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Maple was one of five shortlisted artists (each awarded £2500), and now receives the £25,000 first prize, announced on 4 March. She joins an elite list of previous winners, including David Hockney (1967), Lisa Milroy (1989), Peter Doig (1993), Keith Coventry (2010) and Rose Wylie (2014). Sir Peter Blake, winner of the junior prize in 1961, is patron of the award.

Maple's 2020 painting The Common – which she described as a ‘meeting place, an intersection, people seemingly aware of each other, but minds elsewhere – all sharing an open space' - was chosen from 67 paintings selected from around 3,000 submissions for an exhibition showing at Liverpool's until 27 June. A is available here. Her winning painting will be acquired by the Gallery to join its world-class collection, while Kathryn will now also have a future solo exhibition.

Speaking about her time at Brighton, Kathryn said: “I originally applied for the Painting BA at Brighton, but somehow got side tracked and ended up doing Printmaking. Three years of experimenting with all the different processes meant I could take a really investigative approach and explore the possibilities of combining different processes and techniques.

The Common by Kathryn Maple

As digital printmaking processes started to creep more into the studios I feel very lucky to have been able to use all the presses in the art school...The marks in my paintings hold and build upon my time at Brighton. Thanks go to the technicians for all their help too, and being there when you needed them!”

Alongside Kathryn, the other shortlisted paintings were: The Neanderthal Futures Infirmary by Robbie Bushe; Compost by Michele Fletcher; The Motherland by Steph Goodger; and March by Stephen Lee.

Kathryn previously exhibited in the John Moores Painting Prize in 2018 – you can about that work here. She also showed at the 2019 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, and has twice won the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, in 2014 and 2016.

The John Moores Painting Prize exhibition is part of , the largest festival of contemporary art in the UK, running from 20 March to 6 June. Further details for the John Moore Painting Prize at @JMPaintingPrize, #JMPP2020 or .

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