Amanda Davies, Self Portrait: the Devil’s Tale (2013), winner of the 2014 Albany Art Prize, image courtesy of City of Albany
The City of Albany Art Prize(CAAP) aims to enable artists, particularly painters, to explore their own interests, rewarding quality and originality.
The Prize is open to living Artists working in Australia and features a $25,000 major acquisitive prize as well as a range of non-acquisitive awards. The major acquisitive prize also includes a four- week studio residency in a self-contained cottage at the Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany with $2,500 for associated expenses.
Run by the regional Western Australian City of Albany and sponsored by the Jack Family Charitable Trust, the CAAP is now entering its eighth year. Coordinator Kate Parker said that the competition while comparatively new has already paved the way for a significant succession of successful artists.
‘The prize itself has only been around eight years, so it’s still kind of developing a reputation but basically the prize is aimed at contemporary painting and that is a fairly broad description of painting, we include other media in that but broadly it’s a painting prize,’ said Parker.
There are few criteria. Parker said the prize aimed to leave subject and technique open to the artist’s imagination.
‘As a finalist the main thing is looking for high quality work that is conceptually resolved. There isn’t a strict collection policy, we don’t give too many guidelines for judges, we aren’t looking for a particular work, just looking for quality and art that is doing new things,’ said Parker.
‘Something I feel quite strongly about, is giving artists space to do what they want to do, rather than them feeling they need to create a piece of work particularly for a prize,’ said Parker. ‘We really do like to include a variety of works and it’s about the experience those works together provide. It’s about creating a dialogue between local artists and artists in the show’.
The 2014 Major Acquisitive Prize Winner was Tasmanian artist Amanda Davies for a work entitled ‘Self Portrait: the Devil’s Tale’. In her artist’s statement Davies said the work invited the audience to ‘narrate a possible alternative future for the Tasmanian devils through developing the power of myth’.
Other winners last year were Nicole Slatter, for a realist urban landscape; Matthew Quick with an allegorical painting about modern Chinese history and People’s Choice Winner Karen Standke for a rural Victorian landscape.
Entries will open between late February and late May. The exhibition will run from September to October 2015, and is expected to draw not only locals but also visitors to Albany.
For more information visit The City of Albany.
