Pyrmont Art Prize showcases evocative works
Pyrmont Art Prize showcased the enormous talent of local Sydney artists of all ages on Sunday April 15.
On the day there was a panel of judges who awarded $10,000 worth of prizes to the various winners of the exhibition.
Winner of 1st Prize was Odette Smith, with her image of children playing in the water, with luminous reflections and colour.
Winner of 2nd Prize was Manaan Donoghoe, with an evocative photograph that played with light and dark, and various shapes and forms.
Winner of 3rd Prize was Julia Sawicki, with a technically delicate and detailed work consisting of playful polar bears and childrens toys.
With over 300 pieces of art by Sydney artists of all ages the exhibition portrayed passionate and innovative works.
The event was a part of the Pyrmont Festival of Food, Wine and Art.
Lesley Dimmick the curator of the exhibition was all smiles with the combination of the sunny weather, exquisite food and delicious wine.
“I think the exhibition is beautiful,” Ms. Dimmick said. “It’s a wonderful sunny day. What more could you want? In my eyes all the artists are winners.”
Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP gave the opening speech to the Art Prize.
“There are so many great artworks here. It’s such a beautiful setting for the exhibition. I encourage everyone to support the local artists as they are all truly talented,” Ms Moore said.
Adam Hill, a local Sydney artist, said that the exhibition was a great success.
“It’s one of the only outdoor exhibitions in Sydney,” he said. “It’s great to see it on this scale with its collaboration with the Mudgee Food and Wine Festival.
“There should be more exhibitions like this in Sydney, I think all the artworks in the exhibition are fantastic and I loved the passion that was expressed in the winning piece,” Mr Hill said.
Though the theme for the exhibition was “small is beautiful” many of the artists chose to tackle large and difficult subjects, such as beautiful buildings in Pyrmont.
Local artist Jane Bennett exhibited her works on the day.
Ms Bennett said that she is concerned with ‘facadism’ which can be defined as architectural taxidermy, killing the spirits of city buildings and leaving their corpses to be unidentifiable to future generations.
“It has been over twenty years since I started to paint Pyrmont,” Ms Bennett said. “I seem to have an uncanny instinct for selecting subjects that are about to vanish and I have experienced great frustration at painting to an unknown but inevitable time limit as buildings were demolished as fast as I could paint them. Almost everything I paint has been demolished… or changed beyond recognition.”
