Clifford Chance

Stanley Jones MBE awards Clifford Chance Printmaking Purchase Prize to Xiaoqiao Li

The artist and master printmaker Stanley Jones MBE was invited to select the winner of the Purchase Prize at Clifford Chance's annual Postgraduate Printmaking 2016 exhibition – an exhibition that surveys London's art college graduates who use printmaking mediums.

In his judge's speech at the exhibition opening reception, Stanley said that the prints on display demonstrated that levels of 'invention and dedication were coming through in a similar way to when I was teaching (at the Slade School of Art). Standards today are as high as they can possibly be. This exhibition has got all the elements and qualities that you (the exhibitors) need to flourish as printmakers.' He continued 'Artists today are working on many levels, in many creative ways', and he predicted that in 20 years 'Printmaking would be an integral part of our civilisation.' Stanley went on to award the Prize to Xiaoqiao Li from the Camberwell College of Arts, who he said was 'deserving of the Clifford Chance Purchase Prize.'

Xiaoqiao Li completed his postgraduate studies in 2016. 'My prints, photographs and mixed media works explore my upbringing and identity, as well as the physical, temporal, and psychological aspects of city life. My current practice explores the physical process and methodology of surface, space and memory through the interplay of mediums: drawing, printmaking, photography, moving image and projection. I am particularly interested in creating a ‘visual noise’ in images, as a device to attain certain types of meaning such as: darkness, ambiguity, melancholy in perceptually complicated landscapes.' From the Guangdong province, China, in 2010 Xiaoqiao Li won the China Young Artist Award at the 4th Beijing International Art Biennial.

Through the Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, the artist's work will be acquired for the Clifford Chance art collection and funds provided for continued research in a print studio, to the combined value of £2000.

John Dawson of the Clifford Chance art committee, said ‘We greatly appreciate the display of art in our offices and, each year, we value the opportunity to showcase these new talents from London’s art schools. Through our support of a new generation of printmakers, we hope the Purchase Prize encourages artists to continue to explore and experiment with the medium.’