Finalists Selected for Signature Piece Art Award

Ten Finalists Selected for the 2012 Art Show’s Signature Piece Art Award

The New Zealand Art Show’s selection panel has selected 10works by 10 artists as finalists for their $5,000 Signature Piece Art Award.

The 10 artworks will be displayed in the specially designated Signature Piece Art Gallery, which is part of the ninth annual art show to be held at the TSB Bank Arena on Wellington’s waterfront from Friday, 3 August to Sunday, 5 August 2012.

The New Zealand Art Show’s executive director Carla Russell says, “The selection panel had a particularly difficult job this year. Not only was the art submitted of a very high standard but, when compared with previous years, but also there was a notable shift away from traditional art forms with artists challenging themselves and their media.”

The Signature Piece Art Award is a people’s choice award. “The winner is decided by a public vote during the show. This provides an excellent opportunity for an artist to gain extra recognition and potentially give their career a valuable kick-start,” Carla Russell says.

The 10artists and their selected works are:

§ Jordan Barnes’ painting, ‘iBarbi’. Jordan is currently living in New Plymouth but was living and working in New York earlier this year. A Signature Piece finalist last year, he was the inaugural NZAAT Artist Grant recipient in 2010

§ Laxmi Jhunjhnuwala’s painting ‘The Symphony, 2011’. An Auckland artist, Laxmi draws on her Indian heritage creating paintings and installations using paint, pigments, plastics, wood, tumeric, chilli and flour.

§ Richard Thurston’s painting ‘Untentionally finding Turner’. A Wellington artist, Richard won the inaugural Winesale.co.nz Art Award at the New Zealand Art Show 2010, and was a Signature Piece finalist at the 2010 & 2011 New Zealand Art Shows

§ Kelsi Doscher’s photograph ‘Diminished Symmetry’. A Wellingtonian, Kelsi moved to New Zealand from the United States and has exhibited in America, Australia and New Zealand

§ Ben Timmins’ painting ‘Paradigm Sunrise’. Currently living and painting in Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast, Ben won the Signature Piece Art Award at last year’s New Zealand Art Show

§ Peter Leask’s photograph ‘Kupes Sail, Offcuts’. Peter, another Wellington photographer has exhibited at the New Zealand Art Show since 2010

§ Katherine Kovacs’ sculpture/light box ‘Memento Mori’. Katherine is a multi media artist and has recently based herself in Wellington. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art

§ Jane Blackmore’s painting ‘Deliverance’. Jane has been painting since 1996 and is also an art teacher who specialises in oil and acrylic painting from her studio in Wellington’s Shelley Bay

§ Saehae Lee’s work ‘Perception, 2011’. Saehae currently lives in Auckland and was a finalist in last year’s Signature Piece Art Award

§ Jade Townsend’s painting ‘Bay of Islands’. Originally from Whanganui and now living in Wellington, Jade completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Manchester. Her art is strongly influenced by Maori symbolism and mythology with a distinct story-telling element presented in a contemporary graphics.

The Award winner will be informed and publicly announced, subsequent to the Show on Wednesday 8th August.

The objectives of this Signature Piece Art Award are to: recognise artistic excellence in the visual arts; highlight the work of promising artists for the future; encourage, develop and promote emerging artists to new artistic levels; and give the public a voice as to whom would they like to reward.

“This is the fourth year we have offered the Signature Piece Art Award. The Award provides yet another way in which the NZ Affordable Art Trust, the charitable trust responsible for the New Zealand Art Show, can assist and support artists and the arts community,” Carla Russell said.

ENDS

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