Welcome to theCity of Albany Art Prize website
The City of Albany Art Prize is an annual acquisitive prize open to all Australian artists for a two dimensional painting.
With a first prize of $25 000, The City of Albany Art Prize aims to attract entries from artists of excellence from throughout Australia.
As well as this major cash prize, the winner will have the opportunity to spend up to four weeks in a self-contained studio cottage, at the Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, with $2500 for associated expenses.
Two non-acquisitive Highly Commended Prizes of $1 000 each may also be awarded, at the judges’ discretion.
Artworks entered into this art prize are to be substantially painted, meaning that other media such as those used in drawing (for example, pencil and charcoal), printmaking and collage can be included, but only if paint remains the dominant medium.
The artwork must be able to be hung (pinning or another method of direct attachment to the wall is not acceptable).
Photography and sculpture are not accepted.
This prize is proudly sponsored by The Jack Family Charitable Trust and presented by the City of Albany. The winning artwork will become part of the City of Albany Art Collection.
2011 Call for entries
Entries are now called for the 2011 City of Albany Art Prize.
2010 City of Albany Art Prize
2010 Winner
Kate Bergin, from Bendigo, Victoria, won the 2010 City of Albany Art Prize with her painting Call of the Highly Improbable.
Artist’s Statement:
“The Ern Malley literary hoax that produced sustaining images such as the “Black Swan of Trespass” has always had particular appeal and hearing the Black Swan referred to in connection to the Global Financial Crisis made the concept topical again. The title of this painting comes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. I imagine that James McAuley and Harold Stewart and perhaps even Max Harris, would have appreciated Taleb’s ideas on learning to expect the unexpected.”
Biographical Summary:
Kate Bergin has been painting and exhibiting since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1992. Her work is held in many collections including the Art Gallery of NSW (gifted by Margaret Olley), Artbank, Brisbane City Hall, Port Phillip Collection and the Victorian College of the Arts. She is represented by Mossgreen Gallery in Victoria and Hill-Smith Gallery in South Australia.
Highly Commended Award Winners
Two Highly Commended prizes of $1 000 were awarded to Stephanie Tabram, from Tasmania, for her acrylic painting Departure and Annika Koops, from Melbourne, for her oil painting Starcraft No 1.
2010 Judging Panel
The judging panel comprised Dr Stefano Carboni, Director, Art Gallery of Western Australia; Margaret Moore, Program Manager, Visual Arts, Perth International Arts Festival, and Jason Smith, Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria.
The judges commented:
“We consider Call of the highly improbable a commanding work that combines superb painting technique and pictorial composition with a conceptual rigour informed by Australian art and literary histories. The painting’s references to 17th century Flemish still-life traditions and their allegorical intentions — reminding viewers of the transience of life and fleeting beauty — are brought into the 21st century with the artist’s interests in unexpected turns of events in contemporary history, like the destabilising effects of the Global Financial Crisis. We see in this painting an attempt to find balance in an inherently unstable situation. Bergin’s assembly of collectable spoons and various bird species is a bizarre, literally improbable conjunction that reflects aspects of the museum, and ideas of preservation and loss. Bergin’s choice of objects provides clues to her thinking. The telephone, for instance, is a 1940s period appliance that would have been concurrent with the infamous Ern Malley Hoax, conceived to subvert a conservative literary predominance in Australia. Bergin’s Black Swan, as she articulates in her statement, is based not only on aspects of the Hoax, but also recent writing on the global economic downturn. There is a dynamic tension in the swan itself: it appears caught between flight and the gravitational pull exerted by the trophies. Bergin’s painting is a highly distinctive work from a field of ambitious and exceptionally accomplished paintings.”
Click here to view the exhibition catalogue.
2009 City of Albany Art Prize
2009 Winner
Western Australian artist Indra Geidans won the 2009 City of Albany Art Prize with her oil painting Threshold.
Indra’s statement is:
“This painting stems from a series of works that reference the human condition. This painting shows a women appearing to balance on the edge of two spaces. One space holds the safety of familiar stable territory, the other space is unknown, hypothetical and full of doubt and fear.”
Indra Geidans completed a visual arts degree from Curtin University in 1985. Since then she has had 11 solo exhibitions in Perth, Melbourne, Germany and Latvija. She is represented in many collections including the Art Gallery of WA and the Federal Law Courts of Australia. She has recently moved from Perth to reside permanently in the Albany region.
Indra is represented by Brigitte Braun Gallery, Melbourne and Turner Galleries, Perth.
Click here to view the winning painting.
Highly Commended Artists
The judges made two Highly Commended Awards to:
- Felicity Sivewright, WA, for Regrowth
- Genevieve Kemarr Loy, NT, for Bush Turkey Story.
Each artist won $1000 provided by The Jack Family Charitable Trust.
The 2009 judges were Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA, Director of the University of Western Australia’s Cultural Precinct; Fiona Kalaf, Deputy Chair of the Board of the Art Gallery of Western Australia; and Mark Van Veen, Assistant Director, Exhibitions and Curatorial, at ACT Museums and Galleries, Canberra.
Click here to view the Exhibition Catalogue.
2008 City of Albany Art Prize
2008 Winner
Rachael Hooper won the 2008 City of Albany Art Prize with her painting Bird in the Night, oil on board, 120 x 90 cm. Click here to download image.
Rachael Hooper lives in Melbourne and works at the Parslow Street Studios, Clifton Hill. She has a Bachelor of Visual Arts and has exhibited in artist-run spaces and galleries in Melbourne and Darwin.
The judges commented that, in her painting, Rachael Hooper has created a self-contained world in which she explored a range of dualities – darkness/lightness; sleep/awake, perching/suspended; shade/illumination. It is a painting which on first appearances is quiet and unassuming, yet is intriguing and draws the viewer back again and again. The judges commended the artist on her skillful and sensitive use of the medium and congratulated her on creating an absorbing work.
The 2008 Art Prize judges were John Barrett-Lennard, Director of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Helen Carroll, Manager, Wesfarmers Arts and Curator, Wesfarmers Art Collection, and Kelly Gellatly, Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria.
Click here to view the catalogue of the Exhibition of Finalists.
Venue
Exhibition Venue and Studio Cottage
Vancouver Arts Centre, 85 Vancouver St, Albany.Go to www.albany.wa.gov.au to find out more about the venue.
Click on the photos below to view the self-contained studio cottage and the stunning view from the verandah!
Background
Albany artlovers have enjoyed viewing an annual art prize for many decades. In 1963, radio station 6VA initiated an annual art prize. In 1969 the Town of Albany took on the role of co- ordinating and presenting this prize. The winning artwork was acquired for the Town’s art collection. This art prize has continued each year and attracts hundreds of entries in a wide range of media.
In 2007 The Jack Family Charitable Trust of Albany offered to provide major prize money to attract high quality paintings by artists of excellence throughout Australia.
The City of Albany accepted this offer and, in 2008, presented the City of Albany Art Prize with a new national focus and a $25 000 major prize.
Since 2009, the prize has been further enhanced with the winner having the opportunity to spend four weeks in scenic Albany. The accommodation is courtesy of the City of Albany, with $2 500 for associated expenses kindly provided by The Jack Family Charitable Trust.
Albany’s long running art prize, now known as the Mount Romance Centennial Art Prize, continues to be presented at Centennial Hall, Albany Showgrounds.
Visit Albany
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Contact
Co-ordinator of the 2011 City of Albany Art Prize
Email: artprize@albany.wa.gov.au