Fine Art Students Win NZ Art Show Emerging Artist Awards

Four Fine Art Students Win NZ Art Show Emerging Artist Awards

The NZ Art Show today announced the recipients of this year’s NZ Art Show Emerging Artist Awards. The four $2,500 awards, which are open to students studying towards a visual arts degree or diploma, attracted 42 applicants. Students are nominated by their tutors and the Art Show’s selection panel is tasked with choosing the four winners.

This year’s Award winners are: Alice King and Alvin Xiong, from Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts; Willough McFarlane, Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, Wellington; and Cobi Taylor from the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic.

Two further students, Zoe Knighton from Wellington’s The Learning Connexion, and Christina Pataialii from Auckland’s Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, have won recognition as finalists. They will join the four winners in having their artworks exhibited in a dedicated gallery at this year’s NZ Art Show.

Established in 2012, the NZ Art Show Emerging Artist Awards aim to recognise and encourage emerging artists studying at established art courses in New Zealand. These awards are made possible through the generous patronage of Richard Nelson a trustee of the NZ Art Show and the awards official sponsor.

Mal Brow, NZ Art Show selection panel member and owner of Wellington’s 30 Upstairs gallery said, “The quality of the art submitted for this year’s Awards was very strong, making it harder to decide which six artists would get to exhibit at the Show. In the end, it’s great to see the diversity of art schools selected, with an interesting cross-section of media.

“What’s particularly pleasing is to see the work improving each year, growing stronger as the selection panel endeavour to encourage more trained artists and art school graduates approaching the NZ Art Show by way of the Emerging Artist Awards.

The four artists who have won this year’s Emerging Artist Awards represent a range of media including: sculptural light artworks; printmaking; large scale mixed media artworks; and film based artworks that draw upon digital photography, watercolour, drawing and computer generated imagery.
Alice King from the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University is a printmaker in her fourth and final year of studying for a Fine Art degree. Her precision and the abstract expressive nature of her work and mastery of her media impressed the selection panel.
Cobi Taylor is a student at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic. Cobi’s mixed media Palpitations paintings are fashioned from a drawing of a photograph of disaster, using her recent experience of the Christchurch earthquakes as subject matter. Using a reduced colour palette, these large scale artworks make a considerable impact and command attention.
Alvin Xiong’s sculptural light work ranges from smaller works that can be mounted on a wall similar to a painting through to larger wall based light installations that create a ‘light fresco’. In Alvin’s work, light itself becomes a new painting medium that creates a moving illusion forming a point of difference from traditional painting where artists use pigmented paints to create their images.
Wellington artist Willough MacFarlane is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Design with Honours majoring in Photography at Massey University of Wellington. Her photographic works are both aesthetically and conceptually strong within a contemporary context.

The two highly commended artists, Zoe Knighton from Wellington and Auckland-based Christina Pataialii impressed the selection panel and consequently have been invited to exhibit their work at this year’s Show.
Plimmerton artist Zoe Knighton is a Diploma Honours student at Lower Hutt’s Learning Connexion. Her unsettling and unique portraits are created in oils applied with a palette brush. This work surprises by presenting orthodox standing figure painted horizontally, rather than the expected vertical, with other works focusing attention on a part of the body that traditional portraiture does not typically emphasise.
Christina Pataialii from Auckland’s Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design work investigates issues such as Polynesian immigration in New Zealand post WWII up until the 1970’s. She is interested in the imagery of domestic settings, the work environment and cultural assimilation. Pacifica women feature predominantly in artworks on wood using oil, acrylic, printing ink and pencil. She has won critical acclaim and her work has featured in several recent Auckland exhibitions.

Carla Russell, the NZ Art Show’s executive director said, “The quality of the work entered this year is a credit to both the art students and their art schools. The New Zealand art scene is certainly in good hands and has an assured future based on our experience. Congratulations to our Award winners and all those who were nominated and sought selection for a 2014 Emerging Artist Award.

As in previous years, the Show is being held in the TSB Bank Arena on Wellington’s waterfront over three days. The Show opens with a Gala Evening on Thursday, 24 July, with open days from Friday, 25 July to Sunday, 27 July 2013.

The Art Show is open to the public by general admission. The art displayed is constantly changing so there is always something different to see. Tickets cost $10 each, concessions $7, with children 12 years and under free. Tickets can be purchased online at http://artshow.co.nz/buy+tickets until July 17. Door sales are also available.

ENDS

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