Fine Art graduate wins competition to showcase artwork at Nasdaq headquarters

Loughborough Fine Art graduate, Francesca Edwards, has been selected as a winner of the Nasdaq competition 2021, and will have her work 'Light Painting' printed and displayed in Nasdaq's brand-new global headquarters in Times Square, New York City.

Working in partnership with Arts Thread, artists were asked to create artwork that interprets one of their four key themes. With partnership being a strong thread throughout her work, the ‘partnership can unlock growth’ message resonated with Francesca.

Partnering two very different mediums (painting and projection) unlocked a huge growth in Francesca’s practice, enabling her to reach further abstracted limits and see the potential that colours have for interaction when these two mediums are combined. 

Francesca explains that:

“Stimulated by the concept of colour interaction, my installations explore the dialogue that is created between the painted surface and the colour illuminations when colour changing sequences are projected on top of the canvases. 

By combining abstract painting with colour changing projection it allows me to see the direct affect that digital light has on painted colour, and how changing the hues of this light can create immersive colour transformations. My gestural paintings are photographed, digitalised, and then projected back onto the original canvas. This second layer depicts an animated colour sequence that illuminates the painted colours, creating a sense of movement across the space.”

With the partnership going live next month, Francesca will see her work printed in large-scale and framed to be displayed permanently on the 26th floor in the global headquarters. To celebrate this, her artwork will also be further promoted on the Nasdaq 7-story Tower in Times Square, and on the Nasdaq website and social channels.

Speaking of her award, Francesca said that:

“As cliché as it sounds it really does feel like a dream come true, I never thought I’d have my work seen in Times Square, New York especially at such an early stage in my career.” 

Since graduating in May 2020, Francesca has continued to work on developing her practice, and set up her first artist studio. She is also studying for her master’s degree in Curation, whilst working alongside creating new collections and commissions. 

Congratulations to Francesca!

Follow Francesca on social media: @francescaedwardsfineart