sound … the spanning 70+ years of popular art, music and design, the exhibition shines a light on the most iconic album designs in popular culture and explore the fascinating history behind some of the most renowned visual icons of our time. These sleeves contribute to the last 17 winners of our Best Art Vinyl Awards which has been running since 2005, and the result is a definitive retrospective of UK popular culture, one 12 inch at a time.
Update by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 