Best
Art Vinyl
The Best Art Vinyl Award is a unique opportunity to express your views on the best record cover designs of the year. These pages include an archive of past winners and all 50 nominations from each year.
Best Art Vinyl 2022 Award Winners
1st Artwork by Simon Monk for Black Country, New Road’s album ‘Ants From Up There’
2nd Artwork by Bart Balboa for Birds In Row’s album ‘Gris Klein’
3rd Illustration by Jake Blanchard for Richard Dawson’s album ‘The Ruby Cord‘
Conceptual And Multi-layered Painting Style, Wins The 18th Annual Art Prize
The winning ‘Ants From Up There’ sleeve design, is just one image from a series of still life paintings inhabiting two worlds at once – one being an every-day reality and one filled with fantasy and imagination.
The album artwork brought the ‘plastic bag paintings’ to a new audience and, for the artist, started as a solution to the problem of how to make a still life oil painting in the 21st century, without it being old fashioned, whilst demonstrating how a painting can dignify a cheap or otherwise insignificant object. Monk’s mission has certainly been achieved here and is enhanced by the additional paintings in the series, which feature on the album’s deluxe box set.
Huge Congratulations to our winner and to the equally engaging artworks for the Birds In Row and Richard Dawson sleeve designs.
A big thank you goes out to our nominations panel and to all of you who voted for your favourites.
Best Art Vinyl 2022 is accompanied by a retrospective exhibition at The Collection and Usher Gallery in Lincoln, in conjunction with The Civic Barnsley, running 22 Oct-22 Jan.
The archive spans seven decades of iconic album art, curating all 50 nominations for Best Art Vinyl 2022, together with an outstanding commemoration of iconic album artwork over the years from 1949 to present day.
Spanning 70+ years of popular art, music and design, the exhibition shines a light on the most iconic album designs in popular culture and explore the fascinating history behind some of the most renowned visual icons of our time. These sleeves contribute to the last 17 winners of our Best Art Vinyl Awards which has been running since 2005, and the result is a definitive retrospective of UK popular culture, one 12 inch at a time.
The exhibition will include fascinating back stories for the creative process, plus a chance for visitors to capture the unveiling of this year’s 50 nominations for the Best Art Vinyl Award 2022 and even vote for their favourites.
TAKE A QUICK TOUR OF ICONIC ALBUM ARTWORKS WITH OUR ART VINYL FOUNDER
BEST ART VINYL 2022 SHORTLISTED NOMINATIONS WITH CREDITS HERE
BOOK TICKETS FOR THE EXHIBITION HERE
KEY DATES
22nd October – 22nd January: Best Art Vinyl 2022 : Album Cover Through the Ages
In conjunction with The Civic Barnsley and Art Vinyl
At The Collection, Lincoln, LN2 1LP
3rd January – 3rd February The Hari, Belgravia London – Art Installation of the Best Art Vinyl 2022 Nominees
5th January 2023: Best Art Vinyl 2022 Winners will be announced at the Hari London
11th March – 7th April 2023: Best Art Vinyl 2022 at Vinylize Flagship store with DJ booth, stage, state-of-the-art sound system and Mezcal bar
Tipton Eyeworks, Budapest, Erkel utca 6, 1092 Hungary
