Kiri Mitchell Wins Affordable Art Emerging Artist Award

Kiri Mitchell Wins New Zealand Affordable Art Trust Emerging Artist Award

Dunedin artist Kiri Mitchell has won a New Zealand Affordable Art Trust (NZAAT) Emerging Artist Award. Kiri, who was selected for the award by the faculty of the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic, receives $3,000 from the NZAAT and the opportunity to exhibit up to three works at this year’s New Zealand Art Show.

The executive director of the NZAAT and New Zealand Art Show Carla Russell said, “Kiri is a deserved winner of an Emerging Artist Award. I understand that she has made an invaluable contribution to the development of the School’s Print Laboratory through her prints and teaching of print and drawing classes, and has been instrumental in creating a vibrant print culture within the Dunedin School of Art. We are very much looking forward to seeing her print works exhibited at the show in Wellington in August.”

Leoni Schmidt, Head: Dunedin School of Art says, “Kiri’s work engages with the rich print history of satire, through which she explores the phenomenon of posturing and façade within the power hierarchies of societal structures.”

The recently announced NZAAT Emerging Artist Awards were established by the NZAAT, in conjunction with the country’s leading tertiary schools of art, to recognise and reward emerging New Zealand artists. Each participating art school: Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland; School of Fine Arts, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington; University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts, Christchurch; and Otago Polytechnic’s Dunedin School of Art, is able to select one of their students as an Emerging Artist Award recipient.

Kiri graduated from the Dunedin School of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Printmaking) in 2011. As an undergraduate student, she received a number of major awards in printmaking and late last year won the David Con Hutton Perpetual Trust Memorial Scholarship to assist her postgraduate study.

The 2012 NZAAT Emerging Artist Awards came about through the generosity of a New Zealand Art Show patron and NZAAT trustee, Wellingtonian Richard Nelson.

“We are fortunate that Richard, an avid art collector and patron of the New Zealand Art Show, donated $12,000 so the NZAAT could establish these awards. We intend that the Emerging Artist Awards become an ongoing part of the New Zealand Art Show. To that end, the NZAAT will seek support from individuals and organisations to ensure that we can continue to acknowledge the talent of emerging artists like Kiri,” Carla Russell said.

This year’s New Zealand Art Show runs from Thursday, August 2 to Sunday, August 5.

Tickets to the Show can be purchased through www.artshow.co.nz or at the event. Adults $10.00, Children 12 years and younger, free.

ENDS

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