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Belfast Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Belfast student's artwork to be displayed in station after competition win: ‘It'll be crazy to walk past it'
Not only is the 20-year-old a little richer; she's also going to see her work on display at one of Northern Ireland's busiest stations. It follows a collaboration between Belfast School of Art and Translink to create a unique piece of student art for permanent exhibition at York Street Station — affectionately known as 'The Student's Station' — with Katye-Louise securing the top prize. 'My vision was an oil painting of numerous people reflected against the glass of a train window, as well as people sitting inside the train,' she said. Her winning work comprises reflections in the window of a train. 'There's a woman sitting in the train and lots of overlapping figures on the glass,' she said. 'It's a reference to transport and travel being the one area where so many people from different walks of life come together and share the same overlapping experience for a particular moment in time.' Katye-Louise, from the New Lodge area, said the aim of the piece was to encourage public transport and promote sustainable travel, while also capturing the sense of connection that public transport creates — linking lives, stories, and communities across the country. She said being from the local area helped inspire her. 'The New lodge is just five minutes away from York Street Station,' she said. 'My family and I have used this and previous stations at Yorkgate/York Road often and I remember getting the train a lot in my childhood to go to Portrush or Bangor. 'Being local, and understanding the history of this area and the other areas surrounding York Street Station, I wanted to create a piece that reflects all communities; something everyone can see themselves in.' Katye-Louise, who works part-time at Belfast's Europa Hotel, said local artist Colin Davidson was a key influence in her creative process. 'Aesthetically, the style is loosely based on Colin Davidson's reflection paintings,' she said. 'I had the opportunity of seeing one of these paintings in person and I was mesmerised by it.' She also referred to his 'powerful' Silent Testimony exhibition — the stories of 18 people connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles. 'When you walked into the gallery, you could cut the atmosphere with a knife,' she said. 'That's what I want to do with art too. When people look at my work, I want them to feel something. I want it to make a difference.' Her mum Claire (42), an operations manager, and her recruiter stepdad Nicky (40) are both 'so proud' of her for turning her winning concept into reality. So too is her baby sister Lailah, who's one year old, and the subject of her ongoing art coursework at university. Colin Davidson also praised her winning efforts. 'As Chancellor of Ulster University, I am immensely proud that Katye-Louise's work will grace the walls of Belfast's impressive York Street Station,' he said. The former Belfast Royal Academy pupil said her painting also aims to show that public transport is a great leveller. 'A bus or train can be the only way some people's lives overlap,' she said. 'Even though everyone is always on their own life journey, there are some points in time where people might be going the same way.' Katye-Louise said she often takes the train to Lurgan to visit her 20-year-old boyfriend, Kacper Szymczak, who's originally from Poland. She said he has been a source of great encouragement when it comes to her art, so it's perhaps fitting that she'll pass her painting every time she's on her way to see him. 'It'll be crazy to walk past my piece when I'm going through the station,' she said. 'When they announced that I was the winner I couldn't breathe or walk or move. It all felt so surreal.' Winning the competition came with a professional fee and materials support, reflecting real-world practice. Translink and Ulster University jointly contributed £1,500 to fund the commission.' £800 of it has already been spent on materials for her creation. Katye-Louise said she'll put the rest into a savings account, while she deliberates over whether to buy new products or go on a well-earned holiday. 'I like the idea of travelling to France and Italy to visit some of the galleries and get more inspiration,' she said. 'Then again, I might just buy some more art supplies.' Unsurprisingly, her dream job is to be a full-time artist. Although she was advised to consider doing a business degree, Katye-Louise opted for art instead and she's never looked back. 'You have to do what you love in life,' she said. 'You're only here once.'
Belfast Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Belfast student's prize-winning station art shows ‘lives in transit overlapping'
Not only is the 20-year-old a little richer; she's also going to see her work on display at one of Northern Ireland's busiest stations. It follows a collaboration between Belfast School of Art and Translink to create a unique piece of student art for permanent exhibition at York Street Station — affectionately known as 'The Student's Station' — with Katye-Louise securing the top prize. 'My vision was an oil painting of numerous people reflected against the glass of a train window, as well as people sitting inside the train,' she said. Her winning work comprises reflections in the window of a train. 'There's a woman sitting in the train and lots of overlapping figures on the glass,' she said. 'It's a reference to transport and travel being the one area where so many people from different walks of life come together and share the same overlapping experience for a particular moment in time.' Katye-Louise, from the New Lodge area, said the aim of the piece was to encourage public transport and promote sustainable travel, while also capturing the sense of connection that public transport creates — linking lives, stories, and communities across the country. She said being from the local area helped inspire her. 'The New lodge is just five minutes away from York Street Station,' she said. 'My family and I have used this and previous stations at Yorkgate/York Road often and I remember getting the train a lot in my childhood to go to Portrush or Bangor. 'Being local, and understanding the history of this area and the other areas surrounding York Street Station, I wanted to create a piece that reflects all communities; something everyone can see themselves in.' Katye-Louise, who works part-time at Belfast's Europa Hotel, said local artist Colin Davidson was a key influence in her creative process. 'Aesthetically, the style is loosely based on Colin Davidson's reflection paintings,' she said. 'I had the opportunity of seeing one of these paintings in person and I was mesmerised by it.' She also referred to his 'powerful' Silent Testimony exhibition — the stories of 18 people connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles. 'When you walked into the gallery, you could cut the atmosphere with a knife,' she said. 'That's what I want to do with art too. When people look at my work, I want them to feel something. I want it to make a difference.' Her mum Claire (42), an operations manager, and her recruiter stepdad Nicky (40) are both 'so proud' of her for turning her winning concept into reality. So too is her baby sister Lailah, who's one year old, and the subject of her ongoing art coursework at university. Colin Davidson also praised her winning efforts. 'As Chancellor of Ulster University, I am immensely proud that Katye-Louise's work will grace the walls of Belfast's impressive York Street Station,' he said. The former Belfast Royal Academy pupil said her painting also aims to show that public transport is a great leveller. 'A bus or train can be the only way some people's lives overlap,' she said. 'Even though everyone is always on their own life journey, there are some points in time where people might be going the same way.' Katye-Louise said she often takes the train to Lurgan to visit her 20-year-old boyfriend, Kacper Szymczak, who's originally from Poland. She said he has been a source of great encouragement when it comes to her art, so it's perhaps fitting that she'll pass her painting every time she's on her way to see him. 'It'll be crazy to walk past my piece when I'm going through the station,' she said. 'When they announced that I was the winner I couldn't breathe or walk or move. It all felt so surreal.' Winning the competition came with a professional fee and materials support, reflecting real-world practice. Translink and Ulster University jointly contributed £1,500 to fund the commission.' £800 of it has already been spent on materials for her creation. Katye-Louise said she'll put the rest into a savings account, while she deliberates over whether to buy new products or go on a well-earned holiday. 'I like the idea of travelling to France and Italy to visit some of the galleries and get more inspiration,' she said. 'Then again, I might just buy some more art supplies.' Unsurprisingly, her dream job is to be a full-time artist. Although she was advised to consider doing a business degree, Katye-Louise opted for art instead and she's never looked back. 'You have to do what you love in life,' she said. 'You're only here once.'
Belfast Telegraph
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Turner Prize shortlist includes Iraqi exile who studied in Belfast and artist who uses ‘salvaged' antique dolls in work
The shortlist also includes an artist who uses dolls 'salvaged' from thrift shops and online in their work and another who uses VHS tape. Painter Sami, 40, born in Baghdad, has studied at the Belfast School of Art and Goldsmiths College, London. He says: 'My paintings seek to capture the state of confusion that occurs because of the cut thread between reality and the imagination; between war narrated and war witnessed.' Sami was given the nod for After the Storm: Mohammed Sami at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, which has 14 paintings that respond to the history of Sir Winston Churchill's birthplace, and contain 'hints and references to conflict in Iraq'. The paintings do not have human figures, while one shows the 'shadow of a helicopter blade over a table and empty chairs', and another appears to suggest body bags. Peterborough artist Rene Matic was among the four shortlisted artists announced at the Tate Britain on Wednesday for their first institutional solo exhibition, called As Opposed To The Truth, which touches on ideas of the rise of right-wing populism and identities. Alongside Matic were three fellow London-based artists, Glasgow-born Nnena Kalu, Mohammed Sami, who first moved to Sweden after leaving Iraq, and Canada-born Zadie Xa. Matic, 27, was praised by the jury for expressing 'concerns around belonging and identity, conveying broader experiences of a young generation and their community through an intimate and compelling body of work'. Their work looks at themes including 'the constructed self through the lens of rudeness', which they have taken from rudeboy culture, a Jamaican subculture in the UK. It includes personal photographs of family and friends in stacked frames, paired with sound, banners, and an installation at the Centre for Contemporary Arts Berlin, Germany. They also have an ongoing collection called Restoration, which focuses on 'antique black dolls salvaged by the artist' and a flag quoting political leaders who called for 'no place for violence' in the wake of the attempted assassination of US President Donald Trump. Kalu, born in Glasgow in 1966, is a resident artist at ActionSpace's studio, which supports learning disabled artists across London, at Studio Voltaire. She creates large-scale abstract sculptures and drawings that hang down from the wall or ceiling. The items are made from colourful streams of repurposed fabric, rope, parcel tape, cling film, paper and reels of VHS tape. Kalu is nominated for her installation Hanging Sculpture 1-10, which Manifesta 15 Barcelona commissioned her to create at a disused power station, and her presentation in Conversations, a group exhibition at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The works contain 10 large brightly coloured sculptures that hung among the grey concrete pillars of the industrial site, and a work in pen, graphite and chalk pen on two pieces of paper. She was commended for 'her unique command of material, colour and gesture and her highly attuned responses to architectural space'. Xa, 41, who studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and the Royal College of Art in London, is influenced by her Korean background and its 'spiritual rituals, shamanism, folk traditions and textile practices'. She is nominated for Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything (2025), which was created with Spanish artist Benito Mayor Vallejo and shown at the United Arab Emirates' Sharjah Biennial. It has a sound element inspired by Salpuri, a Korean exorcism dance, and a mobile sculpture inspired by seashell wind chimes and Korean shamanic rattles, which has 650 brass bells that make harmonised sounds. An exhibition of works will be held at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery from September 27 2025 to February 22 2026 during the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations. The winner will be announced on December 9 2025 at an award ceremony in Bradford. Last year, Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur, who put a doily on a car, won the prestigious art prize, which awards £25,000 to its winner and £10,000 to the other shortlisted artists. Previous recipients include sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor (1991), artist Damien Hirst (1995), and filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen (1999).
