Congratulations to Raymond Arnold, Rosalind Atkins, Dianne Fogwell and David Frazer on being selected as finalists in the inaugural WAMA Art Prize.
The inaugural WAMA Art Prize, Works on Paper, attracted more than 500 entries from across Australia. The number and quality of artists who entered highlights the resonance that the theme of art and nature has within our creative community. In particular, the artworks reflected an acute awareness of the many environmental issues facing all of us.
The judging panel comprising of Anne Virgo, Robert Nelson, Suzanne Davies and Jacky Healy had the extremely challenging task of selecting only 40 finalists out of a remarkable body of work by a huge number of entrants. The judges were greatly impressed by the diversity and manifest talent of the artists being inspired and enriched by nature within their work.
Located adjacent to the national heritage listed Grampians (Gariwerd), WAMA (Where Art Meets Nature) is an eco-tourism destination project celebrating the relationship between art, science and nature. WAMA will boast a dedicated wildlife art gallery that explores the interconnection between art and nature, set within botanic gardens and wetlands, that nurtures and protects rare species of plants and animals.
The finalists’ exhibition will be available to view online until 31 January 2022. Voting is open for the people’s choice award until 22 October 2021. For more information, and to view the exhibition in full, visit the WAMA website.
Image above: Raymond Arnold Elsewhere World (Mt Lyell I) 2021 etching 122 x 63 cm
Raymond Arnold
‘Elsewhere World (Mt Lyell I)’
‘I am living and working in the remote west coast of Tasmania. Relentless mining activity for over a century reduced the landscape to what various people have described as a ‘moonscape’. The rainforest has gone, but the almost three metres of rain a year remains to scour the valleys.
My prints ‘map’ the terrain around my home and become avatars of a landscape poised between a type of renewal and eternal vacancy.
Copper etching plates grounded and incised through months of work enfold details of waste rock rumble, fugitive vegetation and serrated skylines of the West’s sublime landscape onto beautiful 300gsm rag paper.‘ – Raymond Arnold
Image above: Rosalind Atkins Considering the tree 2021 engraving edition 8 80 x 60 cm
Rosalind Atkins
‘Considering the tree’
‘Made during Melbourne’s 2020 lockdown, ‘Considering the tree’, while representing a specific tree, a Sydney Blue Gum, Eucalyptus saligna growing near the Yarra River in my allowed 5-kilometre travel limit, it is also what I spend much of my time doing. Engraved over many months it is a continuation of my practice that has been dedicated to my relationship to the tree for many years.
The title pays respect to Martin Buber’s dialogic relationship with animate beings expressed by a mutual encounter with a tree in ‘I and Thou’, 2004.‘ – Rosalind Atkins
Image above: Dianne Fogwell The Dead Tree Scroll – Silent Extinction 2021 artist book – mulberry (Hanji) paper, linocut, pigmented ink, burn drawing, transfer text and found burnt curtain rod 30 x 150 cm (open)
Dianne Fogwell (Award of Excellence Winner)
‘The Dead Tree Scroll – Silent Extinction’
‘In the summer of 2020, while the smoke quietly and densely settled over Canberra, my visual investigations about how humanity impacts the natural world entered a new realm.
My artist book ‘The Dead Tree Scroll – Silent Extinction’ features excerpts from victim’s reports written to various government bodies after the Black Summer fires. These words show the damage was considerable and long lasting to the flora and fauna and the human spirit.
The attitude needed to survive this tragedy is represented through the artist book’s materials. This paper made from the inner bark of the Paper Mulberry tree appears fragile but is strong enough to be printed on both sides, water damaged and burnt while remaining beautiful to touch and stays long lasting.
The Australian bush is not eternal and invincible. My hope is that with awareness, insight and understanding there will be regeneration of both the land and human spirit.‘ – Dianne Fogwell
Image above: David Frazer The Tangled Wood (composition I) 2019 wood engraving edition 40 80 x 120 cm
David Frazer
‘The Tangled Wood (composition I)’
‘This etching started with one plate, and it grew organically from plate to plate. The composition developed as it went along; disorderly like the bush itself, strangely beautiful yet tense and uncomfortable.
The depiction of individual trees or tree-trunks that dominate the composition become a metaphor for man. They carry the scars of a life buffered by the elements, yet still they stand as weary yet upright sentinels – a lifetime of memories written upon their bark and twisted forms.‘ – David Frazer
You are warmly invited to attend a special event hosted by the formidable and beloved Petrus Spronk.
Presented as a part of the annual Words in Winter literary and arts festival, ‘My Life As An Artist in 8 Short Stories, A Story Per Decade,’ is an illustrated talk by Daylesford’s own artist, Petrus Spronk.
The event will take place on 25 September from 7:30pm at the Convent Gallery Chapel in Daylesford, VIC.
Due to COVID restrictions, you must book in advance for these events. For bookings and more information, please visit the Words in Winter website.
Image: Jimmy Rix A Symbiotic Relationship 2021 Corten steel edition of 4 + 1 AP 194 x 265 x 115 cm
Congratulations to Jimmy Rix who has been announced as a finalist in Sculpture on the Farm 2021.
Sculpture on the Farm 2021 will showcase 150 sculptures by 73 wonderful Australian sculptors: 75 intimate indoor works and 75 garden and outdoor works.
Dungog in the Hunter Region of NSW is renowned for its forests, mountains and rural scenery and is a perfect location for sculpture lovers, couples and families looking to visit this scenic part of NSW.
All these works will be visible in the online Sculpture Catalogue by mid-September for you to enjoy. The sales portal will be launched in time for the Sculpture on the Farm Preview on Friday 1 October.
The Announcement of Prizes will occur progressively throughout the first 10 days of October.
Sculpture on the Farm will be presented exclusively online in October. Click here for the full Program.
Jimmy Rix’s sculptures often relate to personal experiences and familiar objects. Having lived within both natural and farmed Australian landscapes throughout his life, rebellious kangaroos, machine-horse hybrids, playful sheep and utilitarian objects have inevitably been cast as the actors of his narrative-based works. In these sculptures a sense of humour, an engagement with Australiana, an interest in scale and a concern for the environment are often the underlying themes and inspiration.
Image above: Geoffrey Ricardo A brief history of nonsense aquatint, drypoint and etching edition 10 50 x 50 cm
Congratulations to Geoffrey Ricardo on being announced as the winner of the 2021 Peebles Print Prize for his work ‘A brief history of nonsense.’
Geoffrey’s work was regarded highly for demonstrating exceptional technical skill, and also for the way in which the imagery resonates within the contemporary moment we are currently living through, speaking to the idea of gathering together to achieve a common goal. The work is in some ways fun and whimsical, while also having a darker side to it that evokes further contemplation.
This year, the award was judged by David Hurlston, Senior Curator, Australian Art NGV and Lisa Sullivan, Senior Curator Geelong Gallery.
The finalists’ exhibition will remain on display at Queenscliff Gallery until 11 October 2021. For more information, click here.
Camie Lyons spoke with Australian Galleries on her residency at Umbi Gumbi 2020 and 2021.
“I could return to this magic place forever. It is just past Bermagui on the South Coast – a nature reserve and unique landscape that has attracted a long lineage of artists from all disciplines.
The little bush studio is perfect. I also worked outside, weather permitting, gathering materials to rub into surfaces and sticks to coax into form, wandering, listening to the bush and sea, chasing my own thoughts and imaginings.
Camie Lyons Bark Drawings & Birdsong Drawings mixed media on industrial paper
It is such a gift, residency time, to be removed from your everyday and told to use this time and space as you please – to soak it up, to taste and feel, to let that perfume your creativity. Time becomes elastic with no other obligations, my day dictated by bursts of making, reading, periods of contemplation and observation. The best surprises come from experimenting – throwing stuff about, getting obsessed over some small thing and following that to its conclusion, or wandering onto an entirely new path of endless possibilities. All these things happened for me at Umbi Gumbi.
This fever of making has led the way into a new body of work for my next show with Australian Galleries, now rescheduled for March 2022. Kissed by the bush and sea, this body of work is a love affair with the Australian Landscape.
Here are a few images from my time at Umbi Gumbi, I have 100’s! Scratchy birdsong and bark drawings, open branch forms and many strange and loose charcoals. Blues and sun bleached whites appearing on the bronzes, pops of colour punctuating wall works and the songs of bark scratching hanging in space.
I just threw myself in, as always enjoying the physical practice of making and was exhausted at the end of each day to dream about limitless making, to rise and begin the cycle again. What a gift! Thank you Umbi Gumbi, Thank you!”
Image above: Winsome Jobling No planet B 2021 handmade papers, drypoint and stitching 40 x 30 cm
We are delighted to share that Winsome Jobling’s work will be featured in an upcoming international exhibition, Ecologies of Change.
The exhibition is a collaboration between artists from Australia and Printmakers Council UK on display at The Royal Over-Seas League Clubhouse in Westminster, London.
This group exhibition is a collective artist vision of the impact and consequences of human activity on Earth’s ecosystems. The project brings together Australian and British artists who share an ethics of care for Earth’s ecosystems to create images recognising the way we are responsible for altering the planet. These changes include global warming, habitat loss, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soil, and animal extinctions.
Ecologies of Change is curated by Clare Humphries (Australia), Jacki Baxter (UK) and Venessa Pugh (UK).
The exhibition opens on 16 September, 2021 and is current until 28 November, 2021.
For more information, click here.
Image above: Rosalind Atkins Considering the tree 2020 engraving edition 8 80 x 60 cm
Congratulations to Rosalind Atkins, Winsome Jobling and Glenda Orr on being announced as finalists in the 2021 Banyule Award for Works on Paper.
The Banyule Award for Works on Paper is awarded biennially to an outstanding contemporary work on paper. This is a prestigious national art prize, with the winning artwork entered into the Banyule Art Collection.
The theme this year was ‘community.’ The award received 202 entries, from which 33 finalists were selected.
The finalist exhibition is set to run from Friday 17 September – Sunday 28 November 2021, COVID restrictions permitting. For more information, click here.
Image above: Winsome Jobling Deeper time 2020 drypoints and earth pigments on handmade papers (Gamba Grass, Abaca, Cotton and Kozo) 72 x 87 cm
Image above: Glenda Orr Parked Life – strolling through socially-distanced trees, Seville Park, April 2020 2021 etching 31 x 49 cm
Image above: David Frazer Waiting for Rain (panel 1, 2nd state) 2013 linocut edition 50 51.5 x 48 cm
Congratulations to G.W. Bot and David Frazer, who will have work featured in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
G.W. Bot has a recent work featured, ‘Burnt Bent Glyph.’ David Frazer has two works in the exhibition, this year will be the third time that David’s work has been featured in the renowned exhibition.
Held every year without fail since 1769, the Summer Exhibition presents a celebration of contemporary art and architecture. It is the world’s oldest open submission exhibition – which means that anyone can enter their work to be considered, including leading artists, household names, new and emerging talent. In this way, it provides a platform for the artistic community to showcase what they’re doing.
In 2021, the Summer Exhibition has been coordinated by renowned artist Yinka Shonibare RA. The exhibition will explore the theme of ‘Reclaiming Magic’ and celebrate the joy of creating art.
The exhibition will open at the Royal Academy on 22 September 2021, and is current until 2 January 2022. For more information, click here.
Image above: G.W. Bot Burnt Bent Glyph 2020 linocut on Kozo paper edition 10 64.5 x 98.5 cm
Image above: David Frazer Hug 2011 wood engraving 12.5 x 11 cm
Image: Angus Fisher Don’t mention the Peacock 2020 graphite on paper 53 x 65 cm
Australian Galleries is proud to announce Angus Fisher has been selected as a finalist in the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize 2021 at Noosa Regional Gallery.
The Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize was established by John McCrea in 2015 to honour Lyn’s passion for drawing as fundamental to visual arts practice. The prize is a national award held annually and is open to all practicing Australian contemporary artists. The aim of the prize is to promote excellence in contemporary Australian drawing.
The Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize is auspiced by Noosa Regional Gallery.
The winner of the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize receives $5000 People’s Choice Award $1000.
People’s Choice is proudly sponsored by Friends Noosa Regional Gallery.
Exhibition Dates:
5 November – 5 December 2021
Image above: Danielle Creenaune Epic 2021 lithography and Mokulito 107 x 177 cm
Congratulations to Danielle Creenaune, Martin King and Stephanie Monteith who have been announced as finalists in The Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award.
Since 2001, The Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award has been a significant national biennial exhibition that aims to elevate the status of works on paper while supporting and promoting artists working with this medium.
This year Hazelhurst received entries from over 700 artists from throughout Australia.
The finalist exhibition will take place from 22 January – 27 March 2022 at Hazelhurst Art Centre in NSW. For more information, click here.
Image above: Martin King strangerlands II, after W Strutt, Black Thursday 1851 2021 graphite, watercolour, gouache, pastel and gold leaf on drafting film on paper 150cm x 226cm
Image above: Stephanie Monteith Night Drawing 2021 graphite on paper 81 x 111 cm