From more than 2,200 submissions, just 80 artworks by Northern artists were chosen for the 2018 New Light Prize Exhibition, coming to Huddersfield this year for the first time ever.

The selected artists include amateurs, professionals, first-time exhibitors and six from the Kirklees area.

Opening at Huddersfield Art Gallery on Saturday, March 10, the show, which is on a Northern tour, can be seen until June 2.

New Light is a charitable organisation, set up in 2010 to promote Northern art and artists and run art education programmes. The annual exhibition offers a £10,000 prize, this year won by Christopher Cook with a still life drawing.

Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery.
Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery.

Artists from the North’s four ancient counties – Northumbria, Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire – are invited to submit works for the prize show. One of the judges, practising artist Emerson Mayes, who is CEO of New Light, says the exhibition offers members of the public the chance to view and buy high-quality works from both established and new artists. He explained: “When we’re judging we don’t see the names of the artists, we just see the works, so you get amateurs in the show alongside RAs (Royal Academicians). This year we’ve got two students showing. There’s a real breadth of talent and works.”

Because all submissions have to be suitable for wall hanging, the show attracts mostly paintings, prints and drawings, although there are also wall-hung sculptures. Prices of works range from a modest £150 to an investment level £15,000. Profits are divided between the artists, New Light and the gallery.

Kirklees artists Tom Wood, Maxwell Doig, Tony Noble, Emma Lawrenson, Kathryn Desforges and John Ross are among the 72 artists with works in the exhibition.

Huddersfield Art Gallery, on The Piazza, is open on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 11am until 4pm. There’s a late opening on Thursdays until 7pm. The gallery is closed on Sunday and Mondays.