Untitled, Isabelle de Kleine b. 1994 (VIC) 05:07 minutes. 2015 Residency Winner, Digital Portraiture Award.
Portraiture has come a long way from formal artworks of stern European royalty. Contemporary portraiture explores ideas surrounding identity and selfhood, through a range of forms. Technology has expanded the possibilities and portraiture now includes digital artwork alongside traditional mediums.
The Digital Portraiture Award is an annual callout for amateur and professional digital artists to challenge the traditional notions of portraiture through the use of digital media. Out of the box thinking is encouraged: entrants can submit video, audio, text or coding pieces, as long as the artworks are dynamic and original.
Last year’s residency prize winner Isabelle de Kleine’s video piece featured Chris Edwards, who suffers from alopecia, an autoimmune disorder causing hair loss. The video was heavily rendered in post-production, creating a pulse woven through the piece. The artwork explores ideas of overwhelm and societal expectations, leading to isolation and introversion.
Now in its fifth year, the Award seeks to extend the traditional notion of portraiture to the digital realm and encourage originality and innovation. The award is not for still portraiture, so artists can use any other digital form to develop compelling and thought-provoking work exploring selfhood, character and identity. Also, artists need not confine their response to a physical likeness in the traditional sense of a portrait, instead, create a compelling expression of identity through the chosen art form.
Enter the Digital Portraiture Award
In previous years, the Award has included a cash prize winner and a residency winner, but for the first time, a single winner will receive both the cash prize and the residency. The Award is open to all entrants over the age of 18 consisting of $10,000 cash and an artistic residency valued at $15,000 with The Edge, at the State Library of Queensland, one of Australia’s leading centres for the development of contemporary art across digital technologies.
The residency is an excellent opportunity for the winner to develop their practice and communicate with leaders in the digital and contemporary arts fields. The length of the residency will be negotiated with the artist, the residency partners and the National Portrait Gallery, but it’s expected to be four to six weeks.
Untitled, Isabelle de Kleine b. 1994 (VIC) 05:07 minutes. 2015 Residency Winner, Digital Portraiture Award.
Artists can submit work any time between 5 July and 30 September 2016. There will be an exhibition of finalists selected by the judges that will be on display at the Portrait Gallery from 2 December 2016, and the winner will be announced at the exhibition opening. The work of the Award finalists will also be available on the Portrait Gallery website extending the outreach potential of digital art to regional Australia and reinforcing the Gallery’s commitment to young and emerging artists.
Entries open on Tuesday 5 July and close midnight AEST on Friday 30 September. Entry is free.
