Gold medals for artists

Simon Fenoulhet of Cardiff won the accolade along with £3,000 for his light installations Vivid Seam and Line upon Line.

The Gold Medal for Craft and Design at the Eisteddfod, held in Ebbw Vale, was won by Cardiff-based Portugese artist Natalia Dias for her collection of allegorical ceramic works. She also receives £3,000.

It is the first time both have exhibited at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

The Gold Medal for Architecture was withheld this year.

The 2010 Visual Arts Exhibition is held in one of subterranean spaces on the site of the former Ebbw Vale steelworks.

"I use light as my primary means of presenting and changing the objects I employ." said Simon Fenoulhet who works from his studio at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff.

"Glowing tubes or straws can be transformed by the simple act of making the light come from within rather than reflecting off the surface. They stand in isolation from their surroundings as the only source of illumination and take on a beauty and iridescence that is not normally associated with household objects."

"Light, with all its enchanting and beguiling properties, is an underlying characteristic at the root of this artist's practice," said Chris Coppock on behalf of the selectors.

"Simon Fenoulhet delights in literally illuminating and re-presenting banal every day objects and materials, set in new and unworldly contexts."

Talking about the winner of the Gold Medal for Craft and Design, one of the selectors, Pamela Rawnsley said of the selection process: "From the first day, there was work that shone out, whilst others quietly revealed themselves more and more in subsequent meetings. But Natalia Dias' pieces sung out to all of us from the early stages."

"Natalia Dias' ceramics are probably the most visceral and beautiful pieces of work that I have seen in this medium in a long time," added fellow selector, John Selway.

"This body of work is a surreal mix of fact and fantasy," said the artist who has developed the image of the human heart to be the main motif in her work.

"These desirable objects - visceral candy and religious innuendo - have been inspired by the flamboyant 16th century French Palissy Ware. Adopted later, around the 19th century, by Portuguese artists, this longstanding tradition is now in threat of extinction. I am now drawing my own cultural identity closer to the art education that I have received in Wales and creating ceramic hybrids from both influences."

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