2006 Awardee: Erica Eyres
The Dewar Award gave me the financial freedom to concentrate while completing my work for these projects, and allowed me to afford the necessary materials without having to compromise my ideas.
Biography
A senior teacher at the Glasgow School of Art describes Erica as “without doubt one of the best artists I have ever encountered in over twenty years of teaching”.
Originally from Canada, Erica is currently working in Glasgow. Her work explores human failings, aspirations/dreams and eccentricities in ways which are sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes moving and sometimes hilarious. Equally skilled in sculpture, painting, drawing and video, Erica has developed a unique and individual voice in all of these media.
Her work has already found critical acclaim and in 2006 she was nominated for the Beck’s Futures Prize. She is regarded as one of the most promising young artists working at the moment. With her Dewar Award, Erica was able to mount solo exhibitions of her work in London and Glasgow and attend an artist’s residency in Toronto.
These have led to other exciting opportunities, including other group exhibition in London, focussing on portraiture in contemporary art. A video she made in Toronto, and which was received extremely well, is being submitted to film festivals throughout Canada, by a Winnipeg-based organisation. Erica is now represented in Toronto, China and Japan, where her work can be shown regularly in galleries.
How the Award Helped
The Dewar Arts Awards enabled Erica to mount exhibitions of her work in Glasgow and London and attend a residency in Toronto, Canada. She writes, “these exhibitions and the residency are important milestones in my career and they have helped to take my work and reputation as an artist to the next level.”
The Dewar Award gave me the financial freedom to concentrate while completing my work for these projects, and allowed me to afford the necessary materials without having to compromise my ideas.