ZAFAA23 Press Release: Winners Announced

Now in its seventh year, the Zonta Ashburton Female Art Awards focuses on the art of emerging to mid-career female artists living and working in Canterbury. At the awards ceremony on March 10, Ashburton Art Gallery Director Shirin Khosraviani spoke about the positive outcomes and opportunities created for the previous winners of ZAFAA, who have gone on to receive solo exhibitions and representation from prominent galleries across Aotearoa. She also commended the courage of the finalists for putting themselves forward and congratulated them for their success.

This year, 29 finalists were selected from 74 entries for the Premier Award, and 13 entries were featured in the Young Generation Award category, for those aged 16-20 years.

This year’s Premier Award was won by Christchurch artist Jo Burzynska and her work What Might We Find When We Stop Looking? (Mechanised Quarter). In this work, the elements of a city are captured in both sound and scent, highlighting the often overlooked sensory experiences of everyday life. A soundscape of city noises ranging from traffic to birdsong is played through headphones, accompanied by a pumice block evoking the urban smells of coffee and concrete dust. Burzynska’s sensory interplay between sound and scent encourages a nonvisual understanding of space and aims to foster alternate connections with urban environments.

Judge Jane Venis, speaking on behalf of the judges Lauren Gutsell and Caroline McQuarrie, commended the work’s “nuanced understanding of sensory experience” and its placement “within the genre of minimalist practices”. She stated that the judges “were very impressed with the fine balance between the three media; the beautifully recorded mix soundtrack, the layered rich city smells and the flawless surface of the pumice bricks.”

Along with a cash prize of $4,000, Burzynska has also won the invaluable opportunity to create a solo exhibition at the Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum in 2024.

The ZAFAA23 Young Generation Award went to Vivien Silver-Hessey for her photographic entry Reach. The judges “were incredibly impressed with how carefully considered and constructed the work is, both materially and conceptually. The combination of media is well planned and executed, communicating the symbolic references within it in a smart and successful way.”

The ZAFAA awards exhibition will be on display until 23 April 2023. Visitors to the Gallery are encouraged to choose their favourite artwork for the People’s Choice award.

Winner of the ZAFAA22 Premier Award Audrey Baldwin’s exhibition THIS IS FINE, EVERYTHING’S FINE is also on display. Audrey’s playful exhibition takes aim at ‘grind culture’, internalised capitalism and the challenges of living in a media choked society. The works featured are a mix of installation, photography and video, all referencing the body as a tool for creating or undermining one’s self worth. THIS IS FINE, EVERYTHING’S FINE will run until 05 May 2023.

The awards exhibition is delivered through a partnership between the Zonta Club of Ashburton and the Ashburton Art Gallery, and generously supported by the following local organisations:

Ashburton District Creative Communities, Forsyth Barr, ANZ Private Banking, Bushey Park Trust, Everist Gilchrist Lawyers, Samantha Rose Flowers and Straight Eight Estate Vineyard, Frame Co, Scorpio Books, Kate Murney and Barkers Foodstore.

Exhibition Details:

ZAFAA23

Opening | 10 March | 7pm

Exhibition | 11 March – 23 April 2023

Audrey Baldwin, THIS IS FINE, EVERYTHING’S FINE

Opening | 10 March | 7pm

Exhibition | 11 March – 05 May 2023

Gallery Hours:

Open Daily 10am – 4pm

Open Wednesday 10am – 7pm

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