Eleni Odysseos who was part of our exhibition Figurative NOW. in 2018, receives the Abbey Fellowship.
This scholarship is sponsored by the British School of Rome to artists who show exceptional merit and promise and allows the recipients to attend the school for three months and given a monthly stipend.
The British School of Rome is a remarkable establishment designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and opened in 1901. Located adjacent to the Villa Borghese gardens and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, the placement proves to be ideal for artists to draw inspiration from.
The scholarship is named after Edwin Austin Abbey: an American muralist, illustrator, and painter. He was prominent in the “Golden Age” with his illustrations and paintings of Shakespearean and Victorian subjects. Following his death in 1911, his wife Gertrude Mead, donated £6000 to the British School of Rome to build an artist’s studio block, knowing Abbey was a keen supporter of the school.
Since 1992, scholars such as; Jade Ching-yuk Ng, Diana Taylor, David Lock, Jasper Joffe, and James Fisher have been recipients of the fellowship. Within hundreds of applicants, only four artists are chosen annually to join the program.
