A FORMER Huddersfield University student is in the running for a major prize run by the Tate Liverpool gallery.
Alan Chitty, 21, is a finalist in the Alternative Turner Prize, a competition for young artists run by the gallery.
The prize offers newcomers the chance to showcase their work alongside creations by cutting-edge contemporary artists, including the winner of the action Turner Prize. Past winners of the Turner Prize include Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
Alan said he was thrilled to be part of the competition.
“Winning the competition would be amazing, but just being a finalist is great too as my work is open to a much wider audience.
“It would be fantastic to produce art for a living and, with opportunities like this competition, it may be possible.”
Alan, from Wrexham, graduated from Huddersfield University with a degree in Fine Art last year.
As a student, he was shortlisted from hundreds of hopefuls for the 4 New Sensations award, a competition run by Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4 to find the UK’s most imaginative new artists.
His place in the final of the Alternative Turner Prize was secured with a piece of work called Let Us Travel, an extension of a piece of work from his graduation collection.
It is based around the themes of war, cosmetic surgery and evolution.
He said: “I focus mainly on the figure in sculptural form, but produce them as ‘beings’ rather than ‘figures’.
“The ‘beings’ I produce do not exist in the present day, they belong to the aftermath of nuclear war and live between the living and the dead.”
