RDS Student Art Awards 2011

Congratulations to Linda Uhlemann on winning the Print Award at the recent RDS Student Art Awards 2011. Linda successfully completed a four year BA [Hons} In Visual Art Practice in The Institute of Art Design and Technology Dun Laoghaire. Linda majored in print-making.

Her graduation project was called "The House". The etchings are inspired by a house that Linda used to visit on holidays when she was a child.

"My final project was called “The House” and it concerned a house I used to visit when I was a child. I returned to it through a series of coincidences only to find it derelict, I traced the owners and unravelled the story of why this had happened. My work then became involved with memory and how it slips away and cannot be defined and contained."

'The House', consisting of four large etchings and and artists book

Etching and chincolle - Title empty corridors

Etching and chincolle - Title Mirror

Etching and chincolle - Title Bedroom

Etching and chincolle - Title Stairwell

The RDS Student Art Awards has an annual prize fund in excess of €16,000. Encompassing the RDS Taylor Art Award which has been awarded since 1860, the Awards are the most prestigious art awards open to registered art students of all award-bearing courses in Ireland.

The Awards continue the long tradition of the Society’s developmental role in supporting and nurturing the creative arts in Ireland. Until 1877, Ireland's first 'Drawing School' was managed by the Society after which it was transferred to the Government to become the Metropolitan School of Art and Design and later the National College of Art and Design.

The RDS Student Art Awards are significant in the recognition of excellence and best practice in the work of students registered in full and part-time award bearing art courses. They also provide a platform for exhibiting works that students might not have the opportunity to do otherwise. Previous winners of the RDS Student Art Awards include Walter Osborne, William Orpen, Mainie Jellett, Melanie Le Brocquy, Arthur Gibney, Dorothy Cross, Eamon O’Kane and James Hanley.

An exhibition of winners and a selection of works of excellence chosen by the judges is shown at the RDS National Crafts Competition & Student Art Awards Exhibition during the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show in the RDS Concert Hall.