BLAKE PRIZE EXHIBITION
Image: 'Metamorphosis', by Trevor Nickolls
The Blake Prize explores the many facets of religion and spirituality. This year the exhibition touches the profane, the sublime, the blasphemous and the witty. It’s a mixture of faith, hope and despair displayed in images, sculptures and installations.
Trevor Nickoll’s work, Metamorphosis, is this year’s winner. The painting shows doves, stars and butterflies rising ethereally on a sky blue plane, whilst a city looms beneath. It skilfully combines traditional Aboriginal style and modern themes to suggest the divine in an urban, multicultural landscape.
The winner of the MUA Justice Prize is a similarly artful and profound piece. Franz Kempf’s The Outrageous Has Become. Commonplace is a striking monotone work which focuses on a twisted mass of naked skeletal bodies. Drawing on harrowing holocaust spectres which are seared into the collective unconscious it is an indictment on narcissism and selfishness.
Overall, the exhibition is a startling, uplifting experience, which demonstrates the power of art to extol man and nature. (LR)
Until Nov 16, Galleries UNSW, College of Fine Arts, Greens Rd & Oxford St, Paddington, free, blakeprize.com
