The M16 Artspace Drawing Prize once again pushes the bounds of ‘what is drawing’. This annual prize has been running since 2006 and continues to grow in quality, volume and boldness. An enthusiastic crowd of artists and art lovers came to the opening on Friday 5 December to find out who won the M16 Artspace Drawing Prize for 2014. Guests were also treated to live music entertainment by the Night Café duo.
Selected from 130 entries, the exhibition of finalists features 78 works from local and interstate artists and includes, digital, pencil, paint, print and sculpture. In particular, Hannah Quinlivan’s wall sculpture, Connective tissue ‘wirey’ connecting lines sparked numerous discussions surrounding the definition of drawing. The judges for 2014, Marie Hagerty and Mark Bayly both agreed from the outset that their first job was to determine what might constitute a drawing, while not being prejudiced about media investigation. In particular they were looking for a sense of immediacy and agency in a winner, while also being conscious of how specific works existed within the context of individual artists’ practices.
First prize has been awarded to Cat Mueller’s energetic work Rattled. Bayly said of Mueller’s work, “Rattled is bold and exuberant and I personally really enjoyed the artist’s use of markers – at once juvenile but actually a medium which requires an unerring sense of application. Mueller’s work suggests at once the joyfulness of children’s sweets and the glitz of Christmas giftwrap and the expectant, anarchic act of unwrapping. The work also possesses the strange and unsettling quality of sub-molecular particles under microscopic investigation.”
Nicci Haynes was awarded second prize for her sensitive work, Speech Acts. Haynes says about her work, “I have been thinking a lot about the methods we (humans) use to convert the stuff in our heads into ‘communication’. I think about writing, and I think about speaking and I think about gesture. I think about body language. And I think about thinking.”
Congratulations to all the finalists – Roger Beal, Daniel Becker, Sally Blake, Penelope Boyd, Julie Bradley, Di Broomhall, Katharine Campbell, John Carolan, Rory Lee Carter, Susan Chancellor, Tommy Crow, Wayne Churcher, Dorte Conroy, Joan Costanzo, Shan Crosbie, Trevor Dunbar, Amy Dunn, Jane Dunn, Sarah Earle, Michele England, Kirsten Farrell, Elizabeth Faul, Damien Flanagan, John Forrester Clack, Shellaine Godbold, Joanne Handley, Averil Harris, John Hart, Jeremy Hawkes, Nicci Haynes, Barbara Hodgson, Cherylynn Holmes, Yang-En Hume, Lisa Jones, Yasmin Keany, Emma Kelly, Valerie Kirk, Dash Kossman, Erik Krebs-Schade, Michaela Laurie, Jennifer Maclaine-cross, Jill Mail, Jenny Manning, Stephanie McClory, Carmel McCrow, Cat Mueller, Becky Nevin Berger, Sacha Nixon, Belle Palmer, Jemima Parker, Angela Parragi, Ros Paton, Stephan Patrech, Emilie Patteson, Manuel Pfieffer, Pic Poc, Hannah Quinlivan, Neil Renfree, Ian Robertson, Annika Romeyn, Arjen Romeyn, Brenda Runnegar, Bradley Santos, Madeleine Searl, Shags, Glenda Shelley, Kerry Shepherdson, Kate Smith, Julie Spencer, Valeska Tilly, Rose Townsend, Keelt Van Order, Damien Veal, Ben Walton, Eve Austin White, Corrie Wright and Naomi Zouwer.
The exhibition is open to the public 12 – 5pm, Wednesday – Sunday and by appointment until 5pm 19 December.
M16 Artspace will reopen on 22 January 2015 with an exciting program for the new year.
(M16 Artspace Media Release)
Feature Image: Cat Mueller, Rattled, Paint markers on paper
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