Record number of finalists for National Art Award
Following a record number of entries, fourteen finalists were announced today for New Zealand's most ingenious fine art award the 2009 Fieldays No 8 Wire National Art Award.
Since 1997 the annual award has been challenging artists to make a sculpture from No 8 Wire. Sponsored by Fieldays, the No 8 Wire National Art Award has becomed renowned for the ingenious and unique entries it attracts.
Award judge Rob Garrett says the award has attracted an interesting variety of artists and approaches.
"The artists selected for this art award exhibition have all responded to something within the character, history and idea of No8 Wire that they have found interesting. You might find it interesting to work out who is interested in what. They have been selected because they have transformed the material in ways that spark the imagination," he says.
ArtsPost Co-ordinator Marion Manson is pleased with the quality and diversity of entries this year "this exhibition show an incredible range of talents from both emerging and established artists" she says. "Work varies from the artists' response to the farm history and experience of the wire, to jewellery. Other artists have transformed the wire into creatures such as a giant weta, and caterpillars."
The winners will be announced on 5 June. The finalists' work will be exhibited at ArtPost Galleries and Shop from 6 - 29 June. Of this year's finalists, 5 (Gaye Jurisich, Michele Rumney, Rebecca Giles, Jane Pouls and Dave Sole) are Hamilton artists.
New prizes introduced this year include The Fieldays President Award and a Peoples Choice Prize. This will be awarded to the artist that receives the most public votes during the course of the exhibition.
Respectively the overall winners will be awarded the following prizes for 1st $4,000, 2nd $2,000 and 3rd $1,000.
The full list of finalists is:
- Gaye Jurisich, Malis, Hamilton
- Gaye Jurisich, Get Knotted, Hamilton
- Karin Strachan, Perilous Intrigues, Whanganui
- Richard McIlroy, Caterpillars, Auckland
- Michele Rumney, Giant Giant Weta, Hamilton
- Meiling Lee, Common Ground, Auckland
- Rebecca Giles, Gate 48, Hamilton
- Donna Sarten, Field Punishment No. 1, Auckland
- Brendan McGorry and Helen Holmes, Walking home through the forest, Auckland
- Jane Pouls and Dave Soul, Forkundity, Hamilton
- Jessica Turnball, The Star of the Show, Auckland
- Aaron McConchie, The inevitable beginning to an inconsequential end, Auckland
- Rafael De Armas, Upward, Papakura
- Andrea du Chatenier, Linear Excersice (Landscape) 2009, Whanganui