As covered in our previous post, Conrad Engelhardt, was one of 95 finalists in the Threadneedle Prize — one of the UK’s largest art prize competitions. Last night, no one was more surprised (and delighted) than Conrad to learn that he was the recipient of the Visitors’ Choice Award – the result of ~15,000 votes.
In Conrad’s words: “I wanted to share the amazing news, that last night at the Mall Galleries I was stunned to learn that I had won the 2013 Visitors’ Choice Award for the Threadneedle Prize. It was a surreal experience. As the announcement was being made, the presenter said “I know the winner is here tonight” and as I heard that I thought that makes sense, that they would have contacted the winner to make sure they attended. Then to watch him proceed to tear open an envelope, pull out a slip of paper, and say “the winner is Conrad Engelhardt,” it did not quite compute – I wasn’t even sure how they knew who I was. It took me a moment before I was sure I heard correctly before I walked up to accept. What an incredible experience and so happy for so many people to have seen my art over the past three weeks. I was told somewhere around 15,000 people voted.
Thank you so much for those of you who voted and for those who didn’t, well you are off the hook. On a serious note, thank you for your corks and your votes, as I wanted to share the amazing news. You can enjoy a brief announcement of the award on their homepage.”
