Finalists announced for 2015 Parkin Drawing Award

Monday 13 July 2015

Finalists announced for 2015 Parkin Drawing Award

Drawing is certainly alive and well in New Zealand with a high standard of entries received for the 2015 Parkin Drawing Award. The competition attracted an impressive 443 entries, of which 80 have been selected for the short-list*.

The national drawing competition, attracting a major prize of $20,000, was launched by Chris Parkin three years ago. This year, for the first time, ten highly commended prizes worth $500.00 each will also be awarded.

An advisory panel, made up of Senior Lecturer in Painting at the University of Canterbury Roger Boyce, Associate Professor , Arts commentator, historian and writer Warren Feeney, poet, painter, curator and editor, Gregory O’Brien and prolific New Zealand artist Judy Darragh spent hours assessing hundreds of entries before coming up with the short-list.

The shortlisted works will be showcased at the Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts (11 August to 13 September 2015) and the winning submission will be selected and announced by iconic Kiwi artist, Dick Frizzell on Monday 7 September. All the artworks will be for sale giving admirers and collectors the opportunity to purchase some wonderful pieces which are unlikely to be seen again, given many of the finalists are not represented in any gallery.

“The 2015 exhibition and award is shaping up to be the most interesting - and possibly contestable yet. It was pleasing to receive submissions in a surprisingly wide and sometimes unanticipated range of materials and contexts. We look forward to the announcement of the winner and highly commended selected works in this year’s competition,” said Warren Feeney, selector on the advisory panel for the 2015 Parkin Drawing Prize.

“I’m once again thrilled to see such an enthusiastic response for the third year of this competition. I am looking forward to seeing the diverse range of artworks on show at the gallery and getting the drawing conversation going,” said Chris Parkin, owner of Museum Art Hotel.

Works in the award exhibition range in size from the small (16 mm x 16 mm) to the very large (2000 mm x 2000 mm). Entries have been received from throughout New Zealand from Whangarei to as far south as Southland. Entries have also been received from New Zealand artists residing in Australia and Canada.

There were a range of drawings utilising the expected materials such charcoal, graphite and pencil while other artists have chosen mediums such as ipad screen’s, ‘artists piss’, film, braided cord and silk.

The Parkin Drawing Award 2015 public exhibition showcasing all finalists’ works will run from 11 August to 13 September. The winner of the competition will be officially announced on Monday 7 September.

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

ENDS

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