Guirguis New Art Prize 2017 shortlist announced

Published by: Lars Stenberg | 28-Feb-2017
Fourteen finalists have been announced, with just three weeks before the exhibition and announcement of the 2017 winner of the third biennial $20,000 Guirguis New Art Prize (GNAP).
Address: Post Office Gallery and Art Gallery of Ballarat, Lydiard St, Ballarat, Vic
Date: 25 Mar - 14 May 2017
Ticket: Free
Web: federation.edu.au/gnap
Fourteen finalists have been announced, with just six weeks before the exhibition and announcement of the 2017 winner of the third biennial $20,000 Guirguis New Art Prize (GNAP).

The strong field of 2017 finalists includes; Abdul Abdullah and Jumaadi from New South Wales; Joel Arthur and Peter Vandermark from Australian Capital Territory; Julia McInerney and Julia Robinson from South Australia; Brian Robinson from Queensland; Erin Coates and Alistair Rowe from Western Australia and Esther Stewart, Carly Fischer, Natasha Johns-Messenger, Yhonnie Scarce and the collective DAMP (Narelle Desmond, Deb Kunda, Sharon Goodwin & James Lynch) from Victoria.

"GNAP forges new ways to consider and experience contemporary art," Bryce Ives, Director of the Arts Academy, said. "We present this significant national event because it connects our students and community to bold and innovative new work."

Administered by Federation University Australia (FedUni)"s Arts Academy, presented in association with and generous support of the Art Gallery of Ballarat (AGB), the exhibition will be again presented at the two gallery sites - FedUni"s Post Office Gallery and the AGB.

Shelley Hinton, Curator of the Post Office Gallery and curator of GNAP said, "GNAP17 brings together an eclectic field of fourteen strong, exciting projects created by contemporary artists from around Australia - providing a rich mix of media, approaches and individual styles of visual language,"

"The 2017 exhibition will include video, sculpture, painting, photography, textiles, installation and sound, with several hybridised mixed-media installations will explore richly layered ideas surrounding illusion and the "gaze"; the domestic and gender issues; indigenous culture and traditions; fantasy, fact and fiction, and life, death and politics."

"As GNAP artists are working nationally and internationally, it"s an important contemporary art exhibition to see," Hinton said.

A broad range of public programs have been developed for GNAP17 and will include workshops and artist talks at the AGB. The programme begins with "Disruption & Art" - a forum featuring Abdul Abdullah on Saturday 8 April.

Ballarat surgeon, Mr. Mark Guirguis, made the Prize possible through his pledge to FedUni"s Arts Academy in 2008 to administer five $20,000 national art prizes for the city. In entrusting FedUni to administer the Prize, Mark Guirguis" aims were to highlight the importance of FedUni"s Arts Academy and to celebrate the significance of contemporary art and "living" culture in the city of Ballarat.

Since the Prize"s inaugural launch in 2013, GNAP has supported forty artists working in new and emerging media and technologies, from every state and territory in Australia. GNAP is now firmly positioned on the national visual arts calendar.

Simon Maidment, GNAP17 judge and Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, will announce the GNAP17 winner on Friday 24 March at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Further information may be accessed at federation.edu.au/gnap.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat and Post Office Gallery will be open from 10am to 5pm daily. Entry is free.

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