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projects
toyota community spirit gallery 2008 Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize
Watch Arts Pty Ltd Contemporary Art Consultants + Arts Project Management PO Box 328 Port Melbourne Victoria 3207 Australia phone 0419 570 846
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2008 Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize The 2008 Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize was officially opened by the Victorian Minister for the Arts Lynne Kosky, M.P, on Thursday 3 April, at the Substation Arts Centre, 1 Market Street Newport. Winner of the $3000 Major Prize was a video installation by Ben Millar. Judges for this years awards were David Hurlston, Curator of Australian Art Exhibitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Geoffrey Ricardo noted Melbourne artist and lecturer and Donald Williams, arts writer and Director of Global Art Projects. Recognised nationally for showcasing innovation and excellence in the visual arts, Williamstown Festival’s 2008 Contemporary Art Prize annually attracts hundreds of entries from across Australia. This year’s award attracted enormous interest from artist s nationwide, with over 360 entries received across all genres including painting, sculpture, photography, video, multi media and installation art. Spokesperson for the judging panel, David Hurlston, said the high standard of entries made for a long and carefully considered deliberation, but in the end the decision was unanimous. "As judges we were very impressed with the overall standard of entries in the 2008 Williamstown Contemporary Art Award and would like to express our congratulations to all who submitted work. The winning entry, Ben Millar's The practice of levity (Pheelix finds colour), was a unanimous choice. A multi layered work; we considered it witty, clever in execution, and felt it made excellent use of the medium."
A record 87 artists from Victoria and interstate were selected by the judges for exhibition in the 2008 awards. Over 20% of these are local artists from the Melbourne Western Region, an indication of the strength of local contemporary art practice. Recipient of this year’s Williams Real Estate Local Artist Award is photographer, Andrew Green, with his conceptual art protest piece Coming! Ready or not, which is a personal response to his outrage at the decision to allow the dredging of Port Phillip Bay to proceed against a wave of objections from a broad cross-section of the community. Other awarded artists in the Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize included, 2D Award winner, Kate Winterton, with her striking and confronting image Untitled. Winner of the Williams Real Estate 3D Award was sculptor/ceramist Darren McGinn of Geelong, with his wry and iconic piece, Busman’s Holiday, consisting of a row of pristine white ceramic caravans on a builders work stand. A PhD candidate at Monash University, Darren was only last year awarded the $10,000 Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award and will travel to Tasmania this year to complete an artist residency studying the effects of rapid urban development on communities. Highly Commended Awards were sponsored by Fundere Studios, New North fine art photographic prints and Greenwich Gallery. The Highly Commended artists were; The Contemporary Art Prize is part of the 2008 Williamstown Festival and is proudly supported by the Williamstown Festival Committee, The Hobsons Bay City Council, local business and The Substation Arts Centre in Newport. This is the fourth year the awards have been held at the Newport Substation, an iconic heritage building that is growing a reputation as one of Melbourne’s best and most unique contemporary art spaces. The Substation is run by a local community initiative that is transforming the once derelict local icon building into a hub for local arts and artists. "I am thrilled with the new spaces that current building works have opened up in the Substation this year. It has allowed us to show and even broader diversity of contemporary practice, which has made this years art prize the strongest ever." Now in his second year at the helm for the art prize, Wong said the quality and diversity of work has continued to build on the high standard set in recent years. "The Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize is a unique showcase of some of the best of contemporary arts practice, not only locally but from across Australia. It has grown a well deserved reputation over the past few years as not only the Western suburbs premier showcase for contemporary visual art, but also a highly regarded and prestigious award throughout the arts industry. This is something that is evidenced by the esteemed judging panel who have agreed to adjudicate this years awards. We encourage people from throughout the west and beyond to come and view this exciting exhibition that provides such a valuable opportunity for local artists. Hobsons Bay and surrounding areas is home to a vibrant and highly active arts community that takes it’s inspiration from the diverse cultures and environments that make it such a unique and interesting place. The area is really a cultural melting pot and historically you find that some of the most significant art movements have come from areas like this with diverse populations and backgrounds. Art is a way of sectors of the community exploring and gaining better understanding about themselves and each other. This exhibition features an extraordinary diversity of works exploring a broad range of contemporary themes including human conflict, social equity, consumerism and the environment."
Sponsored and supported by Williamstown Summer Festival Ltd
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Ben Millar The practice of levity (Pheelix finds colour), Time based media Winners $3000 Open Award Ben Millar 'The practice of levity' (Pheelix finds colour), Time based media
$1000 2D Award, Kate Winterton
This work is part of a series of photographic and sculptural performances looking into the sexual fears and uncanny desires surrounding the feminine grotesque.
My caravans consider, explore and develop a number of regional,sociological directions. They symbolise social paradox and polarity: tradition /innovation, subsistence/ affluence, past/present andpermanence/ change. Darren McGinn
It’s not often you hear fishermen and environmentalists arm in arm. People(and the penguins, seals, dolphins, seahorse, etc.) don’t like their bay being stuffed up so that Chinese super ships can fill $2 shops more quickly and efficiently, compelling the likes of Lindsay Fox, Tim Fischer, John Lines CMA, Dr Brain National Institute of Economic & Industry Research and the former head of CSIRO’s Environmental Projects office. He said the Port’s environmental reports were more like a business plan, not an ecological assessment*.The Age, 21/1/08, P 3. Highly Commended Awards
Greenwich Gallery $150 framing/art supplies Daniel Worth
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Artist Daniel Worth has been twice awarded for his entry ‘Portrait of my studio” in the Williamstown Festival Contemporary Art Prize. He received a Highly Commended Award from the judges but has also just been announced the winner of the Reid Consulting $500 Peoples Choice Award. The awards are significant achievements for Daniel, who left his home in Brisbane in Qld two years ago at the age of 23 in order to pursue a professional career as an artist in Melbourne. ‘I knew that if I was to achieve my goal of becoming a professional, I had to move to Melbourne and explore all the opportunities to learn and engage with the vibrant local scene. There is just so much more happening here”, he said. His gamble seems well on the way to paying off, with these first significant awards he has achieved in the Williamstown Contemporary Art Prize. He has also held four successful solo exhibitions and is also practicing his skills and engaging the public with his sidewalk chalk drawings. Art Collector and local resident of 30 years, Greg Reid of Reid Consultants said he was proud to sponsor the award. ‘Our business is about assisting people to achieve their dreams though finance, so a Peoples Choice Award which provides $500 to an artist to assist them in their career is a good fit for us’, he said. ‘In Daniels case he has the endorsement of not only the people who have viewed the exhibition, but also the judges with his Highly Commended Award’.
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Detail from Kerry Buckland-Lewis work Transient (laser cut steel, chrome)
Peoples Choice Award winner
Artists Neil Stanyer and Heather Winter
Judge, Geoffrey Ricardo
President of the Williamstown Festival, Rod Page