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559 applications. 32 finalists. One winner.
The second annual Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize has been awarded to well-known Melbourne artist Peter Westwood for his work, Passivity: after ‘an episode from a fight’ (2015), taking out the $15,000 cash prize.
The 2016 judging panel consisted of: Guy Abrahams, CEO & Co-founder, CLIMARTE; Kirsty Grant, Director & CEO, Heide Museum of Modern Art; and, Julie Skate, Gallery Supervisor, The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre.
In awarding the prize the judges celebrated the works humanity, grounded in both the physical and psychological worlds, and that it displays the continued importance of paint as an artistic medium in the digital age.
“Westwood’s painting combines elements of abstraction and realism in an image that offers as many interpretations as there are viewers,” the judges said. “This work speaks with delicacy and restraint, creating layered pictorial references and evoking complex and powerful emotions. But underlying all is a strong sense of humankind’s unavoidable enmeshment in the natural and psychological worlds.”
Gallery Supervisor Julie Skate said that this year’s field of entrants had been strong and that there had been increased interest in the prize. “Now in its second year the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize is continuing to grow in esteem,” Ms Skate said. “We were delighted with the overall quality of entrants and, with applications up by over 80 works on last year, the Prize is starting to garner increased attention among artists.”
Westwood’s winning work will now become part of the Bayside City Council Art and Heritage Collection.
The Local Art Prize of $3,000 has been awarded to Rob McHaffie for his work Private school pash (2016). Attendees of the finalists’ exhibition at The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre have the chance to vote for the $1,000 People’s Choice Prize which will be announced at the conclusion of the exhibition.
The Gallery @ BACC, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre
Until 26 June, 2016
Melbourne
Peter Westwood, Passivity: after ‘an episode from a fight’, 2015, oil on linen mounted on dibond, 149 x 79cm
Peter Westwood is represented by NKN Gallery, Melbourne
