The
John Moores Painting Prize
is a biennial and very prestigious biennial competition and award for the best
contemporary painting. It has a £25,000 First Prize. It opened to entries
TODAY.
First the summary – then the history and a note of famous past winners –
and finally the details.
SUMMARY
-
The John Moores Painting Prize is open to all UK-based artists working
with paint. -
You can only enter online
(i.e. no postal entries). Payment is also online only. - Those who can enter are
- aged 18 years or above on 24 March 2025 and
- live in the UK or
are UK-based.
The deadline for an entry is 5pm Monday 24 March 2025- All entries need to be for sale.
-
All entries are judged anonymously over a two-stage selection process
– but I strongly recommend you take a look at the Judges profiles
first. - It culminates in an exhibition next year at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (Saturday 6 September to Sunday 1 March 2026).
In the absence of all those art competitions which have fallen by the
wayside in recent years,
this is one art competition that all painters should take very
seriously – not least because who has won it previously…..
History of the Award
The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK’s most well-known painting
competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from
across the UK to Liverpool.
and local philathopist Sir John Moores in 1957. It always had very strong associations with the
City of Liverpool. This internationally renowned prize competition is
organised in partnership with and continues to support artists and
bring the best contemporary painting to Liverpool.
Besides running the Littlewoods Empire, which made him one of Britain’s
richest men – even richer than the Queen, John Moores was also a keen
amateur painter who had trouble finding places to exhibit his paintings
– so he founded this competition to find others with the same
predicament who he could then exhibit locally with.
The John Moores Painting Prize competition has awarded more than £700,000 in prize money across 32
exhibitions, showcasing more than 2,400 works of art.
-
It presents a rich history of post-war painting in
Britain. -
The first exhibition was held only six years after the Walker Art
Gallery re-opened following the Second World War.
The continuation of this art competition with its valuable first prize –
when others are falling by the wayside – is because it continues to be
sponsored by the John Moores Painting Prize Trust.
The winning work and short-listed pieces are always exhibited at the
Walker Art Gallery
as part of the
Liverpool Biennial
festival of visual art
|
|
John Moores with David Hockney His first prize was £1,500, which he used to send his parents on holiday to Australia |
It’s had some very notable past prizewinners and paintings which
won including:
‘Blotter’ won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1993. This was a
turning point in Doig’s career and he was shortlisted for the
Turner Prize in 1994. ‘Blotter’ is regarded as one of his best
works.
See a virtual exhibition of John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition – Winners since 1957
2025 Prizes and Jury
Prizes
- The John Moores Painting Prize (First Prize): The First Prize winner will receive
- £25,000 and
- a prestigious solo display at Walker Art Gallery
- The Lady Grantchester Prize, offering £5,000, with a residency and £2,500 worth of art materials supplied by Winsor & Newton. Applications from artists in their final year of study or within five years of graduation are especially encouraged to apply for the latter award.
- EACH ARTIST chosen for the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition will receive an exhibiting fee.
Jury
The jury are chosen by the Walker Art Gallery in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust.
- all artists are allocated a unique entry number
- jurors are not given the names of the artists
- jurors are only provided with information about the title, size and medium of the painting.
….jurors will conduct most of their deliberations by reviewing digital images. We will be using high-resolution images and other digital tools that allow for detailed examination of the artworks.
The final selection of the prize winners will still involve in-person viewing to ensure that the integrity of the judging process is maintained.
I’ve been a Judge and participated in this form of Judging process before – if assessment is done in isolation rather than by Zoom. It really helps enormously in
- everybody moving at their own pace
- eliminating both “groupthink” and the Judge with the dominant persona who tries to persuade others to their perspective.
IMO it’s a much better way of judging.
Top: (L-R) Zhang Enli, Michael Simpson
Bottom: Gemma Rolls-Bentley, Louise Giovanelli, Zoé Whitley
The aim is to have people with an appreciation of diversity in practice from both the art world and creative industry. The Jury is expected to assess thousands of entries to determine both
- the exhibition content and
- prize winners.
- a prominent Chinese contemporary artist renowned for his extensive international exhibition history. Since 2000, his work has been showcased in over thirteen museums, with major solo exhibitions held across Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom in partnership with Hauser & Wirth.
- Notable venues include the Long Museum, Power Station of Art Shanghai, Galleria Borghese Rome, and the ICA London.
- His works are collected by prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Tate Collection, and Royal Academy of Arts.
- In 2014, he served as a juror for the John Moores Painting Prize China
- a London-born artist based in Manchester who studied at Manchester School of Art and Städelschule Frankfurt.
- Her work has been featured in prominent solo exhibitions at venues including White Cube London and Hong Kong, Hepworth Wakefield, and GRIMM New York.
- She has participated in significant group shows worldwide and her work is held in numerous prestigious collections, including MOCA Los Angeles, the National Museum Norway, and the Yuz Museum Shanghai.
- a leading contemporary art curator with nearly two decades of experience championing diversity in the field. She specialises in amplifying female and LGBTQIA+ artists’ work.
- In 2022, she curated the Brighton Beacon Collection, the UK’s largest permanent queer art display.
- She teaches across a number of institutions and serves on multiple boards, including Queercircle and the Courtauld Association Committee.
- a British artist based in Wiltshire and winner of the 2016 John Moores Painting Prize.
- Studied at Bournemouth College of Art and the Royal College of Art London.
- solo exhibitions include venues such as the Serpentine Gallery London, Minsheng Museum Shanghai, and Spike Island Bristol.
- His work features in prominent collections including Tate Modern, Long Museum Shanghai, and the Louisiana Museum
- a US-born and London-based curator and writer
- Leads on projects associated with museum collections and exhibition-making galleries (V&A, Tate, Hayward
- Most recently was Director of Chisenhale Gallery (2020-2025).
The organisers of the John Moores Painting Prize will not enter into any discussion regarding the selection or shortlisting.
Call for Entries
The call for entries for the John Moores Painting Prize 2025 is now open and runs until 5pm on 24 March 2025.
This what you need to know – in great detail
The website can be confusing and difficult to navigate – depending on how you enter and you can get lost / stuck with no apparent way out.
If all else fails you should use these links should get you back to either
WHO can enter
- ONLY painters aged 18 years or above on 24 March 2025 who currently live in the UK or are professionally based in the UK i.e. you must have a UK address that you are currently living at. (UK defined as – England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. It excludes the Republic of Ireland).
- You can enter using a pseudonym or exhibiting name – but this name must be used for everything.
Registration FEE
- You must register and pay the entry fee of £30 (inclusive of VAT) no later than 12 noon on Monday 24 March at midday or the entry will be invalid.
- The entry fee is non-refundable.
HOW to enter
- First you register and pay the registration fee
- then you wait for your
- confirmation of registration email and
- your unique entry number
WHAT you can enter
- one painting ONLY – made after 1 January 2024 – to which you hold all legal intellectual property rights
Undertakes that the work submitted is of their own origination, and that they hold all moral and intellectual property rights in that work. For example, if your work is closely based on the work of another artist, you must have obtained all the necessary copyright permissions and credit lines and paid any fees due before entering (registration and payment).
- the painting submitted must be available for sale in the exhibition and that the Walker Art Gallery, if it requests to do so, is given first option to purchase that work.
- There is no theme, but themes can naturally emerge within the final selection. There is a notion that the competition very often reflects common themes within society at large and/or the art world.
DON’T CHEAT!!
- I know about the “cheat” where a previously exhibited painting gets a few extra paint marks and by magic becomes a “new painting” which was “made” after the stipulated date – and I’m very sure the jurors / organisers do too. I’ve contacted organisers and identified paintings which are “cheating” in the past. I’m sure others do likewise. Names of cheats get passed around…. Is it worth tarnishing your name?
- Do not “pass off” the work of others as your own work
- Multiple entries under the same or under different names are also not allowed – and will get you disqualified. Plus wave bye bye to ever getting selected in future years.
What is considered to be a painted medium
Oil paint, acrylic, gouache, watercolour and ink paints, emulsion and household paint will be accepted as painted mediums.
Digital and video-based artworks will not be accepted.
What is the maximum size you can enter?
- The overall size must not exceed 3 metres by 3.75 metres (width or length).
- The depth must not exceed 0.5 metres.
- There is no minimum size.
- Diptychs/triptychs can be entered as one work – but same dimension limits apply ie the overall size must not exceed 3 metres by 3.75 metres. The depth must not exceed 0.5 metres.
- Paintings do not have to be framed
The Digital Image of the Painting you enter
After you’ve been given the details of how to upload your digital images , do make sure that the images comply with the Terms and Conditions i.e.
- Digital images of the submitted work must be
- JPEGS between 2MB – 5MB in size and
- a minimum of 1000 x 1000 pixels.
- One image showing the complete painting must be submitted.
- An optional three additional images, showing details of the work, may be submitted.
What can you say if your work gets selected
Must, at all stages of the competition, maintain confidentiality regarding shortlisting and selection unless informed otherwise by the organisers. The organisers will liaise directly with the artist regarding any press and media activity.
The Business End
any sale of the exhibited artwork during the exhibition period will be exclusively undertaken by NML Trading Ltd and must not be sold or reserved for sale by any other means
- The artist agrees that – if their painting is selected for the exhibition – it can only be sold by subject to a commercial agreement with NML Trading Ltd regarding
- the sale of their work and
- any associated use of images of that painting for merchandising purposes.
The Exhibition
The exhibition is held between Saturday 6 September 2025 to Sunday 1 March 2026 at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the Visitors’ Choice Award. The winning artist will receive £2,025.
REFERENCE
My previous blog posts about this biennial exhibition (excluding the Call for Entries)
