John Vella has been selected among the finalists in the Josephine Ulrick and Win Shubert Photography Award for 2010.  The award is administered by the Gold Coast City Art Gallery.  It is an acquisitive award, with a first prize of $10,000, and a further $10,000 is used to acquire other works.

The judge this year is Judy Annear, Senior Curator, Photography, from the Art Gallery of NSW.  The exhibition opens on 10 April and continues until 23 May 2010.

John’s series FIT (7___), 2009 for his last exhibition, Permission to Sit, at Criterion Gallery, have been entered in the competition.

John Vella

FIT (7___) (1), 2009
C-type photographic print
Photographer: Sean Fennessy
Studio assistant: Bojana Martinovic
75 x 5O cm (each)
Set of 8
Edition of 5 + artist proof

Mary Scott is being shown at TMAG  - her work is in the show entitled Look Out, which opens on 12 March and runs until 4 July.  It features ten Tasmanian artists, and is a joint project between TMAG and Contemporary Art Services Tasmania (CAST). Mary’s work is entitled The Book of Measure and consists of pencil drawings in the style of an old textbook.

Mary and Megan Walch are also both featured in the Wilderness - Balnaves Contemporary Painting exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, along with 14 of Australia’s best contemporary painters, such as Del Kathryn Barton, Daniel Boyd and Michael Zavros.  This exhibition opens on 5 March and continues until 23 May.

Mary is also featured in Artist Profile magazine’s April-July edition.

Mary Scott
The Book of Measure (detail) 2009-10

John Vella’s work, Blind, will be displayed in the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery’s next exhibition New Acquisitions.  Works by Pat Brassington are also included in the exhibition, which opens on 11 March, and runs until 4 July.  Other contemporary artists include Hany Armanious, Gay Hawkes, Bea Maddock, Michael Doolan, David Keeling.

Works from his series where Vella painted on canvas stretched over objects are available at Criterion Gallery.

John Vella
Blind  1998-9
Acrylic on canvas on four vinyl ‘mini-blinds’ (four parts)
163 x 600 x 14.5 cm (overall)

John Vella
Acrylic on canvas over racetrack  1997
Acrylic on canvas over racetrack
48.5 x 48.5 cm

Kit Wise has opened a new show at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s gallery, Mirka, in the Tolarno Hotel in St Kilda. The exhibition Summertime, consists of video works based on beaches in Australia and overseas, such as Ipanema, Monte Carlo and Waikiki.

The exhibition continues until February 28, at Mirka at Tolarno Hotel, 42 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda.

Kit is also included in the artists in Experimenta, International Biennial of Media Art, at the Arts Centre, Blackbox, Melbourne.  The exhibition runs from 12 February to 14 March.   Click here for further details.

The COLLECT Art Purchase Scheme provides interest free loans for the purchase of works by contemporary Tasmanian artists. Australian residents can apply to buy sculpture, glasswork, ceramics, paintings, drawings, photography, furniture or jewellery that retails between $400 and $10,000. The minimum amount you can borrow is $750 and the maximum is $7,500. For details, ask us or click on this link.

Scott Redford is a finalist in the University of Queensland National Artists’ Self-Portrait Prize 2009. His work Cartoon Me is a characteristically large-scale, vivid confection of laser-cut vinyl and perspex.

The winner was announced on 27 November by the judge Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, the Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. The exhibition continues until 24 January 2010. For further information go to the University of Queensland Art Museum website.

Scott Redford
Cartoon Me 2009 (detail)
Laser-cut vinyl, computer print and stickers on Perspex
240 x 100 x 8 cm

Scott Redford’s video works Dead Board 1 to 4 and Dead Board 6 will be screened over the summer months at the National Gallery of Victoria International in Melbourne. They can be viewed on the first floor in the area opposite the cafe.

Video still
Scott Redford
Dead Board 3 2003
DVD
11:46 min
Camera & post-production by Ben Wickes

Scott Redford is included in the show Wax On - From Cronulla to Palm Beach and Beyond, at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in Sydney. His works, Surf Nauman: Surf/Riot In My Handwriting, 2007, an installation in neon tubing, and his DVD Screen Tests for Reinhardt Dammn (Coolum), 2009 will both be included in the show which is curated by Nell Schofield. The exhibition opens on 5 December and continues until 31 January 2010.

Scott Redford
Surf Nauman: Surf/Riot In My Handwriting, 2007
Neon Tubing with clear glass tubing suspension frame
115 x 30 x 8cm

James Newitt’s video work Saturday Nights has been included in the exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre - What I Think About When I Think About Dancing. The exhibition features works by a number of artists including David Noonan, Mitch Cairns, Shaun Gladwell, Larissa Kosloff, Agatha Gothe-Snape, The Kingpins and Shigeyuki Kihara and ‘examines the shifting parameters and contemporary intersections of dance and visual arts’. The exhibition opens on Friday 27 November. A forum featuring artist talks will run on Saturday 28 November. The exhibition continues until 3 January 2010.

James Newitt
Still image from Saturday Nights 2007
HDV 20:12 mins, stereo sound

Congratulations to Neil Haddon whose work, ‘Portrait with Paperchains’, was declared the winner of the City of Whyalla Art Prize 2009 on Friday 16 October.

The Whyalla Art Prize was established in 1972 to promote contemporary art and has developed into a significant award. It is an acquisitive award and is worth $25,000 to the winner.

The exhibition continues until 13 November at the Middleback Theatre, 141a Nicholson Avenue, Whyalla.

Portrait with Paperchains 2008
Partially abraded high gloss enamel and oil paint on aluminium
170 x 150 cm