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Major Winner 2019, John Brown
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John Brown, Hastings The Battle for Tuber
I always pull off the highway to look at historical markers, however unlikely or obscure. I’m drawn magnetically by the promise of events of great moment and the superstitious notion of being there, right on the spot where it happened. The result is usually disappointing, because most of the time, a monument says more about what people want to believe than what really happened. And these days the monuments of our pasts, and especially those of the colonial era, are subject to challenge; something to be amended, corrected or simply torn down in belated shame. I see all of that - the desire, the illusion, the imperative for truth - embedded in this drily mystical painting. History doubles itself, as both tragedy and farce, in this proposed monument to a crackpot theory regarding the arrival of the sweet potato in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Dr Christopher McAuliffe - Guest Judge. |
Major Winner 2017, Kirstin Carlin
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Kirstin Carlin, Auckland Through the Trees (Thirteen)
A feisty freshness pervades this painting, a welcome shot of visual adrenalin delivered directly through the eyeballs. Carlin's work can be appreciated on a number of levels : as a high-voltage re-imagining of the work-worn landscape genre; as a study in colour (those glowing greens and lustrous pinks jostling up against creamy neutrals); or as a technical exercise in construction, with spacial relationships vigorously amplified in black. That's all there, and ready to be enjoyed, but if I'm honest it's not why I selected it for this award. I chose it because of its sheer 'look at me' audacity, that playful bustling confidence which lands it on the right side of cheek. It's a cracker. Felicity Milburn - Guest Judge 2017 |
Major Winner 2016, Hugo Lindsay
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Hugo Lindsay, Auckland Swipe or Tilt
Lyndsay's Swipe or Tilt sits within a long tradition of Minimalist painting while choosing to serve it forth for our delectation. Instead of pursuing reductive spatial illusions, this painting lays them bare. Masking tape in painting customarily calls no attention to itself, but is instead applied to reduce the traces of the painters hand. In this case the shape and bleeding edges of tape are flagrantly revealed, exposing the flimsy foundation beneath. This serious painting is built on a substrate that resembles candy-cane. At the paintings edges are borders that repudiate the conceit of immaculate geometry. At it's centre, the artist places a trompe l'oeil device, taking final swipe or a tilt at minimalist painting's claims to optical coherance. Richard Fahey - Judge 2016 |
Major Winner 2015, Frances Hansen
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Frances Hansen, Auckland Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Salt by Frances Hansen seems to defy explanation. A curious encompassing of painterly languages build the sub-structure of a composition littered by disparate signs and symbols. Hard edged forms are drawn against soft, warmth against coolness, action and movement against stillness. Detail impresses on us her intent, a need to communicate, to read and follow the visual clues. But we are lost. In a picture plane of riches we must settle for a Pinch of Salt. Matthew Browne - Judge 2015 |
Major Winner 2014, Peter Miller
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Peter Miller, Auckland Fun Ho!
Peter Miller's oil painting Fun Ho! places a familiar New Zealand icon centre stage. It is a skillfully painted work on a well-constructed stretcher utilising cotton canvas of an appropriate weight. The vintage toy truck is thoughtfully positioned within the composition to activate the background space. It is nostalgic without being sentimental. An elongated shadow extending from the rear of the truck anchors the wheels to the ground plane, 'slows' down the viewing of the painting and could be read as a metaphoric reference to the passing of time. Dr Victoria Edwards - Judge (Jan 2014) |
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Ian McKelvey, Whakatane Main Ridge Pakihiroa Station Reminiscent of Christopher Nevinson (1889 - 1946), a war artist who depicted the shattered trees of No-Mans Land during World War 1. The Artist has depicted a starkness revealing the depredation of a forest and the bleakness of a landscape as a consequence. The work has been well assessed and treated in a way in which the direction of the fallen trees present a subtle pyramidal structure to the composition. Melvin (Pat) Day. Judge 2013 |
Major Award Joint Winners 2012
Virginia Leonard, Warkworth (left) and Jasmine Middlebrook, New Plymouth (right)
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Virginia Leonard, Warkworth (above left)
Fairy Fairy has a very dense field which is expressive and colourful. It also exhibits verycontrolled surface tensions amongst it’s multi-layered surfaces - which suggests the artist has not thrown paint on the canvas, but has contemplated the work before the act of painting. This exuberant and joyful painting has a basis in the tradition of cold and warm colour oppositions in paint and belongs to the genre of “abstract” paint histories - the viewer can read their own narratives and stories as they view and interact with the work. Marilynn Webb - Judge 2012 |
Jasmine Middlebrook, New Plymouth (above right)
I'm Happy This Way This is a complex work interfacing painting and drawing. It is a work by a very accomplished painter who uses the basis of traditional painting to support her stylistic experimentations and personal approaches to her art. This work is full of symbolic meanings and the viewer can get lost within the narratives, as well as formulating new stories and return viewing. The tondo (round) shape may also suggest that there is no beginning and no ending and life is a recurring thematic happening experienced by all people. Marilynn Webb - Judge 2012 |
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Major Winner 2011, Evan Woodruffe |
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Evan Woodruffe, Auckland 'Untitled (02-14)' In our digital age, when it no longer need record the natural world, painting must redefine its role in order to remain relevant as a 21C art form. Artists must use the medium to create something no other media can: celebrate its properties, its versatility, its unique energy. The winning work does this masterfully. Its complex composition is filled with movement, tension and mystery. It offers texture and subtle variations in colour. It was not the work I immediately identified as the winner, but it was the one I kept coming back to, finding something new and engaging on each view, and the image remained with me long after I left it behind. For me, that's the definition of art. Jennifer Buckley - Judge 2011 |
Major Winner 2010, Belinda Griffith
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Belinda Griffith, Auckland
Amongst Strangers 'This work combines the language of painting and drawing into a single highly effective statement. There is just a enough visual information and detail provided, which considered with the title, 'Amongst Stranger', allows the viewer to engage with the work and begin to speculate on a possible narrative which this individual image might well be part of. The work is a model of expressive force achieved with confident handling of a medium and pared down colour range.' Henry Symonds (Judge 2010) |
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Jennifer Majeski, Queenstown Samantha's World Mr Fahey said depite the paintings diminutive size (the smallest in the exhibition), he kept coming back to it as it "slowly unravelled it's charms". "It's a special little work" he said. "It is so easy to sentimentalise a young girls innocence and it can often boarder in cliche territory but this doesn't, it resists it. Small works can be very powerful and this really works as a small scale work - all it's intensity is compressed. Beacon January 2009 Richard Fahey Judge 2009 |
Major Winner 2008, Kereama Taepa
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Kereama Taepa
Baby Girl Ross Hemera Judge 2008 |
Major Winner 2007, Gary Freemantle
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Gary Freemantle , Wellington
Tux (Image courtesy of John Twaddle and Whakatane District Museum and Gallery) Judge Jonathan Mane-Wheoki said Mr Freemantle's work was "visually arresting and intriguing." The style reminded him of works by Dutch masters of the 17th century who were students of Rembrandt. He said it was very technically accomplished with microscopic brushwork. Beacon January 2007 Judge - Jonathan Mane-Wheoki 2007 |
Winner 2006, Peata Larkin
Whati@.com.ptng
Judge, Michael Armstrong
Judge, Michael Armstrong
Winner 2005 - Sofia Minson and Luke Hollis - (Joint winners)
Sofia Minson, Saffron Monk' and Luke Hollis, The Veil of Lynnaire
Judge, Simon Ogden
Judge, Simon Ogden
Winner 2004, Grant Whibley
Te Whiti and Te Tohu in Reflection
Judge, Joan Fear
Judge, Joan Fear
Winner 2003, Jim Thomas
Raetihi Fence Line
Judge, Michael Smither
Judge, Michael Smither
Winner 2002, Rozi Demant
The Performers
Judge, Carole Shepherd
Judge, Carole Shepherd
Winner 2001, Ron Hall
Box Expose
Judge, Barry Lett
Judge, Barry Lett
Winner 2000, Helen Lees
Pink Beret
Judge, Marie Cass
Judge, Marie Cass
Winner 1999, Peter Stichbury
Study for Bleibtreu-Cordelia
Judge, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki
Judge, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki
Winner 1998, Latham Gaines
Rangitoto Fish Story
Judge, John Eaden
Judge, John Eaden
Winner 1997, Judith Moore-Chisholm
Te Oranga Ngakau
Judge, Shelly Ryde
Judge, Shelly Ryde
Winner 1996, Nicholas Raftopoulos
Working Out
Judge, Nigel Brown
Judge, Nigel Brown
Winner 1995, Karen Butterworth
The Dynamism of Revenge
Judge, Jacob Scott
Judge, Jacob Scott
Winner 1994, Jenny Dolezel
Then and Now'
Judge, Jacqueline Fahey
Judge, Jacqueline Fahey
Winner 1993, Peter Waddell
Mapping the Gulf
Judge, John Daly-Peoples
Judge, John Daly-Peoples
Winner 1992, Kalvin Collins
Something for your mind, body and soul
Judge, Helen Kedgley
Judge, Helen Kedgley
Winner 1991, Joanna Braithwaite
A Small NZ Still-life
Judge - John Scott
Judge - John Scott