From Andrew Frost…
Now in its 67th year, the Mosman Art Prize is a $30,000 annual acquisitive art prize tfirst awarded in 1947 to Margaret Olley by judge Lloyd Rees. Along the way artists as diverse as Grace Cossington Smith, Nancy Borlase, Elisabeth Cummings, Adam Cullen, Jenny Sages, Tim Johnson, Lucy Culliton and three-time winner Jason Benjamin have joined the long list of artists who’ve received this underrated but exacting painting prize. For 2014 judge Felicity Fenner, curator and director of the UNSW Galleries, has handed the giant novelty cheque to Michael Muir for his painting Past The Stacks.
While some might regard Muir’s painting as light and accessible, Fenner sees something troubling in its shadows remarking that the painting “…evokes film noir, embodying a dark presence that lurks just behind its sunny facade.” Along with the main prize, a trio of other prizes make up the event including The Henry Bucks of Mosman Commendation Prize that went to Paul Ryan for Blue Boy and Dog, The Allan Gamble Memorial Art Prize awarded to Becky Gibson for Back of Croydon and The Fourth Village Young Emerging Artist Award given to Eric Davidson Gluyas for his charming Burning Stacks With Dog.
Until September 7
Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman
Pic: Michael Muir, Past the stacks, 2014.
