"Facing The Music" National Art Awards and Exhibition 2000
Golden C'Art Exhibition Group
P.O.Box 105
Carterton
Secretary : Alan Knowles (06)379 8649
Publicity: (025)604 6580, email: artscape @xtra.co.nz
"Facing The Music" National Art Awards and Exhibition 2000
Media Release (8) 8.9.200
Art Awards Announced
The agony of waiting is over for 108 artists from throughout New Zealand whose work was selected in The Facing the Music
National Art Awards & Exhibition being held in Carterton over the next seven days.
Sole selector/judge Judy Siers' choices for the supreme award of $3000 and five merit awards were announced at the gala
opening of the week long exhibition in Carterton this evening (Friday 8 September).
"There was a lot of diversity in the entries. This cross section of art from all over the country shows that
contemporary New Zealand artists are exploring all mediums and techniques in imaginative and innovative ways, from
traditional fine art, interactive work, printmaking, and sculpture, ceramics and craft variations," Judy Siers said of
entries overall.
Expressing her pleasure in being involved with the awards and exhibition, Judy Siers said: " The role of a judge is
always a combination of pleasure and disappointment. It's a thrill to choose winners, but it is personally very hard to
reject entries, particularly in the amateur categories where I know emerging artists need encouragement and support."
"The normally large, open and barren Carterton Municipal Hall has had energy, style and pure enjoyment brought to it by
these artists. It's what art does to us - it gives us joy and soul," Judy Seirs said.
The awards and recipients are:
The Carterton Community Arts Council/Parkvale Mushrooms Supreme Award ($3,000):
Jenny Dolezel (Auckland): for her entry Facing the Music (oil painting on canvas).
Auckland-based professional artist Jenny Dolezel is a graduate (1987) of the Auckland School of Fine Arts and has
received numerous awards for her work over recent years, including the prestigious James Wallace Art Award for painting
in 1996. She is a sometime lecturer at Elam Art School in Auckland, and has travelled and exhibited widely overseas in
UK, USA, Australia, Europe and Japan. She won an International Overseas League Commonwealth art prize in London (1996),
and one of her best-known public works is her mural in Auckland's Aotea Centre. Jenny Dolezel has an interest in
printmaking and drawing as well as painting. She is active in causes concerned with enhancing the rights and standing of
artists in the community and increasing the opportunities available to them.
Five Merit Awards ($250 each) sponsored by Ballooning New Zealand, Wairarapa Building Society, Premier Bacon Ltd:
Linda Wood (Carterton): for her entry What Song Will Our Children Sing (sculpture in Wairarapa stone).
With a Fine Arts Degree at from the University of Canterbury (1985), Linda Wood has made her mark as a multifaceted
artist since moving to Wairarapa in the mid-1990s. She exhibits regularly in Wairarapa. Broadly a multimedia artist,
photographer, and sculptor, her work has over time ranged across different media and she is known in part for her
evocation of mythology and strong woman themes. Her entry, carved from white stone found on the Wairarapa coast,
continues a strong figurative interest. She was a selected entrant who drew special comment from selector/judge Jim
Vivieare in the 1999 Golden C'Art "At The Turn" National Art Awards & Exhibition. Linda Wood combines her work as an artist with teaching art at Masterton's King Street Artworks, tutoring
workshops, and working in community art like her work in August this year with Dalefield Primary School students who
produced a series of concrete sculptures.
St Matthew's Collegiate (Masterton): for their entry Best Foot Forward (ceramic sculptures)
This unique joint entry by 9 School Certificate Art students of Masterton's St Matthew's Collegiate was produced under
the guidance of their teacher Barbara Roydhouse following a workshop with Wairarapa ceramicist Kirsty Gardiner. The nine
ceramic sculpture shoes which form the work were made by: Amy Izard; Courtney Kete; Monique Kramer; Holly Meredith;
Susanna Moore; Genieve Morrison; Jayne Shearer; Tracey Silk; and Amy Smith. The work was produced as the sculptural
component the School Certificate art curriculum requirements and this year the St Matthew's students have as their theme
"The Way We Are" in which they have been looking at themselves, their family, their roots, their likes and dislikes and
the things they wear, and enjoy doing. The students made a study of the history of shoes, and did detailed planning of
the proposed sculpture beforehand.
Bernard Winkles (Napier): for his entry Biting Destiny (3D work)
Bernard Winkles' challenging work has emerged from a series of works over time developing his perception of meat as a
metaphor for mutability, consequences and retribution. A former manual worker and freezing worker, he has studied at
several arts institutions and is completing the final year of a diploma at EIT in Napier majoring in painting. He
intends to study for a fine arts degree in 2001. His Biting Destiny reflects what he sees as his strong
three-dimensional tendency in art. The merit award is his first in a national competition.
Stephen Darryl Gibbs (Karori): for his entry Contra Bass Bow ( bow for a stringed instrument in wood, silver, oils)
New Zealand's only archetier (maker of bows for stringed instruments), 49 year old Stephen Darryl Gibbs is a largely
self-taught artist. He won the Ducks Unlimited Inc. Carver of the Year Award in 1995. He has been studying bow-making
for three years, travelling to UK and Europe to learn from exponents of the craft there in 1999 on a Montana Study
Scholarship. He was a selected entrant in the first two Golden C'Art National Exhibition and Awards in 1996 and 1997.
Patricia Took-Stevens (Raumati): for her entry Facing the Music in the Wairarapa (embroidered and embellished felt and
paper book)
This is the second national art award won this year by Raumati fibre artist Patricia Took-Stevens . In April her work
won an award at the Wool Festival in Christchurch. For the past 20 years she has followed interests in bookbinding,
fabric art and felting. She says she is now "dabbling in painting". Her entry took two solid months of "full-on" work to
complete and similar albums have become a specialty, involving wool, fibre, embroidery and other crafts - all with a
story line. Favouring natural materials and Patricia says she has always had a needle in her hand. She is a first-time
entrant in the Golden C'Art National Art Awards.
Highly commended: (in categories)
Fine art: Hilary Tipping,Ocean Symphony, oil on ivory piano keys. Craft:/wearable art: Mariner Walker. The Milliners
Symphony. Sculpture: Paul Laird (Nelson) Chagall's Blue Violinist, stoneware. Ceramics: Bronwin Mohring, (Dunedin) Song
For Redemption. Hand craft/quilting: Linda Allan (Welliongton), The quilt of the book.
Mixed media: Moshe Liba, (Wellington) Kiwis the keys to music.
ENDS
For further information:
Publicity: Steve Oxenham (025)604 6580, fax (06)379 6916, email: artscape@xtra.co.nz