This year the Astaire Art Prize is awarded for outstanding undergraduate work by final-year students at Edinburgh College of Art, as part of the online Graduate Show. It was founded by University of Edinburgh graduate Mark Astaire.

The 2021 prize has been awarded to four winners, who each received £1,250. They are:

• Josephine Berry, BA (Hons) Photography
• Lorena Levi, MA (Hons) Fine Art
• Verity Amelia Child, BA (Hons) Painting,
• Oscar Mateos, BA (Hons) Painting

The winners were chosen by Mark Astaire and a panel of guest judges comprising Tessa Giblin, Director of Talbot Rice Gallery; Dr Linda O’Leefe, Head of Art at Edinburgh College of Art; and John Brown, Lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art. Mark said:

"The quality of the work in this year’s prize is incredibly high. Taking into account the many challenges posed by the pandemic this quality is even more noteworthy. As always it is thrilling to see the creativity and talent of the artists at ECA."

Fine Art student Lorena Levi, whose winning project featured a series of narrative paintings inspired by real-conversations that happened on online chat forum Omegle, said:

“I am incredibly grateful to the panel for selecting my work. It has boosted my confidence and motivation tremendously, especially in these uncertain times when a career in art is presented with multitude of challenges. That is the exciting part of it, but trepidation certainly comes with it. It makes me very excited to keep working and trying new projects that are a bit risky.”