Congratulations to the Winners

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Ellenbrook Central People's Choice Award: Delarae Brakespear, with Pink Feathers

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Ellenbrook Overall Prize: Eva Fernandez, with Dexter and Sinister

 

Judge's comments: This exquisitely aesthetic work explores the occupation of country by 19th century early European settlers, subverting pre-existing indigenous cultures and environment through use of metaphor. The strength of this work lies not only in its use of simple monochrome palette but also in its layered and implied meaning. Eva Fernandez seamlessly distills WA native fauna and colonial portraiture to assemble a momento-mori about dispossession and exploitation.

 

The City of Swan Award: Kelly Wilkinson, with The Little Gathering of the Knitted Pots

 

Judge's comments: These 3D small scale pieces connect a deep place narrative with an ephemeral materiality. The utilisation of recycled materials introduces an intriguing perspective on the traditional idea of natural weaving and object making. The work inverts the concept of functional object with a purely aesthetic art construct.

 

Prime Projects Award for Sculpture/3D: Liz Arnold, Reef Bowl

 

Judge's comments: A small scale 3D textile work that is bold through its use of colour.  It is an intimate piece, inviting close inspection reflecting the artist’s connection with the reef, and it is an elegant form combining richly coloured applique textiles, evocative of marine life forms.

 

Ellenbrook Award for Painting: Samuel Pilot-Kickett, Balga Dreaming

 

Judge's comments: This is a complex work that combines multiple painting conventions from indigenous dot painting work through to through to an almost science fiction art representation of celestial forms. The work is deep intriguing and continually holds the viewer, interrogating its intention and execution. Balga Dreaming is a stunning figurative painting with powerful associations to Balga country and the living culture of Aboriginal people.

 

Metropolitan Picture Framers Award for Works on Paper: Margaret Francis, Regeneration

 

Judge's comments: This Watercolour lifted off glass shows a technically high level of skill. The use of palate reflects the artist regeneration with the landscape.

 

Mixed Media: Enid Twiglet, The Silence Come After

 

Judge's comments: This small work draws the viewer and disrupts the preconceived expectation that the work is produced through pen and ink or similar processes. It is executed through fine stitching, but subverts conventional expectations of what a stitched or woven form should be.  It appears superficially aesthetic, but deals with a potentially disturbing take on a familiar subject. Enid Twiglet integrates a finely made sewn textile and dark mirrored frame to suggest a macabre redemptive narrative.

 

LWP Award for Photography: Richard Kabzinski, Inverted Light

 

Judge's comments: A simple but powerful use of photographic and post production techniques to disrupt the viewer. The triptych sequence suggests and evolution of a form and a temporal element, whilst the inverted light marks begin to replicate the idea of contemporary mark making as if created through a drawing process.

 

Printmaking: Leon Allen, Stray Girl Visiting

 

Judge's comments: This work exhibits a sophisticated combination of textural forms and lines of force. The artist has interestingly divided the view into smaller elements, partly suggesting that the scene is viewed through a window despite detail of a window being absent. The linear elements are further reflected in strong perspective leading the eye past and around to the cat; the subject of the work. A great work utilising chiaroscuro to its maximum.

 

Jessica Shaw Youth Award: Rory Charles, Wandjina

 

This is a strong peace despite its diminutive size which is compositionally bold and aesthetically strong and culturally nuanced. It illustrates the power of using a limited palette such as the white and black.

 

HIGHLY COMMENDED

 

High commendation for mixed media: Carol Rowley, Stratum 6.

 

This technically proficient work explores layers of place and identity through its use of texture and overarching graphic form.

 

High commendation works on paper: Katie McCabe, Freeman

 

This work displays an extraordinary technical proficiency and maturity and in a conveying gesture and composition.

 

High commendation photography: Chryssi Haramis-Niaouris, Road Trip

 

The work is compositionally compelling, resonating towards a focal point with by creating a sense of movement.

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