The John Moores Prize Exhibition is a bi-annual competitive art exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery

Walker Art Gallery

The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...

, Liverpool. It is named after Sir John Moores (1896 - 1993), the founder of the competition and one-time head of the Littlewoods

Littlewoods Shop Direct Group

Shop Direct Group is the United Kingdom's leading online retailer, and its largest home shopping company. It is based in the Speke area of the city of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England...

 clothes retailing empire.

First held in 1957, it is Britain's most well-known competition for aimed solely at painters and is now part of the Liverpool Biennial, a city-wide celebration of the arts that encompasses the Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation...

, Bluecoats Gallery and other venues in Liverpool.

In 2008 the exhibition was a major part of Liverpool's celebrations as European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

.