Award Winners Announced for 2017 Wallace Art Awards
The 26th Annual Wallace Art Awards 2017, with prizes amounting to over $275,000, will be presented by Michael Moynahan,
Chair, Arts Council, Creative New Zealand, at the Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, Monday 4 September 2017
at 7:30pm.
This year the Wallace Arts Trust received 428 entries from which 83 were selected as finalists. From the finalists 55
have been chosen for the Award Winners & Travelling Finalists exhibition and the balance is represented in the Salon des Refusés.
The Wallace Arts Trust is pleased to include a new Residency in this year’s Art Awards, a 3 months residency at the
British School at Rome. This Award has been initiated by Enrica Sciarrino (Associate Professor in Classics, University
of Canterbury) and independent working artists Simon Ogden and Andrew Drummond, and is designed to facilitate a unique
opportunity for New Zealand artists in their early to mid-career stage. The BSR is the UK’s leading research institute
abroad, supporting the full range of arts, humanities and social sciences. The winner of this Residency Award will
establish themselves at both the BSR and in the city of Rome, and undertake a productive period of research and/or
hands-on work.
The Wallace Art Awards aim to support, promote and expose New Zealand contemporary art and artists. They are the longest
surviving and largest annual art awards of their kind in New Zealand.
JUDGES The 2017 awards were judged by a panel comprising of prominent members of the arts sector’ Linda Tyler, Richard Maloy
and Russ Flatt, as well as Steve Carr, Phil Dadson and Ruth Watson who judged the Fullbright-Wallace Art Trust Award
together with Richard Maloy. For the British School at Rome Residence Award, Linda Tyler was joined by Andrew Dummond
and Simon Ogden.
EXHIBITION DATES
1. The Award Winners & Travelling Finalists exhibition will be exhibited at:
• Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre: 5 September – 12 November 2017.
• Wallace Gallery Morrinsville: 29 November 2017 – 28 January 2018 (Opening: November 2, 11am – 1pm)
• Academy Galleries, Wellington: 19 February – 25 March 2018 (Opening: date to be confirmed)
2. The Salon des Refusés will be exhibited at the Pah Homestead from 5 September – 29 October 2017
JUDGE’S COMMENT
• Regarding Andy Leleisi’uao, Paramount Award Winner, Linda Tyler commented,
“Working intuitively, Andy Leleisi’uao shows great skill at creating complex compositions, dividing his canvases into
compartments filled with silhouetted figures, busily at work. Many of the objects that can be discerned in this painting
are based on items he has around him in his studio. His ingenuity lies in the ability to transform artefacts of the
everyday into a symbolic order. A hammer, for example, becomes a metaphor for building an ideal society where everyone
co-exists in order and unity.
His references are both comic strips and black-figure Greek vase painting, where a narrative is conveyed in frames.
Colour is used sparingly, with accents of pink and red occurring for special emphasis – a wooden lion on wheels or a
long-tailed comb move the eye in the same direction as reading, left to right. Overhead in many of the scenes is a red
dot, the constant shining sun, which accompanies daytime labours, but also is a punctuation point of interest which
through repetition connects each section into a harmonious whole.”
ENDS
For further information visit links below: The Wallace Art Awards
http://www.wallaceartstrust.org.nz/wallace-art-awards/ The Wallace Arts Trust website www.wallaceartstrust.org.nz The
Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre website www.tsbbankwallaceartscentre.org.nz