About the exhibition

The inaugural Well Hung Painting Prize brings together 41 artists selected from almost 1,000 submissions received from painters across the UK.

Established as a free national open call, the prize was created to celebrate contemporary painting, discover new artists and provide a meaningful opportunity for painters at different stages of their careers. It reflects Well Hung Gallery’s ongoing commitment to supporting distinctive artistic voices and introducing new work to a wider audience.

Spanning figuration, abstraction, landscape, portraiture, interiors and more experimental approaches to image-making, the exhibition presents a broad view of painting being made across the UK today. Varied in subject matter, scale, materiality and technique, the selected works demonstrate the continuing vitality of the medium and the many different ways artists are using painting to explore memory, place, identity, relationships and everyday experience.

Rather than presenting a single idea of what contemporary painting should look like, the exhibition brings together 41 individual approaches, each with its own visual language and sense of direction. The final selection was made following a two-stage process, with consideration given not only to the submitted artwork, but also to each artist’s wider body of work and future potential.

Prize winners

We are delighted to announce Bianca MacCall as the winner of the inaugural Well Hung Painting Prize.

Bianca’s painting, Wake Up, We’re Here, stood out for its distinctive voice and cinematic atmosphere, transforming an ordinary suburban moment into something quietly compelling. Alongside the work exhibited, the judging panel considered the originality, consistency and direction of Bianca’s wider body of work, and the potential to develop an exciting solo exhibition.

As the overall winner, Bianca will present a solo exhibition at Well Hung Gallery in early 2027 and has also received a £500 GreatArt materials voucher.

The runner-up awards were presented to:

Ellis King
Recipient of a £200 GreatArt materials voucher

Gavin Dobson
Recipient of a £200 Well Hung Framing voucher

The winners were selected by judges Andrew Torr and Nicholas Stavri, whose experience as artists, curators and supporters of contemporary painting brought valuable insight to the judging process.

The exhibition continues until 29 Sept 2026, with all works available to purchase.