NZ Painting and Printmaking Award – 2021(postponed)

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2021 AWARD WINNERS: Dr. Ed Hanfling, Judge had these comments to make about each winning work-

$20000 Main Prize award winner – Ruby Wilkinson with Flower for the Sun

This was the first work I remembered.  After I went through those 400-plus images, the photograph of this painting kept coming back into my mind.  And seeing the painting itself only reinforced my conviction.  It’s Te Ao Marama and it’s whenua, light and earth, somehow, rather modestly and simply, painted onto a little bit of canvas.  Ruby is dead right in her artist’s statement:  her painting is “a halt from the fast-paced world of today”.  It’s beautiful and down-to-earth.  I could look at it for hours.

$1000 Merit in Printmaking award – Mark Graver for Rangihoua II

What I responded to in this work was the level of invention – all these solemn but magnificently wriggly marks and textures.  It is virtuoso stuff, fortified by a feeling for history and place.

$1000 Merit in Painting award – Patrick Lundberg with No Title

At no less than 8 centimetres long, this is a large work by this particular artist.  Nonetheless, it compels you to get right in close to, and there you can see that these are very ordinary bits of material made to look just right.  There is no more there than there needs to be.

$2000 Merit in Printmaking award – Tessa Williams with Skin of the First Woman

I was intrigued when I saw the photograph of this piece, and then when I saw it in the flesh, I properly saw the flesh – the substance – as much as the skin.  I got the earth out of which Hineahuone came to life, and the strength of the mangopare rippling like muscles under the skin, and the transformation undergone by the material elements that have gone into the process.

$2000 Merit in Painting award – Nicola Jackson with When I Grow Up

I think this is one of those simple little happy miracles that happen when someone sort of lets go.  Love and disregard.  It’s 49 thoroughly enjoyable little abstract pictures in one.  It’s invention.  And it’s the time you can spend with, savouring each little colouristic incident.

Catalogue to view:

NZPPA_Book_Cover_2022 NZPPA_Catalogue_2022 NZPPA_Endpapers_2022

We received 410 entries for the 2021 NZPPA and our thrilled to announce and Congratulate the 52 finalists chosen by Dr. Ed Hanfling. Thank you to everyone who entered!

Thank you to all our amazing sponsors and their commitment to this prestigious New Zealand award.

NZPPA 2021 sponsors

Nancy Caiger $1000 Paint Award

Golden Homes $2000 Paint Award

Print Council Aotearoa NZ $1000 Print Award

Ruth Davey $2000 Print Award

Gordon Harris $500 People’s Choice Award

Main Prize $20000 –

Chow Hill

Susie and Clifford Allen

Vision Complete Earthworks

Bytalus Legal