The "Beck's Futures" competition is only in its 3rd year but is rapidly overtaking the established "Turner" prize as the most important competition for up-and-coming UK based artists. It has also started to be taken seriously by the Art Elite and is seen by many as an international launch pad for promising UK talent. One of the rising stars of the Young British Artist (YBA) scene and a strong contender for the £24,000 prize is Kirsten Glass.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1975, she completed a MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths college of Art in 2000 via a foundation at Central ST- Martins and a first class BA (HONS) in painting at Chelsea college of Art. The artist's paintings are a series of diptych's showing beautiful girls cut from magazines and rendered menacingly gothic. She plays with controversial magazine imagery, setting it against a backdrop of fluoro paint and typography.
Glass paints pictures in a similar fashion to how a DJ would sample music. They are made from prefabricated emotional expressions, the words being lyrics sampled from a variety of musical sources. From pop, rock, to rap, by applying her cut-and-paste technique to "personal expression". These expressions or phrases be they sentimental or brash, when taken from their context become blown-up fragments set against a regularized corporate design. The slick presentation of her paintings counterbalances the artificial emotionality of the lyrics.
However some Art critics have viewed pieces of her work with disgust. Some of the cut-and-paste quotations from porn magazines have been seen as distasteful. Glass distresses her models with the 'Heroin Chic' look seen on the catwalk models in the late 90's. With smeared mascara in streaking mock tears, the gaunt and disheveled models look every inch the heroin addicts they portray.
Unlike the "Turner" prize, that pillar of the British Art Establishment hosted by Madonna and watched my millions on television, the "Beck's Futures" award is much more low key. Designed for the unknown artists of the U.K it will not be watched by millions, or have a celebrity judge panel. But instead the judges will be made up of everyday people such as the artist Julian Opie, the singer Marriane Faithful and the writer Harland Miller.
This "Beck's Future's Award", may not be as well known as the "Turner prize" but it's a lot more youthful than it's counterpart, and it will succeed in launching up-and-coming YBA's such as Kirsten Glass into successful artist's.