Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Small Work Takes Big Prize

A small work submitted by Frances Stachl of Whanganui took the Best in Show prize of $700 at the 2013 Whanganui National Art Exhibition and Awards at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre on Thursday.
The exhibition and awards are presented by the Whanganui National Art Exhibition and Award Trust. The annual exhibition is open to artists living and working in New Zealand, and is in its fifth year.
The judges for this year’s awards were Esther Topfer, trustee and a Whanganui printmaker, Sarah Williams, a Whanganui painter and gallery manager, and Mikaere Gardiner, a painter, from Taumarunui.
They selected Ms Stachl’s work, The Baby and the Bathwater, for its rendering of something insignificant such as a bathplug and the layering of perceptions and concepts by use of materials and elaborate production. Made from sterling silver, deer antler, and beef bone, The Baby and the Bathwater work has been well received by viewers to the exhibition.
Certificates of Merit prizes of $100 were awarded to Becka-Lee Biggs of Whanganui for her digital print Humble Bee, and to previous Merit winner, Andria Pablo of Wellington, for her large work Tonatiuh Ra, comprising of Aztec iconography made from beads, drawing together her cultural heritages of New Zealand and Mexico.
There were a total of 43 works submitted by artists from Whanganui, Hawke’s Bay, the Kapiti Coast, Manawatu, Marlborough, Rangitikei, Tararua, and Wellington. The competition is designed to create a national platform for visual artists in painting, printmaking, photography, glass production, sculpture and mixed media, and to build relationships between the national arts sector and the Whanganui arts community.
The exhibition is open at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre till September 6. The 2013 Whanganui National Art Exhibition and Awards is supported by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios, Mickey’s Superliquor, and the Grand Hotel.