Monique Jansen wins inaugural Parkin Drawing Prize

Monique Jansen wins inaugural Parkin Drawing Prize

Monique Jansen from Titirangi in Auckland has been announced the winner of the inaugural Parkin Drawing Prize and a $20,000 cash prize – sponsored by Chris Parkin, arts patron and owner of Museum Art Hotel in Wellington.

Monique Jansen’s work AO Folded Moire Drawing was chosen as the winner from an impressive 800 submissions nationwide and 115 finalists at the opening of The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts on Friday 26 July.

Heather Galbraith, the judge for this year’s prize and Associate Professor and Head of the School of Fine Arts at Massey University, said “This work has visual punch, sucks you in to a vortex of marks where you can get lost for some time. The intricacy and character of the individual marks hits you second, by which time you develop some concern for whether the artist suffers from RSI, but the overall effect of the work is cohesive. The technique does not dominate the work; the process—while integral—does not render the work clinical,”

Jansen is Senior lecturer at AUT University School of Art & Design in Auckland.

An advisory panel, consisting of Senior Lecturer in Painting at the University of Canterbury Roger Boyce, Senior Lecturer at the School of Fine Arts - Massey University Simon Morris, painter Seraphine Pick and former curator of contemporary art at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Mercedes Vicente, spent hours trawling through hundreds of entries before deciding on the short-list.

Parkin has committed to funding The Parkin Drawing Prize for an initial five year period. The competition, in association with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, promotes excellence and innovation in drawing in all its forms (processes, materials and ideas) and aims to play an important role in fostering New Zealand drawing practice.

“We couldn’t be happier with incredible range of drawings submitted for the first year of this award. The objective of the award was to emphasise the value of drawing in New Zealand by capturing the spirit of invention, risk and discovery fundamental to drawing and making art – this has certainly been achieved. It is also marks the establishment of a unique collection of New Zealand art through the acquisition of the winning drawings,” said Chris Parkin

Entries came in all forms, from the traditional (and not so traditional) figure drawing through to pure abstraction and beyond. A range of materials included Neon lighting tubes, embroidery, felt pens, ceramics, latex, plaster, receipt tickets, wallpaper, biro, and recycled furniture. The exhibition also encompasses large expansive works on paper in pen and ink, intimate collage and colour-field works, performance, traditional landscapes, maps, interactive works of art and graphic design.

The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition season runs from 27 July – 25 August 2013 at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Queens Wharf, Wellington. All artworks on display will be for sale.

Further information on the award and exhibition can be found on www.parkinprize.org.nz.

ENDS

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