Young Painter Wins Prestigious National Award

YOUNG PAINTER WINS PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARD

Painter Georgie Hill announced as winner of the 2011 Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award

Young Auckland Painter Georgie Hill has been announced as the winner of the prestigious and highly regarded Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award. Hill’s paintings depict interior scenes that explore ideas about private spaces and the collections of objects held within them, highlighting the human desire to maintain order and meaning in our daily lives through relationships to objects. She was chosen from 102 applicants from around New Zealand to receive this much sought-after award. Hill joins a renowned list of former winners including Chris Heaphy (1995), Saskia Leek (1997), Seraphine Pick (1994), Joanna Braithwaite (1990) and Eddie Clemens (2008). Part of the award is the use of an apartment studio in the Christchurch Arts Centre, in addition to financial support of $30,000.

Hill says “The residency will allow me the time and space to completely focus on my work, to research, experiment and explore new methods of working. I plan to continue working on using unexpected surface qualities and intricate detail to push the emotive potential of watercolour painting. The scenes in my works are like interior stage sets, suggesting endless possibilities of occurrences within, and simultaneously some kind of artifice or charade.”

Hill has been busy establishing her practice, since graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2002, basing herself in the South Island for the last few years working between Christchurch and Dunedin.

She says of her practice “I am interested in the things that people have around them as keepsakes or symbols, and what these objects can tell about a life. Private spaces are protective; they can be sites of honesty where all guards are let down and secrets held, or sites of escapism where shrines of self-deception and obsession are built.”

Hill has exhibited in solo exhibitions Cold Shoulder (2010) and Watchtower (2008) Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland; L-Shaped counter, The Physics Room, Christchurch (2009); and group exhibitions Brought to Light and Cloud 9 Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. Hill is represented by Ivan Anthony Gallery in Auckland and Robert Heald Gallery in Wellington. Her next exhibition of painting can be viewed in Wellington at Robert Heald Gallery from 14 October 13 November 2010.

This year marks the 24th recipient of this highly respected Award, which has a reputation as one of the most respected and valuable art sponsorships available in New Zealand for emerging artists. The selection committee for the 2011 award consisted of photographer Margaret Dawson, Cathryn Shine, Dean of Creative Arts, University of Canterbury, and Paul Cullen, Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts, Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

Olivia Spencer Bower was a significant artistic presence in the Canterbury art scene until her death in 1982. She established the Foundation to offer financial assistance to promising artists and sculptors, with particular emphasis on future artistic potential rather than financial need. It was her intention to provide talented artists an opportunity to work for one year, free to pursue their own direction without the need to seek outside employment. In her will, Spencer Bower left all of her artworks to the Foundation, and these have been sold by the Trustees to form a capital base for this generous award to continue in perpetuity.

Malcolm Ott, Trustee of the Foundation, says: “Olivia Spencer Bower never had any thought of making money as her art practice was more important to her. Olivia had incredible foresight and this award is her gift to the next generation of artists. She was always close and supportive of younger artists and enjoyed their ideas, energy and the promise of things to come. The award is in very good heart and will carry on into the future for many years to come. The Award has helped position the careers of many important New Zealand artists, such as Pauline Rhodes – the first recipient in 1987 – Sandra Thomson, Linda James, Jim Speers, James Cousins, Bakah Carran, Hannah Beehre, Joanna Langford, Robert Hood, Clare Noonan and most recently Cat Auburn in 2010. The Foundation Trustees are delighted to welcome Georgie to this celebrated group.”

Click here to download the press release.

For more information please visit the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation website www.oliviaspencerbower.org.nz or

ENDS

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