The London Art Award celebrates artists working in and visiting the city and recognises art that is both original and contemporary.

Winner: Douglas Gordon

With help in the judging process from:

Anita Klein, Artist, www.anitaklein.com
Hugh Gibson, Director, Thomas Gibson Fine Art
Adrian Sutton, Director, Blain|Southern Contemporary Art

Shortlist, click name for review:

The 'snapshot' of Likes above was taken on Monday/Tuesday, July 4/5. For judging process, please see below.

Click on the title for a link to the original review.

Long list in competition - nominations: 10

London Art Award nomination Paul Housley

Guardian review: 'His expressive creations suggest a strength of feeling that recalls the days when artists were mythologised as heroes. Yet while his imagery often conjures the ghosts of painting's past – Picasso here, Rembrandt there – the works' low-key subject matter and humble scale undercuts the grandiosity.'

Poppy Sebire gallery

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Jul 06

London Art Award nomination Charming Baker

Evening Standard review: 'Baker's reputation as an 'urban artist' is probably down to his penchant for shooting his work with a shotgun and his use of mark-making, inspired by the boards retrieved from skips, often drilled with holes, that he painted on before he could afford canvases.' '

various

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Jul 05

London Art Award nomination George Shaw

Telegraph review: 'The artworks may be inspired by “kitchen sink” realism, but they are also conceptual works of art. What feels wonderful about them is that they have a genuine texture; you know instinctively when you see them that Shaw has enjoyed creating them. Each grotty window frame, every piece of English sky, each pavement curb and brick chimney is a labour of love.'

South London Gallery

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May 30

London Art Award nomination Mike Nelson

FT review: 'Literature bubbles away as an undercurrent in most of Nelson’s work. In addition to Burroughs, Franz Kafka, JG Ballard and Jorge Luis Borges figure strongly.'

Various

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Apr 08

London Art Award nomination Douglas Gordon

Guardian review: '.. has broken through a lot of boundaries – between video art and the old genres of portraiture and history painting; between mind and feelings; himself and others. He is one of the indispensable artists of our time.'

Gagosian Gallery

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Mar 08

London Art Award nomination Anthony McCall

Telegraph review: 'However you understand McCall’s Vertical Works, though — and they could simply be seen as the quintessential sculptural expression of our virtual information age — I urge you to visit them, for contemporary art offers few experiences as strange and poetic as this.'

Ambika P3

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Mar 04

The Judging Process

We wanted to include work by established as well as those not-so-established artists and performers (some awards leave out many worthy contenders). The Facebook and Twitter numbers is a way to do this without specifying criteria but using audience reaction (criteria would always be contentious). Using audience 'likes' allows for a more 'democratic' way to judging the award.

Human nature is a wonderful thing and it is possible that artists and performers will encourage others to 'like' their nominations to increase their number. This is why reviews are also part of the judging process.

We understood at the outset that it was likely that all judges will not have seen/read/heard all entries in their category. We had a choice, either to limit the number of nominations to what judges can be expected to see, or to be more inclusive and bring in those from the Fringe who don't have huge audiences and yet produce amazing work. We decided to be more inclusive.

With so many awards and nominations it would have been impossible to run on the basis that each judge will have seen every nomination in their category and to recognise and nominate great talent/performance when it is reviewed.

In any case all are in good company and all are worthy of winning the award.

There is no perfect judging process, however, the democratic part to the judging process, and the review commentary, as well as the judges' expert opinion, will together give us a fair and transparent process and a credible winner.

Each nomination below is based on a highly rated review in the national press. There is a Facebook and a Twitter button with a number of 'Likes' against each nomination. There are also a number of Likes on the original online review (there may be other online reviews but we can only take one into account). We shortlist nominations with the highest number of Likes from both pages and ask judges in each category to help decide the winner from the shortlist. Very occasionally there is a review that does not have the Facebook and Twitter buttons because the publication has not included them and so we have taken the numbers from the award page.

Note that the number of Facebook Likes on the award page is occasionally different from that on the the online review. It's probably because the original review page was changed (perhaps being updated) in some way after the nomination and Facebook starts counting again, so to account for this we only take the highest number.

We ask each judge to give us their top three in order of preference from the shortlist. We'll merge that with the other judge's preferences and that should give a clear winner. If not, a discussion between the judges should do so, and if there is yet no agreement, the London Awards Director will have casting vote.

All nominees are invited to the ceremony.