The Open’s launch event welcomed a capacity crowd of more than 500 people

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The Lido Stores has announced Jack Shearing as the winner of the Lido Open 2024.

Shearing's painting 'Night Walk' was selected from more than 1,200 submissions and some 76 exhibiting artists, winning him the prize of a solo show at The Lido Stores in summer 2025.

The Open’s launch event welcomed a capacity crowd of more than 500 people to The Lido Stores, which has triggered owners to extend the Lido Open 2024 exhibition by two weeks to 19 October 2024, due to popular demand.

"This year marks the fourth Lido Open and I am truly very honoured and flattered to have been invited as guest 'judge'", said Vincent Hawkins. "It’s my first time in such a role and it’s been a great experience going through the work with Kristen.

"I am very glad to see such a broad range of works presented from 'minimal to maximal', if you like - figurative to abstract. This year the gallery received more than 1,200 entrants, which I understand is the most in the four years the Open has run.

"I selected Jack Shearing’s 'Night Walk' as the winner, after a period of deliberating over a lot of them that we have here. It’s so important to see paining in real life and not through a screen. You can never really 'get' all of a painting without some sort of direct tactile experience of it. It’s difficult to make a judgement or fully absorb it. I liked the fact that the painting was made in all just one go; a few sweeps of the brush and it was completed, unhesitatingly - it’s drawing with paint."

Jack Shearing (b. 1998) is an artist based in London. He studied at Central Saint Martins (2018-21) and the Royal Drawing School (2023-24) . He has exhibited work at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, NAG Walsall, APT Gallery, OHSH Projects and The Regency Townhouse, Brighton. He participated in the PADA Studios Residency in 2021 and has work held in the UAL Art collection.

Working with painting, drawing and photography, his work is concerned with aspects of memory and subjectivity in relation to space. Influenced by architectural spaces and forms, his work explores the human presence/absence of these spaces, exploring how perceptions of space are informed by phenomenological responses such as memory, atmosphere and the uncanny.

"It has been a pleasure to have my painting ‘Night Walk’ selected for the Lido Open 2024", he told The Lido Stores. "To have my work shown amongst so many artists I admire is a great privilege. It was a wonderful and unexpected surprise to have my painting awarded the prize. I extend my thanks to Vincent and Kristen for their thoughtful curation and for choosing my painting. The exhibition will be my first solo show and I’m excited to present my work at Lido Stores next year.

"My painting 'Night Walk' was inspired by the walk to my studio in East London. On my way there, I pass through an alleyway filled with large trees, illuminated by street lamps in the evening. I was captivated by the atmosphere of that place, particularly how the streetlights shimmer through the leaves and the sense of stillness at night. At the time, I was focusing on making these night paintings quickly, aiming for a certain immediacy and presence that you get when working spontaneously. The simplification that occurs when viewing a subject partially in darkness encouraged this decisive approach to painting, resulting in unexpected images that relate more to the atmosphere of the place than its naturalistic appearance."

The Lido Open 2024 runs until 19 October.

Exhibiting artists

David Abbott / Susan Absolon / Paul Andrews / Julie Annis / Joshua Armitage / Dorota Bouali / Joanne Boyle / Molly Brown / Rae Birch Carter / Ben Coleman / Sarah Crossfield / Gavin Dobson / Isabelle Eberlin / Andrew Ekins / Tracey Emin / Phillip Frankland / Dominique Garraud / Hugh Gillan / Jules Gooris / Helena Gorey / Lesley Greening Lassoff / Rita Fernandez Gutierrez / Adam Hedley / Roland Hicks / Sylvia Hill / Amanda Houchen / Mandy Hudson / Chris Hunt / Nick Ivins / Davina Jackson / Rachel Jordan / Mark Joyce / Ann Kavanagh / Joanna Kidney / Catherine Knight / Lara Kulkarni / James Lawson / Simon Leahy-Clark / Emma Lilly / Jonathan Lloyd / Sarah Lord / Sinead Lucey / Paula MacArthur / Gabriela Max / Stephanie McLaughlin / Donna McLean / Sharon McPhee / Vanessa Mitter / Susan Montgomery / Jane K Morter / Alice Neave / Jon Ridge / Sara Lee Roberts/ Henrietta Roeder / Angela Rumble / Hannah Savage / Clare Scott / Kim Scouller / Nima Shafiani / Adelaide Shalhope / Jack Shearing / Dorry Spikes / Mary Claire Smith / Christine Stark / Sharon Swaine / Florence Taylor / Marcia Teusink / Amanda Thesiger / Gwennan Thomas / Geoff Tibbs / Edit Toaso / Cassie Vaughan / Ally Wallace / Casey Walshe / Orla Whelan / Clare Wilson

The Lido Stores

Gallery owner Kristen Healy, whose father ran a convenience store from the same unit since the early nineties, has established The Lido Stores as a local gallery that showcases some of the best emerging art from the south-east and London.

The Lido Stores comprises of Gallery 1, a large permanent space devoted to showcasing original work by over 40 resident artists, along with Gallery 2, an adjoining white cube hosting a diverse range of solo and group shows, and two open calls, throughout the year. The private views typically draw hundreds of people over the course of the evening and have become a place to connect with artists and those passionate about the arts.

This year’s guest judge was Vincent Hawkins.

Vincent Hawkins (born 1959, UK) is a visual artist, who has shown extensively in Britain and abroad with solo exhibitions in Chicago, London and Paris, and has exhibited in group shows in France, Italy, the UK and USA. Among his accolades are shortlisting for the Jerwood Drawing Prize (2006), being a finalist in the John Moores Painting Prize (2012) and John Moore’s 24 (2006). Hawkins exhibits with Sid Motion Gallery, London, and has recently joined the cadre of artists operating from Tracey Emin’s TKE Studios in Margate.

Hawkins embraces diversity in his creative processes. Primarily a painter working in oil and acrylic on wood, canvas and paper, he describes ‘play’ as a crucial component in his practice and favours working in a range of approaches, often incorporating different mediums in an installation, and refusing to exclude one area of his practice for another.