Tonight, Art Vinyl unveiled the winner of the 20th Best Art Vinyl Award, the annual art prize for the best record cover design of the year, at the Hari in Belgravia, London.
First place was awarded to Toronto-based multimedia artist Rajni Perera for her artwork on the cover of Australian Jazz/funk band Hiatus Kaiyote’s fourth studio album, ‘Love Heart Cheat Code’. The album – released by Brainfeeder and Ninja Tune – was chosen from a diverse shortlist of 50 iconic and memorable vinyl cover art from 2024.
There’s no doubt that this year, album art has been an integral part of music artists’ brands. You need only to think about ‘Brat Summer’ to appreciate the huge levels of cultural resonance that some album art has experienced recently.
First place artist Perera’s work explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalised identities/cultures within the symbolistic style of her paintings. Perera explains that the work on the album cover is about “acknowledging the sacred female energy that drives this universe and restores balance to it”.
“Even by painting it, I have been blessed,” she says.
The band’s singer/guitarist, Nai Palm, first encountered Perera’s illustrious work years ago and first reached out to her to ask permission to tattoo some of her work. “It was for my mastectomy scar, which was super important for me to challenge beauty standards, and I wanted imagery that was both powerful but effeminate,” she explains.
Hiatus Kaiyote – ‘Love Heart Cheat Code’ by Rajni Perera
The art used for Love Heart Cheat Code was an existing piece of Perara’s work that was to be the final piece in Palm’s tattoo but ended up being the right fit for the album. Palm adds: “It was sentimental to close that chapter of my life with this record and imagery.
I love that the line work has strong design elements, and the blue took many attempts, as I worked directly with the layout designer to find the right Pantone.”
During this process, Palm says she learned a lot about blue and how light affects how we perceive colour. She describes the final artwork as “simple yet refined and totally striking”.
On winning the prize, Perera says: “Thank you so much for this award. I have so much love for Nai (Palm) and Hiatus Kaiyote, their skill as artists, their generosity in sharing their gifts, and their incredible work. Thank you for this honour.”
Fontaines DC – ‘Romance’ by Lulu Lin
Taiwanese artist Lulu Lin came in second place with their artwork for ‘Romance’, the fourth album by Dublin band Fontaines D.C, who were the Glastonbury Park stage headliners in 2024. The band licensed a series by Lin for use across their ‘Romance’ album campaign.
Lin’s work on this album cover is characterised by bold colours. Adopting a bright, electric palette dedicated to distorted,