SCOTTISH ARTIST ANYA GALLACCIO ANNOUNCED FOR GOVERNMENT ART COLLECTION COMMISSION 2025

Acclaimed Scottish artist Anya Gallaccio has been announced as the recipient of the Robson Orr TenTen Award 2025 by the Government Art Collection. Her new work was unveiled by the Museums and Cultural Property Minister, Baroness Twycross.

Baroness Twycross, Museums and Cultural Property Minister, said:
“I am delighted to congratulate Anya Gallaccio on receiving the Robson Orr TenTen Award 2025.

“Her work demonstrates how art can bridge the natural world and human experience, creating powerful connections that speak to our shared responsibility for the planet. We are proud to showcase such thought-provoking work that embodies both artistic excellence and our commitment to addressing the global challenges we face together.”

The Robson Orr TenTen Award, now its eighth iteration, is presented by the Government Art Collection and is sponsored by leading philanthropists Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr.

Every year a British artist is commissioned to create a unique, limited-edition print. Fifteen editions of the print are displayed in government buildings and embassies around the world, while eleven are sold and funds are used to acquire work by artists under-represented in the Collection. Over the last seven years more than 40 works have been acquired by over 30 artists including Sonia Boyce, Jesse Darling, Djofray Makumbu, Ingrid Pollard, Bindi Vora and Barbara Walker.

This year’s winning artist is Anya Gallaccio, whose print eight hours of whale song was created for the Government Art Collection and was inspired by the artist’s long-held fascination with the communication system of the whales and the pioneering work of the 19th-century Welsh singer Margaret Watts Hughes. Gallaccio played eight hours of recorded whale song through a drum with pigment laid on top, watching as it danced on the surface and image slowly emerged. These became the basis for a print made using relief and pyrogravure (wood burning) processes.

The 10-year award scheme was launched in 2018 with previous awards given to Hurvin Anderson (2018), Tacita Dean (2019), Yinka Shonibare CBE (2020), Lubaina Himid (2021), Rachel Whiteread (2022), Michael Armitage (2023) and Denzil Forrester (2024).

The Government Art Collection has produced a learning resource aimed at Key Stage 3 students to accompany Anya Gallacio’s TenTen print commission. This will help teachers to use the print to explore ideas across the curriculum, including ways to make sound visible and developing students’ non-verbal communication skills. The learning resource is available on the GAC’s website, alongside resources for all the TenTen prints, and forms part of a major project, Picture This: The Robson Orr Visual Literacy Research Initiative, a partnership between the Robson Orr Foundation, the University of Oxford, Government Art Collection and Art UK. This three-year initiative will measure the impact of visual literacy on young people’s future success.

Anya Gallaccio, Artist, said:
“Diplomacy is communication, listening to each other. In creating this print I was thinking in particular about the importance of diplomacy for an island nation – our need to connect across oceans. I am a sculptor, so I wanted it to be a very physical, tactile object. You have embossed areas, areas of relief, burnt areas, and you have the texture of the wood print. Each print is unique.”

Born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1963, Anya Gallaccio was brought up in Glasgow and London and now works between London and San Diego, California. Renowned for her use of organic, ephemeral materials such as ice, apples, flowers and trees, in natural processes of transformation and decay, Gallaccio has reshaped our understanding of contemporary sculpture. The artist has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally. Her solo show, Preserve, at Turner Contemporary, Margate, in 2024/25, spanned three decades of her radical practice, introducing her work to a new generation engaged in environmental sustainability and preserving fragile ecosystems. Gallaccio’s AIDS Memorial is due to be unveiled in London in 2027.

Eliza Gluckman, Director of Government Art Collection, said:
“In the eighth year of this extraordinary partnership with the Robson Orr Foundation, we are delighted to announce a new commission by Anya Gallaccio for the Government Art Collection. The TenTen Award has spanned an extraordinary decade, and each new print has seen a significant British artist bring a timely story to life.

“Gallaccio’s work considers the necessity of oceans to human life and the modes of communication across them. Engaging with the haunting and complex songs of whales, this print will be displayed in British government buildings globally and speak to the escalating climate crisis. In the process of printmaking, Gallaccio experimented with the transformation of sound into image to create a conceptually rich and materially compelling work. We are grateful to the DCA Print Studio for their support.”