Week 3 - The Walters Prize 2010

a) Saskia Leek
b) Fiona Connor
c) Dan Arps
d) Alex Monteith





This week we will be visiting the Auckland Art Gallery to view, research and write about the artists selected for the Walters Prize 2010. Discuss the work in the gallery with your tutors and other students and answer the following questions.

1. What is the background to the Walters Prize?

Established by Erika and Robin Congreve and Dame Jenny Gibbs, they named this organization in honor of Gordon Walters, their main intentions was to make contemporary art as apart of our New Zealand culture. The Walters Prize is New Zealand’s most influential contemporary art prize; this recognizes artists that are devoted to contemporary art in New Zealand.

2. List the 4 selected artists for 2010 and briefly describe their work.

Dan Arps

Explaining things 2008, mixed media

The installation presented domestic objects previously discarded as unwanted. Everything that once had a specific function was transformed. Simple and everyday material, like posters, a BBQ table and chairs, lamps, a handwritten note and plinths were all reused as art material (Walters Prize 2010).

Fiona Connor

Something Transparent (please go round the back) 2009, mixed media

Something transparent demonstrates her idea about the unsettling potentials of the double-take. Positioning multiple reproductions of the glass and public entrance to the gallery in situ one behind the next, Connor’s work is both visually captivating and compelling conceptually (Walters Prize 2010).

Saskia Leek

Yellow is the putty of the world 2009

Whitish yellows and whitish blues contribute to the distinctive coloring of Saskia Leek’s recent work. Leek’s painting has long honored the appeals of popular images. Here she acknowledges a pathos in the generic nature of any picture of a sailing ship, say, or bowl of fruit, and aligns it with the now equally familiar idea of abstraction (Walters Prize 2010).

Alex Monteith

Passing Manoeuvre with two motorcycles and 584 vehicles for two-channel video installation 2008

Alex Monteith has taken advantage of contemporary technology to update the kinds of image-making experiments undertaken by structuralist filmmakers in many of her works.This work is described as a motorcycle performance documentation for a two-back lane split of Auckland ‘s northern motorway during morning rush hour traffic

3. Who are the jury members for 2010?

Jon Bywater - Programme Leader, Critical Studies at Elam School of Fine Art, The University of Auckland.
Rhana Devenport - Director, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Leonhard Emmerling - Visual Arts Adviser, Goethe Institute, Munich, Germany, former Director, ST PAUL St, AUT University
Kate Montgomery - Director, Physics Room, Christchurch

4. Who is the judge for 2010 and what is his position in the art world?

The Judge this year is Vicente Todoli, who once was the director of London's Tate Modern (a well recognized museum for modern art). Vicente Todoli has also directed many exhibitions for many modern artists in the past, making him an idea choice for judge.

5. Who would you nominate for this years Walter's Prize, and why? Substantiate
you answer by outlining the strengths of the artists work. How does this relate
to your interests in art? What aspect of their work is successful in your opinion,
in terms of ideas, materials and/or installation of the work?

I would nominate Saskia Leek. The reason why I liked her painting was because of the colour and its form. As I see the work, I can see a small house in this painting and it is formed with friendly green colour, which makes me feel very comfortable.
Therefore, I could realized that the warm colour and its house formed painting is related together and its brightness makes good harmony to this work.

references

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIHJ56xLY7s

http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/news/industry-news/2010/apr/68823-walters-prize-2010-finalists