We are very proud to have celebrated the launch of our Cyfarthfa: Juxtaposed Art Prize 2025 on 22nd May 2025, along with 76 exhibiting artists, and many special guests, as part of Cyfarthfa’s bicentenary celebrations.
This unique art exhibition invited artists from all over Wales and beyond to respond to an open call brief; which was to look through our museum collection of over 2,500 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs, and to choose an item and to respond to it, showing their contemporary perspective. Could artists tell us something new about what art today is really reflecting?
A panel of judges including Andre Stitt (Painting) Bronwen Colquhoun (Photography) and Sarah Hopkins (Printmaking) announced their winning artworks; Winner of Overall Exhibition and Painting is Daniel Lazenby; Photography was awarded to Konrad Gwozdz; and in the Print category, Dan Thorne.
The winning artist in each category received £500 with the overall winner Daniel Lazenby, receiving £1,000 towards a 3-month solo show at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery in late 2026.
Several highly commended artists who were awarded a share of £100 per category. In the painting category Victoria Beynon was the amateur winner and highly commended artists were Sinead Attwell, Robert da Haan and Gordon Dalton. Also highly commended for printmaking were Jaqueline Jones and Anna Marris, and for photography Anna Dabrowska and Rory Chapman.
Cyfarthfa: Juxtaposed has been made possible thanks to support from the Cyfarthfa Foundation which is the charitable organisation championing the long-term development of Cyfarthfa Castle and Park at Merthyr Tydfil.
