IHC launches 2009 Art Awards with top judges

Media release
9 June 2009

IHC launches 2009 Art Awards with a line-up of top judges

IHC is calling for entries for the IHC Telecom Art Awards 2009 - and has lined up four of New Zealand's top creative talents to judge the art works.

The judges include: the head of World fashion house, designer Denise L'Estrange-Corbet; internationally renowned artists Dick Frizzell and Karl Maughan; and founding director of Wellington's City Gallery Paula Savage.

The IHC Telecom Art Awards celebrate the talents of people with intellectual disabilities. The awards are open to all New Zealanders with an intellectual disability, whether or not they use IHC services. Entries open today 5 June 2009.

The top 30 entries, selected from regional competitions to be held over the next few months, will be exhibited at Chaffers Gallery, Wellington, in September. From these finalists, the national winners are chosen and members of the public can bid - online or on the night - to take home their favourite pieces.

Dick Frizzell first judged the Art Awards in 2006. "I was delighted to find at the top end the quality was fantastic." And he is expecting to see more top talent this time.

"I am very interested in art that gets there under the wire; that gets there around those other systems of theory and intellectualisation."

Karl Maughan, famous for his huge canvasses of gardens and flowers, says many artists try hard to break free from their learning to express themselves. Because of this constraint, people with a disability might in fact be freer to create.

"When people are maybe struggling in other ways to connect with society, they can find a connection in art. Art comes from all kinds of places," he says.

Designer Denise L'Estrange-Corbet says she is delighted to be one of the judges of this year's Art Awards.

"I am looking forward tremendously to seeing the thoughts, visions and talents of so many creative, and truly beautiful people. It will be an honour, and a truly humbling experience for me, she said.

The regional art exhibitions will be held in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch during July. Members of the public will be able to view the artworks at SANDZ Gallery, Hamilton; Alpha Art Studio, Wellington; Gallery O, The Arts Centre, Christchurch. The ten finalists selected from each region will be announced in July.

Work from the 30 finalists will be exhibited at Chaffers Gallery, Wellington, from 18 September to 14 October 2009.

The IHC Telecom Art Awards were established in 2004 to encourage and recognise creativity from New Zealanders with an intellectual disability. Over the years it has become an important event, with more than 650 people entering in 2008.

The awards to the four winners will be presented at a function in Wellington on Wednesday 23 September 2009 at Chaffers Dock function centre. First prize is $5000, second prize is $2000 and third and fourth place winners each receive $1000.

IHC thanks Telecom for supporting the Art Awards as part of their Community Connection sponsorship programme.

Art works and entry forms must be submitted between 5 June and 3 July 2009. The closing date is 3 July 2009 at 4pm. The entry form and conditions of entry can be downloaded from the IHC website www.ihc.org.nz

For more information please contact: Amie Paston (amie.paston@ihc.org.nz) or Philippa Sellens (philippa.sellens@ihc.org.nz)

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The judges

Denise L'Estrange Corbet

Denise L'Estrange-Corbet is one half of the fashion design duo from WORLD, which she and Francis Hooper started in 1989. They have shown their designs at Fashion Weeks in London, Hong Kong, Paris, Australia and New Zealand.

WORLD is now an international brand with the reputation of going it alone, and there are nine World stores in New Zealand and Australia selling their unique designs.

But there is still time for social issues. In 2008, Denise went to Zimbabwe to raise money for children with AIDS. Denise's autobiography All That Glitters, was published in September 2008, recording her struggles with depression. The royalties from the book went to the Mental Health Foundation.

In 2002, Denise was awarded an MNZM (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to fashion.

Paula Savage
Paula Savage is the inaugural Director of City Gallery Wellington, which opened in Civic Square in 1993.

Paula leads a thriving adventurous gallery, which is intent on covering new ground as well as revisiting the work of established New Zealand and international artists.

City Gallery Wellington has built a reputation for world-class projects. The Gallery is currently closed for a $6.3 million building development and earthquake strengthening, reopening late September 2009.

Dick Frizzell

Dick Frizzell is known for his dramatic diversions between different art styles and genres. He has worked as an animator, commercial artist and illustrator and his paintings are often a pastiche of images drawing on modern art and graphic design.

Dick designed the cover for The Great New Zealand Songbook, launched in May, which features an iconic cartoon figure - the Four Square grocer 'Charlie' - holding a guitar.

He often deliberately mixes up the categories of high and low art - poking fun at the intellectualisation of 'high art'. Dick lives in Havelock North.

Karl Maughan

Karl Maughan's works focus on gardens and flowers and are painted in oil, often on a huge scale. His canvases explore the expression of light and colour.

Karl last year painted then cut up a five-metre oil painting of rhododendron flowers to make wine labels for Christensen Estate. He loves the narratives that viewers create for themselves as they enter his paintings. His works can appear as realistic as photographs but, up close, the brushstrokes are deliberate and distinct in the manner of Impressionist painters such as Monet.

Originally from Palmerston North, Karl recently returned to New Zealand after 10 years painting in London. He lives in Auckland.

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