Winners named in IHC Telecom Art Awards

Media release
Winners named in IHC Telecom Art Awards
EMBARGOED 7PM WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER
23 September 2009

Hamilton artist Cherie Mellsopp has won the 2009 IHC Telecom Art Awards with a vivid green artwork made up of 1200–1500 green dots.

“The winning work I found quite beautiful,” says Wellington’s City Gallery director Paula Savage, one of the judges. “It appealed to me because it had the regulated, obsessional requirement of patterning. I really like that.”

Artist and fellow judge Dick Frizzell says the winning work stops you in your tracks. “The intensity and the originality of the colour field of green stickers with its overlay of delicate linework was hard to ignore.”

The winners were announced at a function and auction at Chaffers Gallery in Wellington this evening (Wednesday 23 September).

Cherie, 31, who for the past five years has worked at the Sandz Gallery in Hamilton, picked up first prize and $5000 for Green Spots with Pen. Sandz is a gallery and shared work space for artists with intellectual disabilities.

Cherie has layered her green dots across a broad canvas and then superimposed a design of squares drawn in fine black and silver pen.

"I got this idea from out of my head," she says. “Once I saw the materials, it also gave me some good ideas too.”
Cherie has entered the awards for a few years and has been a finalist before, but this is her most successful year.

Second place went to Jonathan Bowler from Picton. His painting, A Busy Day, was described by judges as having an “orderly and formal quality” and “beautifully and lovingly rendered”. Jonathan won $2000.

Two third-equal prizes of $1000 were awarded to Jason Beswick from Christchurch and Matthew Bishopp from Tauranga. The judges described Jason’s work, Face Collage, as “witty and graphic”. It is a very lively and economic use of collage and line.”

Matthew’s painting, St Paul’s, was described as “a dense and skilfully painted cityscape detail. Closely observed and deftly depicted in a difficult medium”.

Joanna Lynskey, from Auckland, was awarded the Telecom People’s Choice Award for her 1.5m tall papier-mâché cat “Ginger”. Chosen by Telecom staff across the country, Joanna’s work Ginger the Garden Cat was the first recipient of the $1000 prize.

“Each piece of art is unique and truly wonderful, just like the extraordinary individuals who created them. I’m very proud to see our staff really taking the Awards to heart, volunteering both on the night and during the exhibition,” says Telecom Chairman Wayne Boyd.

The IHC Telecom Art Awards are the major showcase of the talents of people with intellectual disabilities. They are open to all New Zealanders with an intellectual disability. This year 400 people entered.

The top 30 entries, selected from regional competitions, are on show at Chaffers Gallery, until 14 October.

The judges were WORLD fashion house chief Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, internationally renowned artists Dick Frizzell and Karl Maughan, and Wellington City Gallery director Paula Savage.

The IHC Telecom Art Awards are part of Telecom’s ongoing community sponsorship programme. Telecom has been a proud sponsor of the Art Awards since their inception.

Caption: Hamilton artist Cherie Mellsopp created her winning entry Green Spot with Pen by using around 1500 green sticker dots carefully layered to build an intricate and textured canvas.

For more information, photographs of runners up and People's Choice prize, please contact:

ENDS

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