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 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 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