Gripping work wins Wallace Art Awards

The 20th Wallace Art Awards
TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre
Sept 6-Oct 14

The 20th Wallace Art Awards 2011, with prizes amounting to more than $165,000, were presented last night by Auckland Mayor Len Brown at The Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre.

The winning work by Akiko Diegel has been a finalist in several of the Wallace Awards over the past few years. The work Cure is made up of hundreds of small paperclips made from the metallic film of Disprin packages. It is an eerie still life that reflects on both the positive and negative aspects use of pharmaceuticals.

The second major prize went to Matt Ellwood for Unconditional Love, a couple of carved sci-fi figures with R2D2 legs.

Two prizes went to senior artists Bronwynne Cornish and Philip Dadson.

The award winners were announced at the same time as they were revealed in real time through the Wallace Arts Trust Virtual Gallery exhibition by exhibbit.com, an Auckland the digital art innovation agency.

The Wallace Arts Trust received 559 entries from which 117 entries have been selected as finalists. Sixty-one finalists have been chosen for the Travelling Show and the balance is represented in the Salon des Refusés. The awards were judged by three distinguished New Zealand artists – Philip Trusttum, Sara Hughes and Peter Gibson-Smith.

THE 2011 WINNERS:
Akiko Diegel, Cure
Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award
Diegel receives a six-month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York, USA.

Brydee Rood, Müll Ballon Wolke Kanal Projekt
Fulbright Wallace Trust Award
Rood receives a three-month residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco, USA.

Matt Ellwood, Unconditional Love
The Kaipara Foundation Wallace Trust Award
Ellwood receives a three-month-residency at the Altes Spital in Solothurn, Switzerland

Bronwynne Cornish, Between a Rock and Hard Place
Wallace Development Award
Cornish receives a two-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont, USA.

Emil McAvoy, Helen
First Runner Up Award
McAvoy is awarded $2000 cash

Anita Levering, False Flat – Sap Green on Paynes Grey
2nd Runner Up Award
Levering is awarded $2000 cash

Philip Dadson, Headstamps II
The non-monetary Jury Award

Winners and selected finalists will be chosen for the Travelling Exhibition, on show at the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre in Auckland from September 6 to October 16, and The Dowse in Lower Hutt from October 29 to December 4. A Salon des Refusés will be on show at the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre in Auckland from September 6 to October 14.