ELLA VAN DER STRAATEN IS ONE OF ONLY TEN ARTISTS SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROBERT WALTERS GROUP UK NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022
THE WINNER OF THE AWARD WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON 10 NOVEMBER AT THE PRESTIGIOUS SAATCHI GALLERY
Basildon artist Ella van der Straaten has been shortlisted from over 1300 artists for the Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award. Now in its third year, the Award sets out to discover and champion exceptional emerging artists who are representative of contemporary Britain, and is organised by three leading organisations – global recruitment consultancy Robert Walters Group, Nottingham based arts charity UK New Artists, and renowned contemporary art platform Saatchi Gallery – to help provide a career springboard for emerging artists.
The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 10 November.
Born and raised in Basildon in Essex her worldview is shaped by growing up in Lee Chapel North Estate, which the Echo newspaper described as ‘the worst place to live in the county’, she learned to look inward to understand her true feelings about growing up on a council estate.
Ella van der Straaten is a 2022 Fine Art Graduate from Nottingham Trent University. The artist finds beauty in the everyday, continuously collecting photographs of moments, graffiti and others’ disregarded belongings as inspiration for her work. Seeking out remnants of humanity that people leave behind in order to continuously develop her relationship with the spirit of the estate.
Her shortlisted work (pictured above) is an installation that offers an insight into the scenes and characters that she encounters on her walk home through the council estate that she lived in. It was created using oil paint on reboard with found objects to bring oil painting into the 3D.
Ella van der Straaten said“I am so overjoyed to be shortlisted! To know that people are understanding and engaging with my work is the best part for me. Winning this prize would mean the world to me, and really would push me to keep expanding my practice and increase my ambition in my work.”
