FINALISTS // THE 64TH BLAKE PRIZE

Liam Benson_The Crusaider_2015_Inkjet print on cotton rag paper_Edition of 5_90 x 134 cm

(Photographed by Alex Wisser)

 

Shoufay Derz_Someone digging in the ground (black) (left) & Someone digging in the ground (red) (right)_2015

Pigment print on cotton paper, custom frame stained eucalyptus and rust_Edition of 5_99 x 92cm

Congratulations to our artists Liam Benson, Shoufay Derz and Zan Wimberley on being selected as finalists in this year's Blake Prize.

"The 64th Blake Prize has three prize categories that challenge artists to investigate ideas, issues and engage audiences in conversations surrounding spiritual thought and religion in contemporary art. All the Blake Prize’s are strictly non-sectarian. The entries are not restricted to works related to any faith or any artistic style, but any work entered must have a recognisable religious or spiritual integrity.

From 2016, The Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre will deliver The Blake Prize as a biennial event into the future. Casula Powerhouse will maintain the guiding principles of The Blake Prize in continuing to engage contemporary artists, both national and international, in conversations concerning faith, spirituality, religion, hope, humanity, social justice, belief and non-belief. The Blake Prize is an aesthetic means of exploring the wider experience of spirituality and all this may entail with the visionary imagining of contemporary artists."

The winners will be announced on 12 February 2016.

To learn more about the Blake Prize, click here.

SYLVIA SCHWENK // Croydon International Film Festival and the 13th In the Palace International Short Film Festival

Sylvia Schwenk, Water ways, (6 minute loop ) 

 

Congratulations to Sylvia Schwenk whose latest film Water ways will be screening at two film festivals over the coming weeks: the Croydon International Film Festival in London on 28 November 2015; and the 13th In the Palace International Short Film Festival in the National Palace of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria, from 8 to 13 December 2015. 

Water ways is a visual documentary that transports us into the lives of a community living on the rivers in Indonesia. The film shows a slice of everyday life, starting with a group of children playing in the wash of the boat; and a tangle of boats that ultimately leads us to the main protagonist of the film, an older woman who shares her point of view with us. This woman absorbs the details of life around her from the edge of a timber yard, as she completes her morning rituals. She takes us into her world, a textured and fascinating place that we are invited to experience.

Sylvia has also been invited to exhibit two of her films, A shared space and Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty as part of a group exhibition at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Entitled Outer space and curated by Adam Porter, the exhibition utilises the idea of space as a metaphor to explore the limits and agency of the physical body and human existence within the physical environments. 

A shared space is a visual documentary that gives a rare insight into what happens before and after a funeral service. The film opens on a graveyard on a beautiful serene sunny day. Grave diggers are working in a quiet, harmonious way preparing a grave for a burial. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining - but all is not as it seems.

Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty is a mesmerising film of a man the artist invited to perform in a maximum security prison. The man dances with a lawnmower to the music of a harrowingly beautiful waltz, in an area surrounded by perimeter fencing, alarmed fences, and razor wire.

Outer space will run from 5 December 2015 to 7 February 2016 at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.

SOLID STATE // Tully Arnot and Jess MacNeil included in group exhibition at Casula Powerhouse

Jess Macneil, View From the Studio (Blue Kite), 2014

The Artereal Gallery team is looking forward to visiting the upcoming exhibition Solid State at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, a group exhibition that includes artworks from Artereal Gallery regulars, Tully Arnot and Jess MacNeil. 

Opening the evening of Friday 17 July, Solid State investigates the physical structure of Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre as the architectural remains of a powerhouse. By curating artworks in tandem with the physical site, the selected artworks invite the public to reimagine the building in new and figurative ways. 

The selected artworks reference the Powerhouse by way of the skill and precision required to create and control force and movement, yet they also explore instances of instability, vacancy and the decay that arises when these properties do not exist.   

Artists included in Solid State: 

Tully Arnot

Marley Dawson

Nicholas Folland

Christopher Hanrahan

Anna Kristensen

Jess MacNeil

Callum Morton

Jamie North

Caroline Rothwell

Kathy Temin

Justin Trendall

Simon Yates

Ken + Julia Yonetani 

Solid State continues at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre until 6 September. For further information please visit their website.

OWEN LEONG // a finalist in the PARAMOR PRIZE: ART + INNOVATION 2015

Owen Leong, Aura, 2014, archival pigment print on cotton paper, 120 x 90cm

The multidisciplinary artist Owen Leong has been selected as a finalist in PARAMOR PRIZE: ART + INNOVATION 2015, a prize that champions new ways of seeing, experiencing and interpreting the world around us.

Leong is one of forty artists / art collectives shortlisted for the prize by a panel of guest judges; with his work forming part of a curated exhibition, on show at Casula Powerhouse Art Centre until 15 March 2015.

The Liverpool City Council vision for the future is to be the city of the great South West - a region of opportunity, prosperity and diversity. Innovation is a guiding principle of Liverpool City Council and the PARAMOR PRIZE: ART + INNOVATION provides an opportunity to develop new solutions and creative explorations of the new challenges and opportunities in the rapidly growing South West Sydney region.

FINALISTS
Marian Abboud
Tim Andrew
Clark Beaumont
Damien Butler
Penelope Cain
Carla Cescon
Simon Alexander Cook and Geoff Sellman
Gary Deirmendjian
James Dodd
Jacquelene Drinkall
Kath Fries
Sarah Goffman
Tim Gregory
Freya Jobbins
Yvette Hamilton
Joanne Handley
Ash Keating
Karena Keys
Rosalind Lemoh
Owen Leong
Leon Lester
Liana Lewis
Lorraine Maggs
Megan McPherson
Louise Paramor
Katy B Plummer
The Polka Dot Sisters (Sally Atkins and Kate Stewart)
Diego Ramirez
Merri Randell
Erica Seccombe
Paul Snell
Susannah Strati
Ioulia Terizi
Mimi Tong
Frank Trimarchi
Undrawing the Line (Zanny Begg)
Carla and Lisa Wherby
Julie Williams
Gabriella Szablewska & Brent Wilson
Jason Wing