Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is delighted to announce the Wakelin Award recipient for 2025. The annual award is given to an artist living and working in Wales, whose work is purchased for the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery’s permanent collection. The recipient for The Wakelin Award 2025 is Lucia Jones. Previous award winners include Brendan Stuart Burns, Anthony Shapland, Catrin
Image: Lucia Jones, The Four Seasons, 2025, Photo Polly Thomas, courtesy of Lucia Jones Webster, Jonathan Anderson, Meri Wells, David Cushway, Helen Sear, Clare Woods, Alexander Duncan, Philip Eglin, Richard Billingham, Cinzia Mutigli, Anya Paintsil and Ingrid Murphy.
This year’s selector is Jonathan Powell, artist and director of Elysium Gallery, Swansea. Jonathan said: ‘Lucia Jones’ practice explores memory and self-perception through paint and film. Focusing on the female psyche,
she draws inspiration from b-movies since the 1950s, art history, and her own photographs, recontextualizing women as anonymized subjects in fractured and fabricated environments. These painted scenes act as cyphers for lived
experience, to be glimpsed and examined.
Her recent works explore the sometimes performative nature of femininity, depicting figures in spaces that blur the boundaries between the real and imagined, the revealed and concealed. They explore the tension between societal constraints and personal autonomy.’ Lucia Jones said: ‘The Wakelin Award has provided invaluable support to Welsh artists for the last quarter of
a century, and I’m truly grateful to be a recipient. Winning this award means a great deal to me; garnering a purchase prize for a public collection marks a major milestone in my career. To be recognised by the Glynn Vivian – such a prestigious institution that has been a cornerstone of Wales’ artistic landscape for over 100 years—is also a remarkable honour. I’m proud to join the legacy of
incredible artists in Wales who have received this accolade. The Wakelin Award serves as motivation and will enable me to continue creating and contributing to the arts in Wales and beyond.’
The Award is administered by the Friends of the Glynn Vivian and is generously supported by donations in memory of Richard and Rosemary Wakelin and their son Martin, who were themselves artists and active supporters of the arts in Swansea.
Dr Peter Wakelin said ‘The Glynn Vivian is a brilliant asset for the people of Swansea. We’re delighted that the Friends and staff of the gallery continue to use the award to strengthen the collection and support Welsh talent. My parents would have loved that.’
Melvyn Williams, Chair of the Friends of the Glynn Vivian: ‘It is a fantastic
privilege for The Friends of The Glynn Vivian to play a role in choosing work that will become part of our national heritage. It is also wonderful to be able to
support contemporary artists via the Wakelin fund to develop their careers in this way. These enigmatic and thought-provoking works by Lucia Jones will make a marvellous addition to the Glynn Vivian’s permanent collection.’
Karen MacKinnon, Curator, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery: ‘We are delighted with the selection of Lucia’s work and very grateful to Peter; the Wakelin family and Friends of the Glynn Vivian. The three works purchased are: ‘I can’t fit into this dress anymore’ (2023); ‘Do you want to form an alliance with me’ (2024) and ‘Fake it till you make it’ (2024). Through her work, Lucia studies the construction of femininity, often with a sense of nostalgia. These works are both inviting and unsettling and really resonate with other work in the collection. Thank you so much to Lucia, and to Jon for being such a thoughtful
selector.’
