National Art Award Glory for Esther

National art award glory for Esther

Wanganui Chronicle

Laurel Stowell 23rd September 2009

Esther Topfer is now the first winner of the first Wanganui National Art Award.
And she’s thrilled.

An art student for eight years, she said art wasn’t just something she did.
“It’s actually a great part of my life.”

Her winning work, Glory, combines religious images in an effort to achieve unity.
“I would like to try and bring all the religions of the world together, to create a peace in the world. There are Christian images, and Buddhist images, and witches flying around in the background, which is my spiritual belief, the Wiccans.”
Belief is glorious, she said.

“So many people are losing their faith in today’s society. I think it’s important that we do believe that there’s something greater looking after us.”

Her work used the traditional silkscreen method, but on glass.

After that it was painted and collaged, with items like Panadol capsules and a clothing label added.

Topfer began studying art in 2002 at Wanganui Polytechnic. She did a certificate in design, then a three-year glass diploma and is now in her third year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Next, she intends to study computer graphic design, and after that she wants to teach art at a high school.

“I’ll be able to offer the children the most diverse range of skills.”

Another third year Whanganui UCOL BFA student, Aaron Potaka, started the art award. His Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studio donated the $200 prize.

He said this was just its first year, and in time, with patrons and benefactors, the prize would grow to thousands of dollars.

He entered three of the show’s 20 works. Others came from Hawke’s Bay and Wellington.

His own entries were disqualified from judging because he was one of the judges, along with graphic novelist Dylan Horrocks and printmaker Rowan Gardiner.

He said the award was not about him – it was about Wanganui taking its place as one of the movers and shakers in contemporary New Zealand art.

“Wanganui demands an art national, because it’s a leading city in training and nurturing art. That’s why I established this.”

• The award show at the Community Arts Centre finishes on Sunday.

Planning for 2010 Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award Underway

Planning for 2010 Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award Underway

With the encouraging success of the inaugural Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award, planning is now underway for the 2010 event.

Entry registration will be released next year, and will be downloadable from www.24bar7.com.

Sponsors of the national art exhibition and award would be most appreciated and contact can be made with organisers Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios via their website www.24bar7.com and email: contact@24bar7.com.

Optvi101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios would like to acknowledge the following people and organisations for their supporting of the 2009 Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award;

Sofie Beitchef

Myra McIntyre

Trevor Wannell

Joan Rosier-Jones

Albert Sword

Dylan Horrocks

Rowan Gardiner

Wanganui Community Arts Centre

River City Press

Wanganui Chronicle

Hawke’s Bay District Council

Creative NZ

The Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award is presented by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Copyright © 2009 Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Inaugural Wanganui National Art Award Presented to Local Artist

Inaugural Wanganui National Art Award Presented to Local Artist

The first Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award was launched yesterday at the
Wanganui Community Arts Centre, 19 Taupo Quay, and runs until September 27th.

Twenty works were entered by ten artists from the Wanganui, Hawke’s Bay and Wellington regions. The convener Aaron Potaka, of Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios, is pleased to present New Zealand’s newest art exhibition and award to the city and expects the entries and prize to grow next year.

“This city has a reputation for nurturing and promoting the arts, and with the Wanganui National, now the city has stepped up to take on those responsibilities for contemporary art for all of New Zealand”, Potaka says.

He says that he is honoured to have talented artists exhibiting and being ambassadors for the Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award.

A panel of graphic novelist Dylan Horrocks, printmaker Rowan Gardiner and the convener, Potaka, selected Glory by Esther Topfer of Wanganui, as Best in Show. The panellists were impressed with all works, commenting that they were at the forefront of contemporary art in New Zealand. The decision to select a winner for the award was difficult to make.

The winning work is a silkscreen of paints and mixed media on glass. The work has
sophistication and appeal to it. The work is grounded with dark blues and blacks, and the gold and pink in the figures are very alluring. The production process was innovative and fresh, and materials integrated into the work were delightfully quirky.

The Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award is presented by Optiv101 Fine Arts and
Multimedia Studios.

Copyright © 2009 Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Inaugural Wanganui National is New Exhibition for New Zealand Fine Artists

Inaugural Wanganui National is New Exhibition for New Zealand Fine Artists

The Wanganui National 2009 Amalgamated Tech Art Exhibition and Award has been inaugurated to promote the fine arts in New Zealand, showcased in Wanganui, a city renowned for nurturing and inspiring visual artists.

The exhibition is open to all artists living and working in New Zealand, and offers an array of styles and tastes. Seeded by twelve artists from the Wanganui, Wellington and Hawkes Bay regions, the Wanganui National aims to promote New Zealand artists and the visual arts, and to bring new arts experiences to the city.

Neil Buddle and Esther Topfer are two Wanganui artists seeding the exhibition. Neil Buddle continues to grow and develop his art practice following stints in arts administration. This has meant developing both the commercial and conceptual strands of his work.

His latest work selling in Auckland are prints of New Zealand native trees and how the rich natural resources of our country make our urban environment, intertwining the history of people and land. In addition he is exhibiting in international, national and local exhibitions.

Although currently working primarily as a printmaker, Neil is looking forward to returning to the medium of assemblage for this exhibition. His principal subjects of interest are local politics, landscape, cultural history and erotica.

Esther Topfer is a Diploma of Glass graduate and is completing the last year of her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Wanganui’s Quay School of the Arts. Her exhibition piece is titled Glory, a work of mixed media, paint and screen-printing on glass.

The delicate surface beauty of Esther’s work draws the viewer into a world of eclectism where beliefs of many cultures are magically entwined in a unification of spiritual imagery. By using divergent materials, processes and subjects, Esther is asking the viewer to accept these differences and meld our individual spirituality and beliefs to form a new way of devotion to God, Goddess and Spirit.

The exhibition will have all works for sale and runs during a time of numerous other cultural events in the city, such as the Wanganui Literary Festival and the Wanganui Festival of Glass. A cash award will be given to the artist with the Best in Show as judged by a selection panel.
The exhibition is held at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre. The opening function starts at 5pm on Thursday 17th September and the exhibition shows until Sunday 27th September.

The Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award is presented by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Copyright © 2009 Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Webster and Cruz Hot Flavours during Wanganui National

Webster and Cruz Hot Flavours during Wanganui National

Hamish Webster and Thomas Cruz are seeding artists of the Wanganui National 2009 Amalgamated Tech Art Exhibition and Award, and will be hot flavours during festival fortnight taking over Wanganui in September.

The exhibition kicks off the celebrations of fine arts and culture in the city at its opening function on Thursday September 17 at 5pm.

Both artists have taken the opportunity to show in other arts and cultural events in the city held during the Wanganui National. Hamish is in the second year of study for a Diploma in Glass Design and Production and as a participant in the Wanganui Festival of Glass he will have works displayed in Visique Goldsbury Optometrists on Victoria Avenue.

Hasmish is an extremely competent hot-glass blower, and training in other disciplines such as painting and sculpture gives him good steed in his colour and design applications, as well as alternative outlets for his creativity. In glass his main works are vases and perfume bottles that are very popular with collectors.

For the Wanganui National he will show a peice titled Chop Bowl, a graal of bright colour and dark accents, cold worked to open up the vessel and allow the viewer to see the interplay of colour and light that is the essence of glass.

Thomas Cruz will have works in a fundraising art sale held at the Wanganui Riverside Market on Saturday September 19. The art sale is raising funds for a Quay School of the Arts student exhibition at the end of the year, and he has several works on offer.

Thomas is a third year student in a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and is undergoing a painting major. He has acquired a distinctive style of high key colours and subjects of animals and people, treated in a way that is invigorating and refreshing.

His bright paintings are complemented by his choice of supports. In a recent body of work the subjects unfold and reveal themselves around and inside furniture chests and cabinets. By allowing us to possess the beauty of his paintings and store them within our private spaces he has induced in the viewer the most personal and intimate connection with the work.

For the Wanganui National he is presenting Earthly Delights, a tiled peice made in pen and watercolour on paper. This demonstrates a distinctive approach to colour and his recent motifs of animals.

The exhibition will have all works for sale and a cash award will be given to the artist with the Best in Show as judged by a selection panel.

The exhibition is held at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre from Thursday 17th September until Sunday 27th September.

The Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award is presented by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Copyright © 2009 Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Wanganui National 2009 Amalgamated Tech Art Exhibition and Award

Copyright © 2009 Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Deep Profile - Neil Buddle

Neil Buddle – Visual Artist

Despite producing work consistently over the last 10 years, the last 2 years have seen a marked change in my efforts to grow and develop my art practice.

In 2007 I was given the opportunity to take part in the Waitakere Open Studio Weekend (An event I had instigated previously in my role as Community Arts Coordinator for Waitakere City Council). For this event I presented a summary of previous work and a new series of ‘multiple’ paintings entitled, Afterlife. Through this event I sold several works and was fortunate enough to make some new connections. It was partly due to this that I realised that if I was serious about making art and growing as an artist, that from that point I would need to make a concerted effort to develop my practice and importantly, that making art, should pay it’s own way.

Since then, I have produced more work than any other time since art-college. The connections made through the Open Studio Weekend have resulted in the production of 2 sets of kiwiana-inspired prints for gallery shops in Auckland (Pauanesia and The Next Door Gallery). The revenue from these prints has enabled me to not only produce more personal and challenging work, but to enter several established exhibitions as well.

I am currently working on a new set of kiwiana prints for Pauanesia, a major series of prints (Hopefully for a 1st solo/dealer gallery show?) that follow on from a 2005 body of work called ‘Sightline’, in addition to entering the Whanganui National Art Award and the Sarjeant Review Show.

Whilst working pre-eminently in print over the last 2 years, I have retained my passion for Assemblage. This exhibition has given me the opportunity to re-engage with assemblage, under the umbrella of ‘Amalgamated Tech’.

Exhibitions 07-09:

2007

Waitakere Open Studio Weekend – Blink Gallery, Waitakere City, Auckland, New Zealand

The Art of Assemblage (Tribute to Peter Sauerbier) – Corban Estate Arts Centre, Waitakere City, Auckland, New Zealand

2008

Silk Cut Lino Award 2008 (Selected Artist) – Glen Eira City Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Carey and Smith Review Show 2008 – Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand

2009

Metonymy 2009 – Aotea Centre, Auckland, New Zealand

Ivan Rebroff is my Security Blanket – Federal Gallery, UCOL, Whanganui

Upcoming Shows

Wanganui National Art Award 2009 – Community Arts Centre, Whanganui, New Zealand

Retail Outlets:

Pauanesia - Queen Street, CBD, Auckland

Next Door Gallery - Hinemoa Street, Birkenhead, Auckland

Internet:

Different Drum – Neil Buddle Personal website

Diglog – DIG Collective Blog

Picasa – Neil Buddle – Web Gallery

Email – digreverend@gmail.com

The Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award is presented by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios

Copyright © 2009 Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios