Clifford Chance

Michael Taylor awards Clifford Chance Printmaking Purchase Prize 2018 to Paul Wardski

Guest judge Michael Taylor, printmaker and founding Director of the prestigious Paupers Press, a studio dedicated to printing and publishing prints, has selected Paul Wardski from Camberwell College of Arts as the winner of Clifford Chance's annual Purchase Prize. Now in its 22nd consecutive year, Clifford Chance's annual Postgraduate Printmaking in London exhibition surveys London's art college graduates who use printmaking mediums, with the Purchase Prize now established as the premier prize on offer to the UK's postgraduate printmakers.

Mike congratulated Clifford Chance for their important support of the art of printmaking for over 20 years. Speaking about his selection of the prize-winner, he congratulated Paul for "his undoubted technical skills and engagement with the historical language of printmaking" and praised the artist's ability "to visually engage the viewer. Like all the best art, Paul's work rewards constant looking, working out what is going on, what the relationships are - the image not revealing everything."
Paul Wardski said, "I am delighted to have won the Clifford Chance Purchase Prize 2018. Through my practice, I am always striving to communicate an emotion of loss and displacement that is also a subtle nod to the social-political issues that it describes, and I am excited that I have been able to communicate this through my work. Winning the award has certainly given me the drive to continue pushing my printmaking practice and I am looking forward to working on future projects."

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 £2,000.

Ashley Prebble of the Clifford Chance art committee said, "A highlight of our art programme is the annual survey exhibition of the best printmaking being produced in London's postgraduate art colleges. We value the opportunity the exhibition gives us to showcase these new talents from our art schools. Through our support of a new generation of printmakers, we hope that the Purchase Prize encourages artists to continue to explore and experiment with the medium.