We are super excited to share this year’s winners and finalists and warmly thank our Judges Carolyn McKenzie-Craig and Mark Graver for generously providing their expertise and knowledge. We thank every entrant for sharing their work with us and congratulate our thirty finalist who collectively reflect the breadth of contemporary print practices.
Proudly sponsored by Derivan
Winners announced on 2 September
Comments from Carolyn McKenzie Craig regarding the Traditional print prize winners:
Both works, Elergy and Encounter reflect technical prowess but neither let this dominate their own agency and unique aesthetic voice/narrative. These decisions carry visual and semiotic power – as the viewer is drawn into speculative/ alternate spaces and ways of sensing the world. In particular both activated the haptic eye – a unique capacity of the print medium to draw out touch through the optic nerve. All the finalist entries were strong contenders for the award and reflect the diversity of contemporary print practices. I congratulate all the entrants.
Comments from Mark Graver regarding the Digital print prize winners:
I saw no artist statements alongside the works so everything here is a personal reading. That both works allow such interpretation is part of their appeal. They go beyond the solely illustrative and offer possibilities of story. They paused me to think and to wonder. Much of the history and theory of landscape art concerns its relationship to claims of ownership, the use and commodification of nature.
With Koi Kyeunu-ruff: A Brutal Perspective on an Ancient Range this seems enhanced not only by the history of the place itself but also with the added
references via the ‘folded’ forms to maps or books – ways to chart, to own, to catalogue and to read a landscape. There is power between the juxtaposition of the seemingly serene view with the on-going history and stories of place.
