A tapestry of 120 drawings wins 2024 Parkin Drawing Prize

A tapestry of 120 drawings wins 2024 Parkin Drawing Prize

 

Ella Jones from Lower Hutt  has been announced the winner of the 2024 Parkin Drawing Prize and $25,000 - sponsored by Chris Parkin, arts patron, and philanthropist.

Ella’s winning piece, titled The Visual World is Inexhaustible, is a captivating graphite drawing of 120 paper drawings on graphite interwoven with steel wire that cascades elegantly down a wall. Chosen from a pool of 463 entries nationwide and 77 finalists at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts’ Academy Galleries on Monday, August 5th, this artwork stood out for its striking originality.

Justin Paton, Head Curator of International Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and this year's judge, commented on the artwork:

"Ella Jones’s work kept me looking. It’s a cascading diary of 120 moments pulled from the flow of everyday life. It’s a work that seems curious about the world, and it makes us curious in turn. A kitchen sink, a black cat slinking by, a lumpy tumble of river stones, a dog looking dopily from a car window, a slice of landscape hanging in a rear-view mirror. Jones records all this and more using a constantly changing alphabet of graphite marks, lines, dashes, twists, gaps, knots, darks, and densities – a live drawing language which acknowledges that no one description can hold the world’s complexity. Though drawing is usually thought of as a way of bringing the world to order, Jones seems at least as interested in the gaps between things and the moments when we’re not quite sure what we’re seeing. In an era when most of us respond to interesting sights by photographing them to look at later (or, in reality, deleting them when our camera rolls fill up), her winning work reminds me of the potential of drawing as an act and process of physical noticing – a way of reacquainting ourselves, mark by mark, with the oddity and elusiveness of a world we often take for granted."  

Ella says she is completey shocked by the win.

“It was an immense joy just to be selected as a finalist, so winning is beyond my wildest expectations. I’m truly honored—this is something incredibly special.”

Ella describes her work as a tapestry made from 120 individual graphite drawings.

 “This body of work addresses the fear of habitualization—the conscious acceptance of daily life. It focuses on the ephemeral sensations and fleeting moments of our surroundings. My piece draws from the work of the renowned NZ artist Joanna Margaret Paul, whose approach of being attuned to the world rather than just existing in it resonates deeply with me.”

Ella finds inspiration in Paul’s intimate and reflective approach to drawing, seeing it as a form of active meditation. 

“Each drawing represents a window into my personal life, capturing seemingly mundane moments that are profoundly intimate. For instance, a drawing of a cat that used to visit my old flat holds memories and stories that highlight the habit of daily life. It’s a reminder to slow down and be present in these small yet significant moments.”Ella’s favourite reference is a piece by Joanna Margaret Paul, a process drawing of an armchair, which inspired her own outline of a similar chair. 

At 24 years old, Ella grew up in Lower Hutt and developed her passion for drawing at St. Oran’s College. She recently completed a Master’s in Architecture at Victoria University’s School of Architecture and was a finalist in the NZ Institute of Architecture Student Design Awards in 2022 for her project Drawing Ground. She also exhibited her work at the artist collective she co-founded, Community of Practice, which encourages creative exploration beyond the conventional 9-to-5.

Currently working with the Wellington-based architecture firm Jasmax, Ella will soon embark on a new journey to the Netherlands to further her passion for art and architecture.

“As I’m half Dutch, I’m excited to connect with my Dutch whanau and explore my artistic and architectural pursuits,” she says.

10 highly commended prizes worth $500 each were awarded by judge Justin Paton. The recipients include: 

 

Theodore Brookes | Early days (Wellington)

Felix Conlan | Eye opener (Timaru)

Veronica Herber |Awareness, the key to it all  (Auckland)

Karl Fritsch | freeling  (Wellington)

John Ward Knox | no title (Waikouaiti)

Morag Stokes |Ostinato (Waikanae)

Lisa Munnelly | Aether (Wellington)

Samuel Pepper |Ted (Featherston)

 

Jarad Tom | Looking out through nine body holes drawn with my mother pen  (Auckland) 

Nela Fletcher | Tumour ballet (Invercargill)

All of the artworks in the 2024 Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition will be available for purchase, giving admirers and collectors alike, the opportunity to purchase some wonderful pieces, as well as providing gallerists opportunities for new representation.

The competition, in association with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, promotes excellence and innovation in drawing in all its forms (processes, materials and ideas) and aims to play an important role in fostering New Zealand drawing practice.

Previous winners include Monique Jansen (2013) with AO Folded Moire Drawing; Douglas Stichbury (2014) with Observer, Gabrielle Amodeo (2015) with The Floor We Walk On, Hannah Beehre’s Catastrophe (2016), Kirsty Lillico’s carpet installation State Block (2017), Jacqui Colley for Long Echo (2018), Michael Dell’s Every Valley (2019), Poppy Lekner’s Forward Slash (2020), Mark Braunias’ work ‘In search of the Saccharine Underground’, Siân Stephens ‘Liam Cutting His Hair After An All-nighter’, and Connoh Podmore’s (2023) Street light (the room where your brother was born).

The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition will run from Tuesday 6 August until Sunday, 8 September at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington.

 
 
 

2024 Parkin Drawing Prize

See finalist artwork here.

WINNER

Ella Jones | The visual world is inexhaustible SOLD

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Theodore Brookes | Early days SOLD

Felix Conlan | Eye opener SOLD

Nela Fletcher | Tumour ballet

Karl Fritsch | freeling

Veronica Herber | Awareness, the key to it all

John Ward Knox | no title  SOLD

Lisa Munnelly | Aether

Samuel Pepper | Ted  SOLD

Morag Stokes | Ostinato

Jarad Tom | Looking out through nine body holes drawn with my mother pen

See here to view artwork details, price and Artist statements.

ALL FINALISTS

Jay Allen | Seed Vault, amid concerns of flooding SOLD

Duncan Anderson | Coffee at work, three times - 10:25, 12:08, 14:53, 03.11.23

Tom Armstrong | Creatures at the bottom SOLD

Dave Ashburn | Pencil Drawing

Melanie Badenhorst | The map of Africa lost SOLD

Jordan Barnes | Intrusions

Theodore Brookes | Early Days SOLD

David Brown | Iterations of Solace and Pleasure SOLD

Kata Brown | Artist’s Desk (From 10 Years Old)

Kara Burrowes | Castemblage

Beatrice Carlson | it flows blue

Warren Chilton | Study in Empathy No’1

Julia Christey | Silence of Birds

Linda Cook | The Painting Stripped Bare

Felix Conlan | Eye Opener SOLD

Kyla Cresswell | Wetland: Kōreti VI

Deborah Crowe | Sightline Shifts

Madeleine Cunliffe | Nothing Gold Can Stay

Michael De Bois | Between Binaries: an Abridged Gender Identity Spectrum

Cecilia Denén | Composition with landscape

Peter Derksen | Heatwave

Anita DeSoto | Her Peace of Pink and Bite of Justice, after Corrado

Sam Dollimore | Projecting, again

Cameron Drawbridge | Homage to John Drawbridge

Alice Fennessy | Sunday Morning

Nela Fletcher | Tumour ballet

Peter Force | Riot

Stuart Forsyth | If I had muscles, I’d be a better dad

Karl Fritsch | Freeling

Sandy Gibbs | E.1027 (two elevations) SOLD

Robyn Gibson | Len Lye and Leonardo da Vinci - Red Line Motion

Emily Harris | When Darkness Steals the Light

Sandra Heffernan | Life lines

Veronica Herber | Awareness, The key to it All II

Lesa Hepburn | Premonition

Jutta Humpfer | Play my Strings

Jutta Humpfer | Humba Tāterā

Glen Hutchins | Night Shift

Adrian Jackman | Field Recording

Raymond Jennings | Christo’s Studio

Ella Jones | The visual world is inexhaustable WINNER SOLD

Motoko Kikkawa | Many things happening behind us

Simon King | Waka Hourua

Verity Kindleysides | Ilsa 2 - The Yellow Wallpaper

Marie Lotz | The Red Sampler SOLD

Philip Madill | Soma

Tanya Milton | What the Persian carpet didn’t say

Lisa Matthys | Pick up

Rose Meyer | Tāmaki Makaurau’s 53 Volcanos

Laura Mirebeau | Dispersion // Connection

Birgit Moffatt | Shaping Identity

Jane Molloy-Wolt | The Darkest Nights SOLD

Jane Molloy-Wolt | Ink Script

Lisa Munnelly | Aether

Stef Naldi | Restless

Paul Nankivell | Pianola Passion SOLD

Gill Newland | Five Squares

Emma Page | Yellow Sketch

Robyn Penn | The world is not a collection of things, it is a collection of events. Lawn I

Samuel Pepper | Ted SOLD

Brie Rate | Purau reserve stairs SOLD

Debbie Reynolds | Footpath Finds

Vicky Robertson | Bills to Pay

Clark Roworth | Crush - from my sketchbook

David Shennan | Before Peace . . . Chaos

Anne Shirley | The Messages SOLD

Morag Stokes | Ostinato

Jarad Tom | Looking Out Through Nine Body Holes Drawn With My Mother Pen

Debbie Tubb | Obedient Resistance

Raewyn Turner & Brian Harris | In No Small Measure

Raewyn Turner | Your Name is Like Perfume

Anna Turnbull | Portrait (after Corot)

Guy van der Wilt | A house for Guy

Celia Walker | Drawing Breath

John Ward Knox No title SOLD

Clara Wells | Me, Him and the Seismograph

Kathryn Wightman | Disrupted

 
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