04th Sep 2024

Bunny Hennessey Freelands Painting Prize 2024: Spotlight on Winner


We are delighted to spotlight Bunny Hennessey, a remarkable artist whose innovative approach to contemporary art has earned her the prestigious Freelands Painting Prize 2024. Recently introduced to our audience as a nominee of the New Blood Art Emerging Art Prize, Bunny’s work continues to captivate and inspire.

Bunny Hennessey Freelands Painting Prize 2024

About Bunny Hennessey:

Bunny Hennessey is a Fine Art graduate from the City & Guilds of London Art School, class of 2024. Her artistic practice revolves around an exploration of the corporeal form, delving into its fragile boundaries, transient nature, and propensity for physical and emotional leakage. Bunny approaches her work with a sense of urgency, executing swift bursts of creative expression that aim to capture precise sensations experienced within the body.

Her oeuvre presents the body as a messy and porous entity, a failed vessel susceptible to manipulation, distortion, and transformation, defying the laws of weight and gravity. Employing paint as a metaphor for stagnant bodily fluids yearning for expulsion, Bunny harnesses the medium’s ability to mirror the spectrum of permeability inherent in the human form.

Through her practice, Bunny seeks to navigate the liminal space between the sinister and the naive, conjuring ambiguous figures that emerge and dissolve within the pictorial plane. The canvas edge becomes a site of negotiation, a volatile boundary that must withstand the internal frenzy and mobility of the artist’s gestural marks, contrasting with the messy and porous nature of our corporeal existence.

The Freelands Painting Prize: Celebrating Emerging Artists

Launched in 2020, the Freelands Painting Prize celebrates outstanding painting practices at the undergraduate level across the UK. Each year, higher education institutions offering undergraduate courses in Fine Art or Painting nominate a final-year student for the prize. The prize culminates in an exhibition at the Freelands Foundation gallery, showcasing the works of the winning artists. This exhibition provides a platform for emerging artists to gain public and critical attention, making the prize a valuable indicator of future success.

Why Bunny Hennessey’s Work Matters: Innovative Contemporary Art

Bunny Hennessey’s achievement aligns perfectly with New Blood Art’s mission to support and nurture emerging talent. Her work challenges conventional notions of the canvas as a static container, instead embracing its potential to contain and express the visceral, ever-shifting dynamics of the body. Bunny’s art invites viewers to confront the complexities and contradictions inherent in our physical forms, prompting contemplation on the fragility and impermanence of our embodied experiences.

Join Us in Celebrating Emerging Talent: Support the Arts:

New Blood Art is dedicated to curating a selection of exceptional emerging artists, making it easier for collectors to stay ahead of the curve. By supporting artists like Bunny Hennessey, you are not only adding valuable pieces to your collection but also contributing to the growth and development of the contemporary art scene.

Stay connected with us to follow Bunny Hennessey’s journey and discover more about the rising stars of the art world. Let’s celebrate the future of contemporary art together.

Bunny Hennessey
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