THE COLUMBIA THREADNEEDLE PRIZE 2018: Out of 6 submitted paintings 3 was selected for the second rou

Only one was chosen alongside with 103 other artworks.

"Juggling Queen" or ‘This Tableau of Celebrities is Missing it’s Maecenas’ is the painting from Orsi Cowell-Lehoczky SWA that has been selected to the 2018 Columbia Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today exhibition.

She was one of 96 artists who had their work selected from over 4,000 entries viewed by the panel of selectors. The 2018 winner will be announced on 30 January 2018.

Visitors to the London exhibition will also decide the Visitors’ Choice Award, worth £10,000.

The exhibition is open at Mall Galleries between 31 January and 17 February 2018.

The selected work, 'Juggling Queen' or ‘This Tableau of Celebrities is Missing it’s Maecenas’ is Orsi's reinterpretation of the tableau paintings, where the 'rich and famous' are arranged in a posed way, a commissioned work by a patron of arts. Her intention was to raise questions around the ‘institution of patronage’ and the status of being a 'celebrity'. Are patrons making artists more reliant on populist themes for the sake of their attention? Or perhaps sacrificing one’s lifestyle for ethical principles by turning down support, is the only way...

The intention is to further mock the ‘group celebrity portrait’ genre with the artist's choice of ‘rich and famous’ being Queen Elizabeth I, a woman who is admired for her achievements and as a charismatic player in a very male dominated world. The other celebrity here is Picasso, who is thought to be the greatest and most successful avant-garde artist, but who had a very peculiar relationship with women and also with the art world. The non-present character is the Roman politician Gaius Maecenas, who is most famous for his support of young poets, his name becoming the eponym for a “patron of arts”. None of these celebrities are able to reimburse the artist's efforts, of course, nor she is able to answer the questions posed in this work.

Please help Orsi's work to be noticed by visiting the exhibition, and if considered worthy, by nominating her for the Visitors’ Choice Award. Thank you.