The Vauxhall Collective: Three Years On

LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM – October 25, 2010: For three successful years, the Vauxhall Collective, set up by Vauxhall Motors as part of its ongoing commitment to championing style and design in the UK, has offered a platform for the most promising creatives to develop their style and create unique projects across fine arts, theatre, photography, craft & design, fashion and film.

This November, in a retrospective show, all fourteen winners from 2008 right through to 2010 will be exhibiting their work at Idea Generation Gallery, Shoreditch.

Invited to interpret a yearly creative brief set by Vauxhall Motors, the artists are selected by panels of industry experts from across the creative disciplines, coming together as Style Councils, one for each different category. After having reviewed the proposals, the Style Councils decide on the category winners following criteria such as the originality of the proposal, progression in the work of the artist and how well it responds to the brief at hand, which always reflects Vauxhall’s profile as a forward-thinking, energetic and British brand.

This year’s collection sculptor Maurizio Anzeri, director Hannah Eidinow, designer Gareth Neal and photographer Matt Stuart have already impressed critics with their diverse interpretations of the theme ‘The Great British Weekend’. They are sure to maintain the Vauxhall Collective’s exceptional benchmarks in any future projects they undertake.

Last year, the idea of ‘Reinventing British Classics’ inspired Studio Glithero’s ceramic designs, Seba Kurtis’ intriguing photography, Katie Paterson’s light installation along Deal Pier and Duncan Speakman’s interactive ‘subtle mob’ experience.

In 2008, the inaugural Vauxhall Collective adopted the theme ‘The Great British Road Trip’. This, a strong beginning for the bursary, saw Gayle Chong Kwan’s photographs of the Scottish landscape inspired by Daguerre’s dioramas, Ben Rivers’ s film that visits the self-declared King of the British Eccentrics, a Funhouse-inspired art exhibition by Matthew Darbyshire, a 1950s tea party followed by a 1980s wedding reception devices by Gideon Reeling, a glamorous, metallic leather driving set designed by Jonathan Kelsey and a collection of design objects based on lost British craft techniques by Simon Hassan.