2022

Guest judge Anne Ryan and Kristen Healy whittled down more than 400 submissions to a shortlist of 25 artists.

“The quality and quantity of applicants for the open calls has amazed us. We are very impressed with the talent the gallery is attracting. Lots of the applicants heard about us through word of mouth.

“It’s important for us that applying to the Open is free of charge, we only charge an administration fee to the exhibiting artists and keep it as low as possible. It’s important for us that individual financial circumstances aren’t a prohibitive factor in showcasing talent.”

- Kristen Healy, The Lido Stores

The Judge - Anne Ryan

2022’s guest judge was Limerick, Ireland-born artist Anne Ryan (pictured below, right).

Now based in Margate and London, Anne is a contemporary artist renowned for her vibrant three-dimensional ‘cutout’ paintings depicting the physicality of the human form.

Her solo exhibitions include ‘Fighting on the Dance Floor’ at Exeter Phoenix Gallery (2022/23), ‘The City Rises’ at Dilston Gallery, Southwark Park Galleries (2021), ‘Earthly Delites’ at Hastings Contemporary (2019/2020), ‘Euoi, Euoi, Euoi’ at Ribot Gallery, Milan (2019), ‘The Cowboy Paintings’, Turps Gallery, London (2017), ‘A Barbarian at the Gate’ greengrassi, London (2017), ‘Things are not Looking Good’ at Limerick City Art Gallery, Limerick (2002), Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt (2001), as well as seven one-person exhibitions at greengrassi gallery, London since 2001.

Ryan’s two-person commission ’Sirens’ at Turner Contemporary, Margate, with Sophie Von Hellermann, runs from 2021 to April 2023 with the work changing four times during the exhibition.

In recent years Ryan’s paintings and ceramics have been included in ‘Freeze-Frame, Fast-Forward’ at Koppel Projects, Soho, London, ’They Catch Feelings, I Catch Bodies’ at Sim Smith gallery, London (2019), ‘If you can't stand the heat’, Roaming Gallery, London E8 (2018), ‘Roma IV’, APT Gallery, London (2018), ‘In the company of…’ TJ Boulting, Fitzrovia, London (2018), ‘Joy Revision’, Galerie Simpson, Swansea (part of Painting Biennial 2018), ‘A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas with Sirens on the Rocks after Charles Francois Lacroix de Marseille (A Fountain)’, with Karen Ruggaber, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1 (2018), ‘Garageland’, Rectory Projects, London E14 (2018), Jean-Luc Blanc, ‘Opera Rock’, CAPC Bordeaux, France (2009) and ‘Latest Paintings’, Lia Rumma, Milan (2004).

“It was a pleasure to be part of The Lido Stores and help choose work for the second Lido Open. I love the story of the shop and its place in Margate history. It’s always interesting to visit and see it working hard to make a real connection with the art and design community of Thanet.

“The work submitted was of a very good standard, and it was great to see a broad range of painting coming from far and near. We primarily chose the work that we thought would sit well together in the gallery space to create a narrative of contemporary painting’s rich diversity and its enduring strangeness.”

- Anne Ryan

The Artists

Of the selected artists exhibiting in the 2022 Open, only two had previously exhibited with The Lido Stores. The exhibition represented a fresh influx of talent for the gallery and Kent’s burgeoning creative community.

Suzanne Baker • Julia Burton • Dale Carney • Fiona Chambers • Jake Clark • Alison Cooke • Robin Dixon • Louise Evans • Paul Hazelton • Jo Mason • Anthony McAndrew • Mark Millstead • Sam Ng • Valerie Potter • Sukey Sleeper • Miguel Sopena • Dorry Spikes • Latifah Stranack • Shane Synnott • Michael Szapakowski • Caroline Thomson • Rebecca Truscott-Elves • Monica Perez Vega • Jane Walker • Caitlin Walton

The Winner - Sukey Sleeper

Sukey Sleeper’s (pictured top of the page, centre) entry into the 2022 Open, ‘Topside’ (oil on aluminium, 2022 - pictured below), is a delicate, beautiful depiction of a swan.

This painting speaks to a practice predominantly concerned with urban wildlife, and what it means to contemplate ‘nature’ in the contemporary city. This central question draws together wider themes, such as climate change, overcrowding, and fears for the future, alongside mythological, literary and archaeological interpretations of the human habitat.

She roots her practice in recording direct experience of urban spaces through drawing, painting and photography, with a particular interest in bodies of water as highly charged places - both in terms of their physical properties, their powerful symbolism, and their shifting role in the topography of the city.

Sleeper studied at Turps Art School and the  University of Cambridge. She lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include The Dolls House, Turps Banana (2022); Taplow House, London Roomshare 2 (2022); Safehouse 2, Peckham, London (2022); Medium Rare, Bermondsey Project Space (2021); London Working Memory, Treasure House, London (2018).

“I was so pleased to have been selected to take part in the Lido Open last October after submitting my painting ‘Topside’ to the open call. It was such a pleasure to be part of the show alongside so many brilliant works, and an unexpected joy to have judges Kristen Healy and Anne Ryan select my painting for the prize. I’m looking forward to working with Lido Stores to present a solo show later this year.”

- Sukey Sleeper

2021

The Judge - Enzo Marra

2021 Lido Open judge Enzo Marra (pictured below, left) is a London-based painter whose imagery is marked by a distinct immediacy and a figuratively derived world that lives through his painted, drawn and sculpted works. The themes expressed are made visible via instinctively applied linear and blocked out passages. The figures and symbols utilised relating to the human condition, their emotional impact emphasised by the directness of their application, without extraneous information to muddle the message they are willing to deliver. Their intimate scale allows the viewer to build a relationship with their cast, as they are stood in-front of the hung painted surfaces. The purposely limited palette allows the depicted scenes to not be obscured or overtaken by unnecessary frivolous flourishes. 

Marra has been selected for the John Moores Painting Prize in 2012 and 2016, the Threadneedle Prize in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016, and the Creekside Open in 2013, 2015 and 2017, where he was chosen as a prize winner by Jordan Baseman in 2017. He has also been selected for the Beep Painting Biennial in 2014 and 2016, his paintings being highly commended in the 2014 exhibition. He was also part of the selection panel for the Solo Award and has also been a judge for the Beep Painting Prize.

“I was very honoured to have been asked to be involved in the judging process of the first Lido Open. I enjoyed the opportunity to see so many submitted works, discovering artists I hadn’t heard of previously. The high quality of the entries received presented a challenge when it came to the time to whittle them down to the shortlist. Working with other judges is always an experience I look forward to, culminating in a shortlist that presents more local and unfamiliar artists together.

“Lee Johnson’s solo show lived up to all my hopes of what it could have been. A consummate painter recording his experience of being in the world, his brushwork animating each of the many hung canvases.

“The Lido Open also presented the opportunity to discover more of the Margate art world, from the smaller spaces to the Turner Contemporary on the seafront. A creative place, ready to surprise and challenge you with little warning. Somewhere to return to discover more, to see more, to be enticed, bemused and inspired.”

- Enzo Marra

The inaugural Lido Open saw The Lido Stores’ Kristen Healy joined by Enzo Marra to review submissions from more than 200 artists from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

“We were delighted by the quality and quantity of submissions to our first open call. As a new gallery establishing itself in Margate’s burgeoning art scene, the first Open was fundamental to establishing us as a vibrant gallery space exhibiting contemporary fine art produced by emerging and mid-career artists.”

- Kristen Healy, The Lido Stores

The Artists

Healy and Marra whittled down more than 200 entries to a shortlist of 48 artists, representing a terrific breadth and depth of talent from East Kent and beyond.

Jackie Askew • Tom Banks • Melanie Berman • Maria Carter Beswick • Jade Blood • Crimson Boner • Adam Brown • Deborah Burnstone • John Butterworth • Sofia Caselli • Shaun Caton • Julie Caves • Russell Chater • Sue Cohen • Gabrielle Eber • Toby Gawler • Antonia Gould • Helen Grant • Rosie Greenhalgh • Liz Griffiths • Lily Hargreaves • Paul Hazelton • Lily Hughes • Edward Jeavons • Lee Johnson • Sharon Leahy-Clark • Simon Leahy-Clark • Henrietta MacPhee • Richard McConnell • Roisín McGuigan • Benjamin Medd-Phillips • Jane Merriman • Kelly Norman • Daniella Norton • Adriana Rabinovich • Susan Ridge • Lisa Robinson • Sabrina Shah • Ben Snowden • Uzma Sultan • Clare Thatcher • Karen Thomas • Hannah Turner-Duffin • Jane Walker • Ally Wallace • Henry Ward • Fionn Wilson • Nevina Williams

The Winner - Lee Johnson

Lee Johnson’s submission to the Lido Open 2022, ‘Winter Painting’ (oil on canvas, pictured below, left), immediately caught the judge’s attention.

Johnson was born in Wiltshire, and has lived and worked in London since 2000. He received his MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martin's School of Art in 2001. His works are held in the collections of Soho House, Kettle’s Yard and University of the Arts London, as well as numerous private collections worldwide (including the UK, France, Germany, USA, and Australia). 

His work has been selected for the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize (2010) and has exhibited widely, most notably Kettle’s Yard, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, and Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

Johnson’s exhibition at The Lido Stores, titled People/Places/Objects (pictured above, right), ran from 18 August to 3 September 2022. The collection of paintings and works on paper on display covered the periods before, during and after the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. As such, they cast a retrospective eye over the shifting terrain of the role of the small but important things that surround and shape us: the people, places and objects that give our lives meaning. The subject is that of ordinary, the collectively familiar, which reflects back a personal perspective - which in itself can be extraordinary.

“I had no thoughts on winning prior to the show, and was very surprised to see the video on Instagram of Enzo reading out my name! Having a free solo show allowed me to be really laid-back about my approach to the show, and the ideas of what to show kept changing. I felt no pressure to put on show, just a really nice sense of having an opportunity to do something I wouldn't normally do - hence the idea of cramming 84 small paintings grouped by theme.

“The exhibition at The Lido Stores was my first solo show of small paintings, and I've had some great feedback from artists and collectors who were not aware of the range of work that I make. It has led to many more followers on Instagram, and it has been the first time that people who I didn't know have messaged me saying how much they enjoyed the show and how inspirational it was for them to see my work in the flesh.

“Sales were good, but moreover it was really nice to see the work that I have made over the last five or so years that usually goes straight onto my studio storage shelves. It has been great to give the little study paintings (which are essentially ideas jotted down and worked through) a space to be themselves and for me to learn from them.”

- Lee Johnson