FIRST PRIZE 2023

Melissa Ling

Out of Now

Jackson's Painting Prize 2023, Bankside Gallery 2023
Acrylic
Canvas
91.44 x 60.96 cm

£3,800

“I am thrilled to be awarded this year’s Jackson’s Painting Prize. Thank you to Jackson’s and the panel of judges for selecting my work for this honour. The prize will have a great impact towards my studio practice.”

“Out of Now is part of my painting series that explores identity and belonging, often showing figures in transitional spaces. My parents were born in China during the Cultural Revolution and I was born and raised in the United States. I’m interested in painting as a way of creating a permeability between past and present.

There is a conversation that emerges while I work; the figures look back at me and there is a sense of back and forth. The title of this painting pays homage to the book of the same name about the artist, Tehching Hsieh, who creates year long performance pieces that are about how “all art comes from life.”