A bronze robin on a branch won the 2023 KPMG Young Artist Award at this year’s Royal Ulster Academy of Arts (RUA) Annual Exhibition in the Ulster Museum.
This year’s winner was Jessica Checkley, a Dublin-based model maker, sculpture and artist.
Her outstanding creation is one of over 300 works the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts (RUA) is currently hosting in its 142nd Annual Exhibition of Art in the Ulster Museum.
The organisation is also marking a 16-year partnership with KPMG.
As well as being the main sponsor, the firm is also behind the KPMG Young Artist Award, which was recently presented to Jessica at the exhibition.
KPMG Partner Paddy Doherty praised Jessica’s winning creation and said the RUA Annual Exhibition is a highlight of the KPMG calendar.
“This year we celebrate 16 years working with the RUA,” he said. “We are immensely proud of a partnership which has proved so worthwhile for us as a firm and again shown that close cooperation between business and the arts is a powerful combination.
“It is evident that the exhibition has once again drawn work of the highest calibre from some of the best artists, both locally and further afield. Congratulations to all those featured in the exhibition and also to the RUA for their skill in curating such a fine collection.”
For a second consecutive year, the exhibition was held in the largest gallery in the museum and featured works across a wide variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, print, sculpture, photography and video and they were selected from entries submitted to the RUA earlier this year.
Founded in 1879, the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts is the largest and longest established body of practising visual artists in Northern Ireland. One of its founding principles is to organise, promote or join in organising and promoting in any fashion an Annual Exhibition of work by both members and non–members.
The Annual Exhibition of Art takes place in Gallery 1 & 2 of Ulster Museum and runs until Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
