Winners of Wallace Art Awards Announced Monday

Winners of 16th Wallace Art Awards Announced Monday

A total of 436 entries have been received for New Zealand's longest surviving and richest annual art awards. 116 finalists have been chosen for the 2007 Wallace Art Awards from throughout the country, and the winners selected by a judging panel of respected New Zealand artists, art lecturers, administrators and critics.

This years judges were Richard Fahey, Peter Gibson-Smith, Warwick Brown, Rohan Wealleans and Linda Tyler. "The quality of entries has yet again been very diverse and interesting, and reflects the strong continuing growth in the New Zealand arts scene.

A number of entires have come from new artists, which bodes well for New Zealand's cultural future," says the patron of the Awards James Wallace.

The 2007 Wallace Art Awards will be presented and the exhibition of winners and selected finalists opened by the Governor-General, Hon Anand Satyanand, on Monday 3 September at Auckland's Aotea Centre.

Established in 1991, the Wallace Art Awards are now in their sixteenth year. They are the longest surviving and richest annual art awards of their kind in Australasia.

This year the Awards are valued at more than $58,000. In addition to a $35,000 cash prize, the Paramount Winner is awarded a 6 month residency in New York with the International Studio and Curatorial Program. The winner of the Development Award winner receives $15,000 and a residency at Vermont Studio Center.

Each year many of the winners and finalists of the Awards are purchased by The James Wallace Arts Trust and added to the collection, currently numbering more than 4,000 works.

Previous Paramount Award winners include the following New Zealand artists: Jeffrey Harris, Bill Hammond, Gregor Kregar, Sara Hughes, Jim Speers, Fatu Feu'u, Elizabeth Thomson, Rohan Wealleans and Judy Millar.

ENDS

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