Rockhampton’s Erin Dunne has been awarded this year’s $10,000 Holding Redlich and Flying Arts “Art for Life” award for Destination Duaringa, an artbook inspired by a quintessential central Queensland road trip.
Awards judge, Bianca Acimovic, also the director of the Rockhampton Regional Art Gallery, said the piece really celebrated what the award was about.
“This one stands out as a really strong presentation piece.”
Erin is one of eight regional Queensland artists sharing in a $25,000 prize pool for the 2018 Queensland Regional Art Awards, the Flying Arts Alliance’s annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland.
Winton’s Karen Stephens received the USQ Artsworx Remote Artist Award for Mitchell, Feathertop and Flinders, which entitles her to a fully funded one-week residency at McGregor Summer School next January, valued at $2500.
Related: Winton art to rise again
In 2018, the QRAA theme was ‘Wanderlust’. Artists were asked to embrace a spirit of adventure and discover something unique about their own community or one that they visited within the state, to produce works reflecting their diverse Queensland communities.
Some 170 works of art were submitted from across Queensland, while the awards also attracted over 2000 votes for People’s Choice through an online gallery which displayed all submitted artworks.
Other judges included Bruce Heiser, director of the Heiser Projects, and Renai Grace, director, Museum of Brisbane.
According to Flying Arts executive officer, Kerryanne Farrer, the number and quality of entries this year was exceptional, demonstrating the wealth of artistic talent across regional Queensland communities.
Holding Redlich’s Queensland managing partner, Paul Venus, said the firm was very excited about its new partnership with Flying Arts.
“Support of the arts is part of our DNA,” Paul said.
“We have been looking for way to do so in Queensland and make a genuine contribution to the arts and broader communities.
“Partnering with Flying Arts enables us to do both and we’re excited to co-sponsor the ‘Art for Life’ Award this year to be the touring exhibition partner from next year.”
A total of 26 artworks have been selected to tour in the Wanderlust exhibition, curated by Acimovic.
The exhibition, supported by Holding Redlich, will tour to Brisbane and a number of regional centres in 2019 to 2020, including Somerset, Winton, Goondiwindi, Chinchilla, Toowoomba, and Ingham.
Other 2018 prize winners:
- Killara Display Homes, The Ly (Loganholme) - The Annie Tan Memorial Watercolour Award, thanks to The Booth Memorial Fund of Annie Tan (Yuh Siew) and the Geoff Booth Foundation - $3000 cash, non-acquisitive
- Mist #3, Lillian Whitaker (North Maleny) - Betty Crombie Young Artist Development Award, thanks to David Crombie - $2000 cash, non-acquisitive
- Dawn to Dusk, Suzy Furness (Ilkley) - Textile Art Award, thanks to Janet de Boer and Art for Life donor - $1500 cash, non-acquisitive
- Streets of Your Town, Rebecca Lewis (East Ipswich) - Digital Art Award, thanks to The Edge, State Library of Queensland, The Johnson and Flying Arts - fully funded one-week residency at The Edge, SLQ including 7 nights accommodation at The Johnson, valued at $4000
- If Trees Could Talk, Hayley Roberts (Narangba) - People’s Choice Award (Adult), thanks to Ironlak Art and Design – $1250 Ironlak art materials voucher
- Where the ocean meets the sea, Caitlyn Broderick (Toowoomba) - People’s Choice Award (Youth), thanks to Ironlak Art and Design – $750 Ironlak art materials voucher