Mercury Prize winners

MANCHESTER Met students David Rankin and Adam Hyde were named winning finalists in the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize Art Competition.

The event is the UK’s premier student art competition and exhibition.

David and Adam’s work joined art by the dozen top UK student artists at the Mercury Exhibition at The Gallery at The Hospital, Covent Garden – one of London’s most exciting new art spaces. See the virtual gallery: www.nationwidemercurys.com

Judges included Sir Peter Blake, Tim Marlow, of London gallery White Cube and Mark Tappin, designer of Coldplay’s album covers.

Major exhibition

David, 24, from Oldham, who graduated from MMU’s Fine Art degree course last summer said: "It means a lot to me that my work is one of the winning finalists at the Mercury. It’s the first time I’ve had my art exhibited at a major London gallery, which is really exciting."

Adam, 23, from Dudley in the West Midlands is currently an undergraduate in Fine Art.

Art and design students were set the challenge of creating a work of art inspired by music. The 2007 Competition received over 2000 entries from over 130 art colleges and universities throughout the UK.

Sir Peter Blake RA, one of the UK’s most celebrated artists and the man behind The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album sleeve, said: "This is a very impressive exhibition that highlights the outstanding quality of work coming out of British art schools and the ongoing relationship between art and music."

For more about Fine Art at MMU, go to www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/art.