“The new Contemporary British Painting Prize is a brilliant new initiative that holds up a mirror to the wealth of practice and exciting talent alive in the UK painting scene today.” 

Kath Wood, Founding Director of Firstsite, Curator and Arts Consultant

First Prize now £8000 + more

Highly Commended Award now £2000

£400 exhibitor’s fee for all shortlisted artists

Two exhibitions

“The stated aim of Contemporary British Painting is to explore and promote current painting. The subtext to this is giving voice back to the artist, the originator and source of painting. The real discourse around current painting is generated painter to painter and emanates from the studio and not from the boardrooms of institutions, directors’ offices, lecture halls or galleries. This prize is artists submitting themselves to consideration and selection by their peers.

Simon Carter, co-founder of Contemporary British Painting and lead selector of the CBP Prize 2018.

Prize overview

The Contemporary British Painting Prize Exhibition 2023 will be selected from an open call for contemporary painters working in the UK.

The prize is in two stages: shortlisting for the exhibition; and judging.

A minimum of twelve artists will be shortlisted to exhibit by a panel of four painter members of the artist-led group Contemporary British Painting.

This year the exhibition selectors are Gordon Dalton, Susan Gunn, Mandy Payne, and winner of the 2022 CBP Prize Lesley Bunch.

The shortlisted artists will each receive a £400 exhibitor’s fee.

Judging

The panel of judges will select one prizewinner and one highly commended painter from the CBP Prize exhibition at Huddersfield

The Prize

The winner will receive £8000, a catalogue essay on their work, an invitation to become a member of Contemporary British Painting as well as a selector for the CBP Prize 2024.

We have been able to increase the value of the prize thanks to John Talbot, collector of contemporary painting, for his generous donation. The CBP Prize is also delighted to be able to offer a £400 exhibitor’s fee for each of the shortlisted artists.

The Exhibitions

There will be two exhibitions: for the first exhibition a minimum of 12 shortlisted artists will be selected to exhibit in Huddersfield Art Gallery’s new temporary space. Each artist will exhibit a minimum of three works chosen by the selection panel.

The second exhibition will take place at Thames-side Gallery, London.

See the CBP Painting Prize archive:

CBP Painting Prize 2022
CBP Painting Prize 2021
CBP Painting Prize 2019
CBP Painting Prize 2018
CBP Painting Prize 2017
CBP Painting Prize 2016

The selection process
The four selectors will independently select up to 15 artists from all submissions, forming a long list of a maximum of 60 artists. The selectors will then meet to discuss the long list and agree a shortlist of at least 12 artists who will show at least three pieces each at the CBP Prize exhibition in Huddersfield. The judges will view the exhibited works in Huddersfield to select one prize winner and one highly commended artist.

The 2023 Contemporary British Painting Prize Selectors

The 2023 Contemporary British Painting Prize Judges

Beth Hughes

Beth Hughes is an independent Curator and Researcher, based in London. In a freelance capacity she is part of Lubaina Himid’s team as Curator and Creative Producer and is the contemporary art Curator at Salisbury Cathedral. Formerly she was Curator at Arts Council Collection for almost eight years, where she was responsible for the care and research of the non-sculptural holdings as well as overseeing the loans programme and supporting organisations around the country to borrow from the Collection. Beth’s curatorial practice balances the fundamental belief in the importance and power of public art collections with a dedicated commitment to collaboration and access. She has curated a wide range of exhibitions including Criminal Ornamentation: Yinka Shonibare MBE curates the Arts Council Collection, the Grayson Perry tapestry series, The Vanity of Small Differences and Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City with Lubaina Himid CBE.

Caroline Walker

Caroline Walker (b 1982, Dunfermline) is an artist based in London and Scotland. She has a BA in painting from the Glasgow School of Art (2004) and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London (2009). Recent solo exhibitions include K11, Shanghai; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Nottingham Castle, Nottingham;  KM21, The Hague; Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham; Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, and GRIMM, Amsterdam & New York. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, and as part of the touring exhibition British Art Show 9. Walker is represented in public collections including the National Museum of Wales, UK Government Art Collection, Arts Council Collection, Perez Museum and  ICA Miami, Voorlinden Museum and Kunstmuseum in The Hague.

Grant Scanlan

Originally from the Lake District, Grant has worked as a curator in museums and galleries based in London, the East Midlands and Yorkshire since completing his post graduate studies in the mid 1990s. Since 2011, Grant has been responsible for the management and programming of Huddersfield Art Gallery which is becoming recognised as a centre for contemporary painting in the UK. He has been a judge of the Contemporary British Painting Prize since 2017, judges the Flourish Award for printmaking and joined the judging panel for the New Light Prize Exhibition in 2020/21.

The exhibition is accompanied by a beautifully produced catalogue featuring the works of all the shortlisted artists.

Key Dates

  • Deadline for submissions: 11.59pm Friday 30th June 2023
  • Notification of entrants: Longlist on or before 23rd July, shortlist on or before 30th July
  • Delivery of works to Huddersfield: Monday 4th – Friday 8th September
  • Exhibition dates Huddersfield: 16th September – 11th November
  • Private view and Prizewinner announcement Saturday 23rd September 2023
  • Exhibition dates London: Friday 1st – Sunday 17th December 2023
  

Please read carefully before you make your submission. We have also provided additional information in the FAQs. Please also see the Terms and Conditions of entry. Good luck!

Entry is open to all artists, of any nationality, over 18 living and working in the UK. The aim of the prize is to promote current painting.

Your entry

What is eligible?

The aim of the prize is to explore and promote current painting, and we want to see the best of painting produced in the UK today.

All artists over 18 and of any nationality, living and professionally based (including students) in the UK (except CBP artist members) may enter.

Work should have been completed since 1st January 2021. The maximum size is 2.2m across the longest edge. 3D work must pass through a standard single doorway.

Please see FAQs for additional information.

Lesley Bunch (r) winner of the 2022 painting prize, and Helen G Blake (l), awarded the ‘Highly Commended’ runner-up prize.

We have teamed up with CuratorSpace where you can make your submission and pay the entry fee (see below). You will need to register if you have not already done so. Registration is free. Before you start you may want to prepare your submission material first; this may save time and minimise complications when you complete the submission form. You will be able to save and edit your entry at any time, however you cannot make further alterations once you have submitted your entry.

Please Note: Deadline for entries: 11.59pm on Friday 30th June 2023. We strongly recommend that you do not leave your submission until the last moment.

You need to provide:

1 Your contact details
We will need your contact details: name, email address, postal address/city/postcode and either a landline or mobile phone number.

2 Artist’s statement
Please submit a short (100-300 word) statement about your painting practice. You may want to compose it first and then paste it into the box on the form. Please avoid using any complicated formatting or links in your statement as these won’t be retained.

3 Website and social media
You can optionally add the URL of your artist website, along with your Instagram, Twitter and Facebook names if you wish. This will allow us to tag you in social media posts. All submissions will be considered for our Painting of the Day feature.

4 Upload five images
We need images of five different individual paintings. Paintings created before 1st January 2021 are not eligible. Works cannot be longer than 220cm on any side. The images should be jpeg files of good quality and medium to high resolution. We recommend between 960 and about 3000 pixels width. As a guideline file sizes will probably be up to about 1.5 or 2Mb (maximum per image 4Mb).

Note: If you try to upload too large a file or a file in the wrong format you will see an error message or cause the submission process to fail.  The web has plenty of helpful information on how to photograph, re-size and convert your images.

If your work is selected we will ask for high-resolution images for the catalogue.

Painting details
We will also need some details about each painting:

• Title (if the work is untitled please put Untitled)

• Medium, eg: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions in cm (HxWxD)
• The year

Do not add any other information here.

You must confirm that you will be over 18 by the deadline. You must also confirm that you accept the Terms and Conditions.

5 Pay and submit
The submission fee is £20. Payment by card is taken on submission through CuratorSpace. Once your payment has been taken and your form submitted you will be able to view your submission in your CuratorSpace account area.

If you are having difficulty making your submission please check that you have completed all fields correctly. You cannot submit your application unless this information is provided.

Shadow Sculpture 12 by Lesley Bunch, 2022 winner
Contemporary British Painting Prize 2023

Entry form

You will be taken to the CuratorSpace website to make your submission where you will need to register (if you haven’t previously done so) and log in. Registration to CuratorSpace is free.

GOOD LUCK!

  • £8000 First Prize
  • £2000 Highly Commended Award
  • £400 exhibitor’s fee for all shortlisted artists
  • TWO exhibitions
  • Up to 60 long listed artists will be announced in advance of the short list announcement

The First Prize winner also receives an essay on their work, an invitation to become a member of CBP and the opportunity to be a selector for CBP Prize 2024. All submissions are eligible for selection for Painting of the Day, so even if you are not selected for the exhibition your work may still be seen by our thousands of followers on social media.

The entry fee is £20 for all applicants.

Artists of all nationalities who live in the UK, including students, are eligible. You must be aged 18 years or above on 30 June 2023 and living and professionally based in the UK. (This includes England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man). It does not include the Republic of Ireland).

Works should not be larger than 2.2m along the longest dimension including any frame. 3D works must fit through a standard doorway.

Yes, you can submit a diptych or triptych as long as the combined size does not exceed the maximum (2.2 x 2.2m). It will count as a single entry – i.e. one of your five paintings – as long as you include all the panels in a single image. Please also state ‘Diptych’ or ‘Triptych’ against the size.

Work entered must be viewed by the judges as being a painting (a visual artwork produced using a paint medium such as oil, tempera, acrylic, emulsion, enamel or watercolour which once completed results in a physical object). Video, or work which is created by exclusively digital output (i.e. giclée or inkjet) is not eligible.

Each work should have been completed on or after 1st January 2021.

No. Framing and/or mounting is a standard measure to ensure that artwork is protected in the normal course of handling and display. If you require your work to be handled and displayed unframed, the entry will be accepted on the condition that it is entered at your own risk; the organisers will not accept any liability for any loss or damage that may occur in the normal course of handling or display. If your work is selected the exhibition curators will get in touch to discuss any special handling arrangements.

Clipframes or unprotected glass edges are not acceptable under any circumstances.

Wall-mounted works should be fitted with mirror plates or Ryman Hangers, however if your work requires special hanging arrangements the organisers will be in touch if your work is selected.

We ask for five works to give you a better chance by giving the selectors a better understanding of your work. The selectors will choose a minimum of three works from each of the shortlisted artists for exhibition.

Yes, as long as any entry has not been a winner of another competition. Note that all five works MUST be available for the duration of both exhibitions.

Yes, you are free to enter if you have been long listed or shortlisted for the CBP Prize previously.

No. Entry is only open to artists living and working in the UK.

A part of the prize is membership of CBP, and as a member you must live in the UK and therefore able to participate in CBP member activities.

Yes, as long as your work was produced within the UK after 1st January 2021.

You must arrange delivery of your work to Huddersfield and collection from Thames-side Gallery. CBP will arrange transportation of selected works between Huddersfield and London. Selected artists will be contacted in due course with further information. The delivery window to Huddersfield is specified in Key Dates.

No. This is not a selling exhibition but we do receive sales enquiries. We will therefore ask selected artists for selling prices, including commission, but there is no obligation to sell your work. All five of your submitted works must be available for the full duration of the exhibition. If a painting is already in a private collection, the owner must have agreed to the loan of the work for the prize exhibition.

Work is insured whilst at the Huddersfield exhibition. Details will be provided to shortlisted Artists on request. Work is NOT insured whilst in transit and at Thames-side Gallery. Artists are therefore advised to arrange their own insurance.

We have teamed up with CuratorSpace who will process your payment and your submission. You need to register (free of charge) if you have not done so already. Artist registration with CuratorSpace will also give you access to other opportunities.

Yes. Once you have registered on CuratorSpace and started your submission you can save it, review your submission and update it at any time before the deadline. Once you have submitted your entry you cannot make changes.

No. Entry closes automatically at the published time and date. We strongly recommend that you submit your entry in good time.

Artists will be notified of the outcome by email. Please see Key Dates.

Please read About the prize, How to enter and FAQs carefully before you make your submission. 

Deadline for entries: 11.59pm (one minute to midnight) on Friday 30th June 2023.

All artists over 18 and of any nationality, presently living and working in the UK (except CBP artist members) may submit work (see FAQs for further details).

The entry fee is £20 for all entries and is non-refundable.

All works must be an original creation by the artist. Each artist, by entering the Contemporary British Painting Prize, confirms that they hold all intellectual property rights in the work.

Work entered must be viewed by the judges as being a painting (a visual artwork produced using a paint medium such as oil, tempera, acrylic, emulsion, enamel or watercolour which once completed results in a physical object). Work need not be framed, however if selected, the entry will be accepted on the condition that it is entered at your own risk; the organisers will not accept any liability for any loss or damage that may occur in the normal course of handling or display.

The selectors will agree a shortlist of at least 12 artists who will show at least three pieces each at the CBP Prize exhibition in Huddersfield. The judges will select one prize winner and one highly commended artist from the exhibited works.

All five works submitted by the artist must be available for the full duration of the exhibition. If a painting is already in a private collection, the owner must have agreed to the loan of the work for the prize exhibition.

Exhibiting artists will each receive a £400 exhibitor’s fee – this may be used to help with costs for travel and accommodation. EXHIBITORS ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND THE PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT. Selected artists must arrange delivery of their selected works to Huddersfield Art Gallery and collection of the paintings from the London Gallery after the exhibition has closed. The organisers will liaise with the artists to confirm dates and to make arrangements.

Works that are for sale are subject to a 50% commission. The commission is split two-thirds / one third between the venue (ie 2/3 to Huddersfield Art Gallery) and 1/3 Contemporary British Painting. Works do not have to be for sale. Shortlisted artists will be contacted by the organisers for details.

Works are insured whilst at Huddersfield. Shortlisted artists will be provided with details on request. Works are NOT insured when in transit or at Thames-side Gallery. Artists are therefore advised to arrange their own insurance.

The copyright for all works exhibited in The Contemporary British Painting Prize Show 2023 will remain the property of the artist, but it is a condition of entry that the artist or their representatives agree that ‘Contemporary British Painting’ and ‘Huddersfield Art Gallery’ and ‘Thames-side Gallery’ may reproduce any exhibited works, free of charge, for the purposes of marketing, promotion and education in direct connection with the ‘Contemporary British Painting Prize’, in all media worldwide including exhibition catalogue and subsequent publications, posters, prints, postcards, the Internet and within television programmes, and may license these specific, limited rights to others only for the same purposes.

‘Contemporary British Painting’ also reserves the right to reproduce selected images free of charge for purposes such as displaying information on previous exhibitions on the ‘Contemporary British Painting’ website, ‘@paintbritain’ Twitter and Instagram accounts and ‘Contemporary British Painting’ Facebook site indefinitely, as a public record. The processes of the competition may be filmed, and entering the competition constitutes agreement for a painting to be included in such filming, whether broadcast or not.

Artists submitting their Works to the prize (whether such submission is for an exhibition or any other purpose) shall indemnify and keep indemnified the prize organisers (including their agents and affiliates) against any actions, claims, proceedings, losses, liabilities, charges, costs and expenses which they may incur arising out of or in connection with any actual or alleged financial or contractual arrangements between the artist and any agent (other than the prize organisers) or any third party.

Personal data supplied by the artist on the submission form, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will only be used for administering the exhibition and for the purposes of the exhibition and continuing promotion of the Work(s). In entering, entrants agree that their contact details will be retained by the organisers of the Contemporary British Painting Prize and these will be added to the mailing lists for Contemporary British Painting, from which is it possible to unsubscribe at any time. The personal data will not be transferred to any other third party without the consent of the artist.

Unless expressly written to the contrary, the artist hereby consents to the organisers providing third parties with his or her contact details where such third parties might be interested in buying, commissioning or licensing the rights in and to, their work(s).

Artists will be notified of the results of their entry by email (please see Key Dates). The selectors’ and judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The organisers reserve the right to disqualify any Work if the artist has failed to adhere to these Terms and Conditions.

Dates and/or other arrangements may be subject to change according to prevailing government regulations and restrictions concerning Covid 19 and/or other circumstances beyond the organiser’s control.

The Contemporary British Painting Prize 2023