The winner of the Isle of Wight Young Artist of the Year Award 2024 is Elsie Calder (age 19), for her brilliant mixed media piece which explores gender ideologies. There was a lot of amazing work submitted this year, of varying styles and mediums, but after careful consideration from the Brave Island and Quay Arts team, Elsie’s piece was chosen as the overall winner. She received the award which was an acrylic piece created by KReative Studios. Find out a bit more about Elsie’s work below.
Why did you choose to enter the Young Artist Award?
I entered the Young Artist of the Year Award as an opportunity to showcase my work, something I am deeply passionate about, to my local community on a scale I never have before. As a young person on the Island, pursuing art can often feel challenging in comparison to city networks, making an opportunity like this especially hard to pass on.
Your work depicts some really interesting themes, please can you tell us a bit about this?
I use my work to express themes, often tricky to communicate by other means as my work is my language in this sense. One of my pieces on exhibition explores gender ideologies with the focus on internalised generational misogyny and the ways in which it affects girls in the formative years which is then translated to womanhood until passed on. The focus of this piece is the disappointment entailed with the birth of a baby girl knowing she will soon face the same fate as her mother. There is an additional contrast within this piece that I wish to be interpreted by the audience as this is the way I enjoy art. Not all my work carries the same dark weight as this piece, but I find communicating these typically “taboo” topics I am gravely passionate about to be relieving, especially in the sense of being perceived – a thinking and talking point for viewers.
Where do you draw influence from for the art you create?
I draw a lot of inspiration for my work from experimentation with collage this helps me to keep creativity fluid and takes the pressure off the outcome. As well as various artists and exhibitions, for the work displayed I took inspiration from Josh Kerns, Hollis Brown Thornton and Sophie Person. I also derive a huge amount of inspiration from my surroundings, seeing art in ordinary everyday experiences influences my creativity a lot.
And finally, what are your goals for your creative projects going forward?
Going forward I intend to create more freely and develop my skill sets in different mediums, I would really like to explore printing and maybe 3D work in the future.
The Isle of Wight Young Artist Award 2024 exhibition is open until Sunday 3rd November. Young people aged 14-25 submitted their artwork to be showcased in a professional setting, which is on display at Quay Arts in the Clayden Gallery. The exhibition is open everyday, from 9am – 5pm, and free to enter.
