The secret art prize

Secret Art Prize

Now in its second year, Curious Duke Gallery are proud to announce the return of the Secret Art Prize for 2015. Curious Duke Gallery, famed for their nurturing of surreal and urban art by artists in the early stages of their career and beyond, seek to support new talents and present them to a wider audience, often bringing street artists into a gallery environment for their first time. With over 130 applicants and following a highly popular Secret Art Prize 2014 exhibition, the most exciting new art prize promises to reach new levels.

Launching in January 2015, the Secret Art Prize is calling out for the surreal, urban, undefinable, whimsical, fancy, absurd- we want to see your strange and beautiful imaginations! We are welcoming entrants into our five categories: drawing, painting, print making, mixed media, and photography and it most certainly does not have to be conventional. The CDG family of artists delight in finding new artistic processes, pushing their practice into new mediums, subjects and continually seeking new grounds; we encourage the truly original. We do have some restrictions, so please do see our terms and conditions and FAQ’s below.

We want…

You, future Curious Duke artist, we don’t have to see a fully fledged portfolio or your life times masterpiece, we just want to see your potential. That is why we ask for only 3 images on your application, an artist statement, with supporting website links, blog or social media so that the judges can delve into your practice and get to know you as an artist, because we support you, not just your work. Our winners of 2015, one overall winner, category winners and People’s Choice winner will be championed for their talent and creativity, and their future.

The winner…

How do we choose who wins? Curious Duke Gallery compiles the completed applications to pass onto our panel of judges (meet them here ), once applications have closed. From here, our urban and surreal spirited judges who specialise in a field of the Fine Art industry choose their top 10 artists using the Eurovision voting system; each judge will have points to reward from 1-10, with the person with the highest score winning the overall competition, and similarly the categories. The coveted People’s Choice Award is awarded on the basis of all entrants applications being made public on this website, and then gathering votes as people click their favourites to vote them up the score board. Please do share your page to get more votes!

This is CDG

Having founded award winning Curious Duke Gallery in 2011, Eleni Duke has cemented her position on the UK art scene with collaborations with London based businesses, showcasing at the UK art fairs and joining the judging panel of all female street festival Femme Fierce. Duke’s nurturing approach to young talent has seen her winning 2nd place for Micro Business of the Year 2013, with her artists taking to the air waves on BBC radio and featured in London’s press. The winners of Secret Art Prize 2015 will join this cohort of creatives with representation from CDG. Find our more about the gallery here . But you will win so much more…

Secret Art Prize 2015 – The Prizes

The Overall winner will receive

£1000 cash prize made payable to the winner

Representation and one month group show with Curious Duke gallery

Mentoring from Eleni Duke

£100 worth of goods from our Liquitex .

Winners of the sub categories and People’s Choice Award will receive a place in the group exhibition this October 2015 at Curious Duke Gallery.

Have a question? Check our FAQs page here .

Want to know what our 2014 winners have to say? Read on…

Martha Zmpounou :

My involvement in the secret art prize competition and event was a very stimulating and fun experience. It was a pleasure to meet and work with Eleni and the rest of the team. Winning the prize was an extra reason to be happy besides being part of this great show.”

Blandine Bardeau:

The Secret Art Prize has been an amazing opportunity for me. I had never won a Fine Art Prize before, and I knew of Curious Duke through a friend of mine. She only had good things to say about the team.

I found out I was a runner-up and I was so delighted to be part of Curious Duke! It is such a great mix of abstract and representational contemporary art.

The team is excellent and thoughtful, always here to help, give you advice and support. I can only recommend applying. It is also great to have a one month exhibition in the heart of Old Street!

It helped me to put myself on the art map for sure. I look forward to seeing what the future brings, to do more exhibitions and art fairs with them.”