Josephine Rock wins the Platform Graduate Award 2018

CVAN South East, in partnership with five leading galleries from the South East, is thrilled to announce that UCA Farnham Fine Art graduate Josephine Rock is the winner of this year’s Platform Graduate Award. Josephine was nominated by Aspex in Portsmouth, where her work can be seen in exhibition until 30 December.

The Jury who selected Josephine from a shortlist of five artists comprised of guest selector, artist Harold Offeh, and representatives of the five gallery partners Aspex, De La Warr Pavilion, MK Gallery, Modern Art Oxford and Turner Contemporary.

Artist Harold Offeh had this to say:

Josephine Rock presented an extraordinary breadth of work packed with playful associations and immersed in strenuous research. I have no doubt she will make the most of the financial support and professional development opportunities that the Platform award offers, and I am excited to watch her practice and career develop in the coming years.

Jo Bushnell, Director at Aspex and Deputy Chair of CVAN South East added:

All at Aspex are thrilled that Josephine Rock, a really exceptional emerging artist, has been awarded this prize.  We worked closely with her on the presentation of her work in our current exhibition (on show until 30 December) and were impressed by both her vision and professionalism. The Platform Graduate Award 2018 will offer her a tremendous opportunity to develop her practice over the coming year.       

Winner Josephine Rock comments:

I am very grateful to be the recipient of the Platform Graduate Award 2018. Platform has provided a stepping stone for my practice after BA. I have benefited from the opportunity to participate in a group exhibition, as well as encountering new networks and connecting with other recent graduates and Platform Alumni. Over the coming year I will be working on interdisciplinary research projects which encompass social contagion, post-truth politics, ‘robopoetics’ and the wellbeing industry. I would like to thank CVAN South East, Jo Bushnell, Catherine Sadler and the team at Aspex for their support

Josephine will receive a twelve month professional development and creative mentoring package, supported by the participating Platform galleries, plus a bursary of £2,500 to support her creative and professional development.

The Platform Graduate Award continues to represent the top emerging artists in the region. Thirty-three graduate artists from seventeen universities across the South East have been selected and are being exhibited at the five partner galleries between September 2018 and January 2019.

Each gallery nominated one of their exhibiting artists to be considered for the award, and the winning artist was selected by the Jury following an interview process.