BA Fine Art student Ed Green nominated for Freelands Painting Prize 2024

Final year BA Fine Art student Ed Green is one of 43 students from across the UK nominated for this year’s Freelands Painting Prize.

Launched in 2020, the Freelands Painting Prize celebrates outstanding painting practice at undergraduate level, culminating in an annual Painting Prize exhibition at Freelands Foundation’s Chalk Farm gallery in the Autumn.

Each year, all higher education institutions around the UK that offer a BA Fine Art or Painting course are invited to nominate for the prize a final-year student. Each nominated student submits three works representative of their practice; either paintings or works exploring painting in the expanded field.

Each year's winning artists are selected anonymously by an independent jury – this year’s judging panel includes Michael Archer, Vanessa Carlos, Séamus McCormack and Zadie Xa. The winning artists will be announced at the end of May.

Ed Green, Skip, 2021. Drone photograph of installation.

Ed Green, a visual, multimedia artist in the final year of a BA Fine Art degree, was nominated to represent the University of Leeds.

Dr Julia McKinlay, Lecturer in Fine Art in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, said:

“Ed has been nominated for the Freelands Painting Prize 2024 because, over the course of his degree, he has developed a site responsive and highly ambitious art practice.

“He is inspired by his environment, noticing places and materials in public spaces and responding to them in either in situ, or by relocating aspects of the outside world into the gallery in large scale installations. Consistent throughout all his works is own unique sensitivity to colour and composition which he explores across light, posters, found materials and paint.

“Sustainability and working with recycled materials is central to Ed’s practice following an international year working in Spain, Sri Lanka and Japan and where he experienced alternative approaches to recycling reusing materials. Ed makes use of material that is discarded, finding beauty in their form, surface and colour.

“Congratulations, Ed, on your nomination and best of luck as you progress in your career as an artist.”

Ed Green, Proposal for a Tennis Court, 2023. Recycled paint on found MDF boards.

Ed Green said:

“I feel very honoured to be nominated for this prize.

“As a visual artist, I am obsessed with colour, space and composition. My practice predominantly makes use of the discarded, with a bricolage approach and I am inspired by and responsive to my environment. I am driven by creating an experience for the audience and bridging the gap of subjectivity.”

Find out more about the Freelands Painting Prize and this year’s nominated artists.

Feature image

Photo of BA Fine Art student Ed Green.