Intoart’s Christian Ovonlen has been announced as the winner of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award for 2022. Ovonlen won the Award, a leading craft prize for UK-based artists worth £60,000, for his Ballets Russes series of theatrical, hand painted and printed silks.

Ovonlen joined Intoart, a London-based collective of artists and designers with learning disabilities and autism, in 2013, where he developed a practice inspired by his interest in pop culture, fashion and costume design. For Collect 2022, the artist took inspiration from Ballets Russes and theatre productions from the 19th and 20th century, incorporating costume, scenography and dramatic lighting, originating in his research into costume and performance stages from the Victoria & Albert Museum and internationally held archives.

His practice begins in drawing – known for his use of bold colours and lavish textures, the artist translates works on paper into the medium of textile design and handcrafted print techniques to create handmade, printed silk textiles that hang vertically to reference the stages and performers that inspired them. The new collection he presented at Collect 2022 was a laboured process developed over a period of nine months, from April to December 2021.

Christian Ovonlen – Winner of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award 2022, said: “I feel happy, it’s beautiful and amazing. To have exhibitions of my work makes me proud. I close my eyes and imagine being at the theatre, in the audience scared of the dark and then happy when the stage lights shine. The dancers are dancing on the stage, I am hearing classical music. The dancers in my silks are like a melody. I am excited to make more textiles, painting the inks and the performers on the stage.”

Ella Ritchie MBE – Director, Intoart, said: “It’s a significant and timely moment for Christian having worked for nine years in the Intoart studio. It’s been thrilling to witness the fruition of this significant body of work in silks, taking drawing into textiles to develop a truly unique visual language. The recognition that comes with this award and being shortlisted alongside Internationally renowned artist-makers is testament to Christian’s contribution to craft. We are excited that now this work will be seen on a scale that will delight new audiences.”

The Brookfield Properties Craft Award gives the winning artist and associated gallery financial support and a solo exhibition and acquires their work into the national Crafts Council Collection, a major public asset which holds over 1,700 objects acquired from the 1970s onwards.

As part of the Award, Ovonlen will receive curatorial and production support to stage an exhibition across Brookfield Properties’ 99 Bishopsgate and Aldgate Tower. Artworks from Ovonlen’s Ballets Russes and Botanical Silk series, which will be acquired by Brookfield Properties alongside paper works as a gift to the Crafts Council Collection, will be central to the exhibition, which will open to the public on 1 June 2022.

The artist was selected as the Award winner by Annabelle Campbell and Saff Williams, curators at Crafts Council and Brookfield Properties respectively. His work won from a shortlist of five nominated artists, which included Anthony Amoako-Attah (represented by Bullseye Projects), Dawn Bendick (represented by Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections), Cecilia Charlton (represented by Candida Stevens Gallery) and Irina Razumovskaya (represented by Officine Saffi).