LONDON.- The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation announces the three artists shortlisted for the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize 2012: Tom Hammick, Haroon Mirza and Jennifer E. Price. The shorlisted artists will exhibit their work at Daiwa Foundation Japan House in June 2012 during which time one artist will be selected as the winner and will be invited to exhibit at Scai the Bathhouse in Tokyo in Autumn 2012.

Just over 700 artists submitted work for consideration this year by the distinguished panel of judges: Jonathan Watkins, Director of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Masami Shiraishi, President, Scai the Bathhouse, Tokyo; Martin Gayford, art critic and author; and Grayson Perry, artist and 2003 Turner Prize winner.

This is the second Daiwa Foundation Art Prize. In its inaugural year Marcus Coates was awarded the First Prize of a solo exhibition at the Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo. The Prize, which is open to British artists resident in the UK, offers artists a unique opportunity to gain an insight into Japan’s visual art sector. The winner is awarded a £5,000 participation fee plus travel and accommodation costs for a seven-day period in Japan to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. During this period support and introductions to key individuals and organizations in the Japanese contemporary art world will be arranged.

Tom Hammick
Tom Hammick studied MA Printmaking at Camberwell College of Art (1990). He has exhibited internationally in group and solo exhibitions including recent solo shows at Flowers Gallery, London, The Eagle Gallery, London, and Gallery Page and Strange, Canada (all 2011). He is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Painting and Print at the University of Brighton. He lives in East Sussex. Although Hammick's work references the real world, it is largely concerned with a sense of metaphorical journeying. His paintings and prints are often developed from observed drawings, but during the process of making the work these sources undergo significant transformations.

Haroon Mirza
Haroon Mirza studied MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design (2007). He was awarded the Northern Art Prize in 2010, and in 2011 has had a solo exhibition at the Lisson Gallery, London and participated in group exhibitions including Illuminations at the 54th Venice Biennale, Sum Parts at ACME Project Space, London and The British Art Show 7 at The Hayward Gallery, London. In his work, Mirza attempts to isolate the perceptual distinctions between noise, sound and music and explore the possibility of the visual and acoustic as one singular aesthetic form. These ideas are examined through lo-fi yet complex assemblages and installations that employ furniture, household electronics, video and existing artworks to formulate temporally based audio compositions.

Jennifer E. Price
Jennifer E. Price studied Printmaking at the University for the Creative Arts (2009) and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, most recently at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, as part of International Print Biennale’s 2011 Print Awards. She lives and works in Kent. In her artwork Price harnesses basic and traditional printmaking methods, and then stands them on their head, resulting in cross boundaries of printmaking, drawing, sculpture, site-based installation, and public intervention. The work addresses complex layers of material culture and the role of the visual artist in a complicated age of media.