With entrants from the farthest corners of the country; from Western Australia to Queensland, to Whyalla SA, the shortlist for the prestigious Whyalla Art Prize has been announced with 67 artists selected for the open prize and 15 up for the youth prizes.
Established in 1972, the Whyalla Art Prize is a biennial prize open to all Australian residents for 2 dimensional artwork in any medium other than photography and for the first time in 2015 moving image works.
Originally designed to promote regional emerging artists, the prize has flourished and developed into a significant award and is seen as an important exhibition of contemporary arts in Australia. It is now widely considered one of Australia’s wealthiest art prizes on any theme within the country.
Country Arts SA Visual Arts Coordinator Eleanor Scicchintano said that the standard of entrants were high this year. “The selection panel were impressed with the standard of work entered in the prize this year and had a hard job making a selection,” she said. “It was especially exciting to include 8 moving image works for the first time.”
The three judges for the prize are Susan Jenkins – Senior Curator at the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art; David Broker – Director, Canberra Contemporary Art Space and painter Grant Hill – winner, 2013 Whyalla Art Prize. Judging will take place in October with the overall winner announced at Whyalla’s Middleback Arts Centre on Tuesday 6 October 2015.
An exhibition of the finalists will be on display at the Middleback Arts Centre: 26 September – 14 November 2015, with a curated exhibition of winners and finalists on display at the Adelaide Festival Centre from 14 December 2015 – 31 January 2016.
For more information, and to view the shortlist of finalists, visit: www.countryarts.org.au for details.
Image: Still from The Sun Worshipper – a short Australian film by Anna Glynn