Manukau Student Wins Country’s Biggest Student Art Prize
Twenty-two year old Fine Art student, Melissa Hatton, of Manukau School of Visual Art has been awarded first prize at
the fourth national Mazda Emerging Artist Award, winning $10,000 cash.
The Tuakau resident was chosen as the Mazda Emerging Artist of the year over 106 other Fine Art students from throughout
New Zealand. The winning piece, entitled - Do You See What I See - was described by judge John Daly-Peoples as a “homage
to the past and the recognition that we are defined by history”.
Melissa’s painting is based on a painting by the mid-nineteenth century French classicist artist Ingres. She has copied
a finely attired woman standing in front of mirror, as originally painted in La Comtesee de Haussonville. In this
life-size painting Melissa has added a new face to the woman – that of her sister. The only other addition is a
ballpoint pen lying on the cabinet the woman is resting against.
“I like the relationships that portraiture creates between the artist and the portrait and the viewers and the portrait.
This is also a family portrait because it is of my 16-year-old sister,” said Melissa.
Melissa, who spent four months creating the painting, plans to put the $10,000 win towards paying for art gallery spaces
once she completes her studies this year.
“Her reworking of the original is similar to Andy Warhol appropriating soup cans in the co modification of art. Melissa
draws attention to the way in which art masterpieces of the past are little more than the subject matter of postcards,”
said Mr Daly-Peoples.
Second place and a cheque for $5,000 went to Greenlane’s Peata Larkin of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for
Cultural Genetics (Pushing Pixels#5), and Sonya Lacey from Auckland central was judged third with Seven Days. The Elam
School of Fine Arts received a cheque for $2,500.
Peter Aitken, managing director of Mazda New Zealand Ltd, stresses the importance of encouraging New Zealand’s emerging
talent.
“Tertiary art students often face significant financial hurdles and the Mazda Emerging Artist Award is a means of
offering reward and recognition for our up and coming artists,” said Mr Aitken.
“It is not just about coming first, second or third, but about providing a medium for the students to gain exposure of
their art to a wide public audience and in many cases secure the first sale of their own work.”
All three winners were presented their cheques at the Awards Ceremony held at the Hilton Hotel in Auckland amidst the
107 pieces of emerging art work. The emerging art exhibition will run for a week as part of the wider Mazda Artworks
Charity Art Exhibition and Sale being held at the Hilton until 2nd September.
The three winning pieces will be auctioned off for charity at a black tie dinner on Thursday evening, while the
remainder of emerging art work will be on display and available for the public to purchase at Mazda Artworks at the
Hilton until this Saturday.
ENDS.