Denzil Forrester wins South Bank Sky Arts Award
The South Bank Sky Arts Awards marked 25 years as the only awards ceremony in the world to celebrate every genre of the arts, including dance, theatre, pop, TV drama, film, classical music, literature, opera, comedy and visual art. In the visual art category Denzil Forrester won the 2021 South Bank Sky Arts Award for 'Itchin & Scratchin' held at Nottingham Contemporary and Spike Island, Bristol, 2020–2021. Other winners include Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's ‘Petrenko's Mahler I and II’ for classical music; Dua Lipa's ‘Future Nostalgia’ for pop music and Grayson Perry for outstanding achievement.
Described by The Telegraph as 'rapture, spiritual ecstasy, renewal', Denzil Forrester's 'Itchin & Scratchin' brought together a range of paintings and drawings spanning over 40 years. The artist’s most significant institutional show to date, the show focused on Forrester's nocturnal scenes that pulsate with rhythm, music and movement, immortalising the dynamic energy of the London reggae and dub nightclub scene during the early 1980s.
