20th IHC Art Awards Winners Announced

Max Hinds-Brown (above left) from Kāpiti Coast has won the annual IHC Art Awards and a $5,000 prize.

Max’s beautiful painting, Red Chair, was the top pick out of 493 entries from artists with intellectual disabilities.

The painting is based on a chair at Te Waka Huia o Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho – Wellington Museum. Max, 19, particularly liked the shading on the chair and background. It’s his favourite museum and has inspired some of his other artwork.

Second place and a $3,000 prize went to Courtney Youens, for her collage My Dad.

Erena Wylie took third place and $2,000 for her beautiful Korowai Tui Cloak. The cloak’s 304 feathers are made of recycled bicycle tyres and they took hundreds of hours to cut, colour and weave into the cloak.

Dannevirke High School student Ryko McAvoy-Hope, 16, has won the Youth Award and $1,500 with his work, Farmer.

Voting is still open on the IHC website for the L’affare People's Choice Award. It closes on July 31 and the winner will be announced in August.

For the first time all competition entries are on display together at the Art Awards pop-up gallery, 69 Willis Street, Wellington, which is open to the public until August 9.

Any artworks that don’t sell in the gallery will be sold on Trade Me later in August, with 100 percent of the sale or auction money going to the artists.

Art Awards Ambassador and IHC New Zealand Patron, Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, celebrated artists and winners past and present at the awards presentation, telling the audience that she longs for better recognition of them and their work.

The judges this year were Tim Walker, Auckland-based arts and culture consultant; Mark Hutchins-Pond, Webb’s Art Specialist; and Elizabeth Caldwell, Te Ringa Auaha | Director Art & Heritage at Experience Wellington.

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