2017 Judges Statement

The 2017 $20,000 Parkin Contemporary New Zealand Drawing Award, generously provided and founded by Chris Parkin of Wellington, the 84 finalists left me with a daunting task of selecting only 1 winner and 10 highly commended works. I thank the judging panel of Kelcy Taratoa, John Gow, Simon Rees and Warren Feeney who brought the more daunting task of 502 entries down to the final 84 works that are in the Exhibition presented at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington.

Walking into the exhibition I was impressed by the high quality and wide variety of approaches to contemporary drawing, representing some overview of what is being produced in New Zealand art today. Limiting the Highly commended works to 10 only was difficult because of the number of quality works to choose from and their diversity to the idea of drawing. The 10 works chosen did end up reflecting this year’s fantastic diversity and innovation to drawing.

I approached the selection of the winning work by looking at work that challenged the conventional idea of what drawing can be, had a confrontational presence to look at, and where some reflection of something from our world today outside of art was embodied in its concept.

In the winner Kristy Lillicos’s work “State Block” with it’s use of salvaged carpet for surface material to draw into it with a knife a blueprint plan of an 1940’s modernist high-density concrete block of flats, then presenting it by hanging and draping it from floor to ceiling and transforming the blue print into a three dimensional drawing in space as a floppy, soft and bodily object, quite the opposite to the hard-edged concrete Brutalism style building the plan was designed for people to live in, I found this work a challenging, brave and
impressive.

Kirsty Lillico - State Block - Winner Parkin Drawing Prize 2017

 

Her work appears to question high-density social housing and it’s livability, inequality, affordability and the failure by privatization to solve the current state housing crisis balanced with her interest in this the post–depression era of International Brutalism style of modern Architecture and its aesthetics.

I think Kristy work is a deserving winner.

Serahine Pick
Judge

2017 Judges Statement

 
 

The 2017 Finalist

The winner of the Parkin Drawing Prize 2017

Kirsty Lillico - State Block

2017 Merit Award 

Karyn Taylor - Arc in 3 States
Harry Mcalpine - The Tyranny of Good Intentions
James Thomson-Bache - The Activity
Michael Dell - Valley / Forest
Rohan Wealleans - Skyclad
Kristy Gorman - Lacuna III
Clara Wells - Parramatta Automatic
Jae Kang - 4000 stains of breath
James Robinson - Gnosis
Hugo Koha Lindsay - Forensic cue 1

All 2017 Finalists

Anderson, Duncan - Coffee at Work Three Winter Days
Ball, Martin - Clay-Ali
Barnes, Jordan - Between God And Man (Sun Study)
Bornholdt, Wendy - Drawings wrapped in tissue on archive box lid 260416
Buist, Sarah - City block
Bunce-Rath, Saskia - The beasts run run run, and the cold girl forms in the air
Claypole, Katherine - Warts and All
Cuming, Jonathan - 3, 305
Dangerfield, Liam - Study 04
Dell, Michael - Valley / Forest
EDWARDS + JOHANN, Victoria/Ina - On the Seam of Things - Constellations #1
Ellwood, Matt - Son of Kilmer / Eye of Providence
Falls, Leslie - Dad's Studio circa 1967
Fisher, Lynette - Still
Forsyth, Stuart - Love marks - the Glendavar Street session
Gerrard, Liam - Maw
Gerrard, Liam - Pulp
Gorman, Kristy - Lacuna III
Graham, Fiona Lee - Face Value (i)
Hancock, Thomas - Wonum Flage (Drawing)
Hayward, Heather - Lines Made by Walking
Hayward, Heather - Lines Made by Walking II
Herber, Veronica - Fold
Herber, Veronica - Modern/Grey
Hopcroft, Louisa - Indigo
Ireland, Kim - Theshold
Jaeger, Katharina - Linings
Johann, Ina - Parallel Lines - Mapping another life #2
Johann, Ina - Parallel Lines - A state of being in disguise of an island
Jones, Marilyn - Transmit
Kajima, Asaki - Respiration
Kang, Jae - 4000 stains of breath
Keate, Jenny - Another forest once grew here
Kindlaysides, Verity - Matter Of Fact (Yellow Wallpaper)
Li, Tim - Jasus Edwardsii
Lillico, Kirsty - Untitled
Lillico, Kirsty - State Block
Lindsay, Hugo Koha - Forensic cue 1
MacDonald, Alan - Fractalton
Macleod, Melissa - Mountains
Mcalpine, Harry - The Tyranny of Good Intentions
McCafferty, Nicola - Dark Light
McEwin, Stephanie - The Artist is Present 2
McGorry, Brendan - Again Again
McLean, Portia - Douglas Trevorton Chubb - The Second
McLeod, Rob - Lost In This Landscape
Middleton, Tim - Block
Mitchell, Martha - Lines in the Sand 11
Monro, Cathryn - Sub Specie Aeternitatis
Moon, Sang Woo - Iranian Nomad
Moore, Emma-Kate - Arrow Junction
Moore, Emma-Kate - Saddle Up
Morse, Oliver - A History of Evolution
Mosley, Toni - Terminal
Muijlwijk, Anneke - Safety Plan with Dog
Newland, Gill - Five Stitches and a Turn II
OToole, Maria - Dawn Chorus
OToole, Maria - Slowbirds 1
Parkes, Miranda - Rough Sleeper
Pieterse, Andrew - Fever Dream
Roberts, Gary Warwick - Old Rope
Robinson, Lee - Plastic bag dilemma
Robinson, James - Gnosis
Saegusa, Natalia - Screenshot of couples hands
Shirer, Oliver - In plain sight
Silverwood, Margaret - Hover
Sorensen, Jill - Golden
Taylor, Karyn - Arc in 3 States
Thomson-Bache, James - The Activity
Torrington, Sian - Busting belly
Tuato'o Ross, Cathy - Domestic Abstract
van Hasselt, Janna - Sprinkle Spool
van Hout, Francis - Drawing on History
Wade, Krystie - There Is A Strange, But Friendly Man Sitting At The End Of My Driveway
Wade, Krystie - Universal Rhythm
Walker, Justine - Do undo redo
Walton, Camille - Oneiric
Wealleans, Rohan - Skyclad
Webb, Lorraine - Precipitous Land
Wells, Clara - Parramatta Automatic
West, Robert - Boxed Set
White, Katharine - Redemption
Wilson, Billy - Ancestor
Wilson, Billy - Bomb Site

 
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