Parkin Drawing Award final call for entries

12 May 2014

Parkin Drawing Award final call for entries

Entries for The Parkin Prize national drawing award close on June 20, 2014 and artists are being reminded to enter and be in to win a major prize of $20,000.

The award, launched by Chris Parkin, arts patron and owner of Museum Art Hotel in Wellington last year, is open to anyone who lives permanently in New Zealand or has New Zealand citizenship. This year, for the first time, five highly commended prizes worth $500.00 each will also be awarded.

An advisory panel, consisting of iconic Kiwi artist, Dick Frizzell, Associate Professor and Head of the School of Fine Arts at Massey University, Heather Galbraith, Senior Lecturer in Painting at the University of Canterbury Roger Boyce and Senior Lecturer at the School of Fine Arts at Massey University Simon Morris will select the finalists for the exhibition at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts (26 July to 25 August 2014).

The winning submission will be selected and announced by Judge, poet, essayist, art-writer, book-illustrator and artist Gregory O’Brien, during the month long Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition in July.

“We have purposely left out of the conditions of entry restrictions on what constitutes drawing leaving artists to define it by their practice. The opportunities for artists in this competition are endless – from the traditional (and not so traditional) figure drawing through to pure abstraction and beyond. We have an outstanding panel of judges this year who are eagerly anticipating the extensive variety of works they will be trawling through in the next few months,” said Chris Parkin, owner of Museum Art Hotel.

“If we are to use last year’s exhibition as a measure, I am looking forward to see the diverse range of entries. I would encourage artists to enter especially if they are undecided, the selection for these kinds of awards can be quite subjective process. I am also particularly interested to see how the exhibition is shaped by the addition of Dick Frizzell and Heather Galbraith as selectors and Gregory O’Brien as this year’s judge.” Natalie Jones, Curator and Gallery Manager, Academy Galleries.

The competition, in association with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, will promote 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.

Entries close 5pm 20 June 2013. Forms and full details are available at www.parkinprize.org.nz.

Judge:

Gregory O’Brien
Gregory O’Brien is poet, essayist, art-writer, book-illustrator and artist. He worked for 12 years as Senior Curator for City Gallery Wellington, curating exhibitions by artists including Ralph Hotere, Rosalie Gascoigne, Laurence Aberhart, John Drawbridge, Elizabeth Thomson and Fiona Hall. His recent books include Euan Macleod – The Painter in the Painting (Piper Press, Sydney, 2010) and Hanly (Ron Sang, 2012). He currently works full-time on arts-related and literary projects.

Advisory Panel:

Dick Frizzell
Dick Frizzell is a New Zealand artist based in Hawke's Bay. Frizzell's work is best described as pop in its appropriation of kitsch kiwiana icons and incorporation of them into his often cartoon-like paintings and lithographs. Frizzell trained at the Ilam School of Fine Arts of the University of Canterbury from 1960 to 1963, studying under artists such as Rudi Gopas and Russell Clark. After this he worked in advertising for many years, and it is through this that he gained his appreciation for the advertising characters he uses in his work. To this day, Frizzell continues to be represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand.

Heather Galbraith
Heather Galbriath is Associate Professor and Head of Massey University School of Fine Arts Massey University. She was previously Senior Curator at the Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa and Curator of Contemporary Art at City Gallery Wellington. In addition, she has served on multiple advisory boards and maintains an ongoing international curatorial research portfolio. In 2009 she was co-curator of New Zealand’s Venice Biennale project and was deputy commissioner for New Zealand in Venice that same year. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University and a master’s degree from the University of London's Goldsmiths College.

Roger Boyce
Roger Boyce is senior lecturer in Painting at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts and previously taught at Smith College, Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University. His work has been featured in exhibitions at Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and he has paintings in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Lubelski Foundation in Germany. Boyce is well-known in New Zealand as both a painter and art critic/commentator.

Simon Morris
Simon Morris is a senior lecturer at Massey University’s School of Fine Arts. Morris’ work is often site specific and blurs traditional boundaries between drawing, sculpture and architecture. Morris contributed to the international exhibition of wall drawings at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne and has completed numerous commissions, including work for The New Dowse and the University of Otago’s School of Medicine and Health Science.

ENDS

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