Shortlisted artwork: ‘Landscape & Memory / Connected’, see Gallery page for more information on this work.

The John Ruskin Prize is a multidisciplinary art prize open to all artists, designers and makers, of all nationalities.

Selected from nearly 3000 entries, the shortlist exhibited in January 2025 at Trinity Buoy Wharf. A total of 87 works by 85 artists, makers and innovators were selected by Andrew Nairne OBE: Director, Kettles Yard, Prof Anita Taylor: Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee, Charles.O.Job: Architect and designer, Nichola Johnson OBE FSA: a Director of the Guild of St George, Emma Stibbon RA: Artist & Royal Academician.

The theme ‘From the Eye to the Hand’ invited a deep exploration of the relationship between perception and creation, the journey from what we see to what we make. Works thoughtfully engaged with and interpreted this theme and considered how our observations of the world translate through the act of making.

For Ruskin, this process was not merely technical but deeply ethical, spiritual, and connected to the truth of nature. He believed that the artist’s task is to observe the world with sincerity and humility and to translate that observation into art with skill and integrity.

The John Ruskin Prize is the fastest growing multi-disciplinary art prize in the UK. With the values of the radical 19th century polymath John Ruskin at its core, the prize has a reputation for supporting and promoting artists, designers and makers whose work defies easy categorisation. A fully illustrated publication and public engagement programme accompanied the exhibition.

Photography: Images 1, 4, 5 & 6 by Brandon Few @brandonfew