VAS George Hicks Foundation Contemporary Exhibition 2023
Opening Event & Awards Presentation, Tuesday 7 March at 7pm.
Location: Frater, Hammond & McCubbin Galleries
In this exhibition VAS artists are asked to explore subjects from a 21st century perspective, challenging themselves creatively. This Exhibition is sponsored by the George Hicks Foundation.
The judge for this year's Contemporary Exhibition was Mimmo Cozzolino. Mimmo is a visual artist with a passion for combining painting, photography and digital art.
In 2003, with Arcadia del Sud (a series based on seven photographs from his adolescence), he won the overall prize in the Leica/CCP Documentary Photography Award.
In Symbols of Australia (Penguin Books,1980) a book on the history of Australian commercial iconography, he investigated the connection between trademarks and Australian national identity.
In 1977, together with the illustration co-operative All Australian Graffiti, Mimmo was co-creator of The Kevin Pappas Tear Out Postcard Book (Penguin Books, 1977). The book prodded irreverently at Australian cultural practices using the medium of the postcard.
A number of his artworks, photographs, designs and posters are held in the collections of State Library of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse Museum, RMIT Design Archive, Art Gallery of Ballarat and private collections.
The VAS George Hicks Foundation Contemporary Exhibition features prizes for both painting and sculpture:
Painting
- 1st Prize $3,000
- 2nd Prize $1,000
- 3rd Prize $500
Sculpture
- 1st Prize $2,000
- 2nd Prize $700
- 3rd Prize $300
Banner Image: 'Untitled', Collage & Mixed Media by Robyn Pridham, Winner 2023
'Tower of Janis', mixed media painting on x-ray film
2023 Winners
First Prize Winner
Robyn Pridham VAS—'Untitled', Collage & Mixed Media
Second Prize Winner
Zulu—'Aussie Combo' Acrylic
Third Prize Winner
Heather Peberdy—'A Family Connected', Pastel
Highly Commended Artworks
Gayle Whyte—'Melbourne Summer', Mixed Media Mosaic
Gaye Lyons—'The Crimson Scarfe' Oil on Linen
Megan-Jane Johnstone AO—'Land Interrupted', Mixed Media & Gelprint Collage
Bruce Baldey VAS—'Under Surveillance', Digital Print
Lucy Fekete—'Silly Fat Cow & a Two Faced Bitch', Acrylic on Canvas
Louis Sauzier—'Vestiges of an Ancient Journey' Pastel
Sculpture First Prize Winner
Ilona Herreiner—'Time to Fly', Pear Tree & Oil Colour
Sculpture SECOND Prize Winner
Nathalie Anne Marion—'I Know Her Inside Out', Watercolour paper on wire
Sculpture THIRD Prize WinneR
Maxine Wain—'Salvaged', stone, mixed media
Sculpture Highly commended
Chris Berkman—'Envoy from a Distant Planet', Ceramic, glaze & shell
Curator's Choice award
Helen Carter VAS—'Covid Contrast', Acrylic
'Aussie Combo' Acrylic by Zulu, Second Prize 2023
'A Family Connected', Pastel by Heather Peberdy, Third Prize 2023
Acknowledgment of traditional owners.
We would like to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which our building stands, their leaders, past, present and emerging.