John Fries Award Finalists Named
Visual Arts
Copyright Agency | Viscopy has announced the 22 finalists for this year’s John Fries Memorial Prize for emerging artists, worth $10,000.
The works will comprise the John Fries Award Finalists Exhibition to be held at Sydney’s Gaffa Galleries from 24 August to 14 September.
A record number of entries were received this year from Australia and New Zealand with a strong representation of Indigenous artists – three of whom are among the finalists.
Curator Sebastian Goldspink described the entries as “impressive in quality with many surprises from a generationally important group of artists”. The works span many mediums from video and installation to paintings, prints and photography.
The prize’s judges Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Felicity Fenner, Dr Sanné Mestrom and Kath Fries will have the enviable challenge of selecting just one winner to be announced at Gaffa Galleries on Tuesday 27 August.
The John Fries Memorial Prize 2013 finalists are:
| Name | Location | Medium | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| LUCAS ABELA | Waterloo, NSW | Installation | Flip Off |
| DARA GILL | Randwick, NSW | Photography | Untitled (Rubber Band Portraits) |
| SAMUEL HODGE | Elizabeth Bay, NSW | Photography | Tickets Still Available |
| KEG DE SOUZA | Waterloo | Mixed Media | Living Under The Stars |
| JESS OLIVIERI & HAYLEY FORWARD WITH THE SYDNEY CHAMBER CHOIR |
Potts Point, NSW | Video | Harlequins V’s Visitors |
| SVETLANA BAILEY | Bondi Beach, NSW | 13/11 | |
| SOPHIA EGARCHOS | Rockdale, NSW | Mixed Media | Levels #2 |
| AARON ANDERSON | Ashfield, NSW | Mixed Media | Suburban Ruin #5 |
| SARAH CONTOS | Elizabeth Bay NSW | Mixed Media | Souvenir |
| GREEDY HEN | Chippendale, NSW | We Just Ignore the Neighbours | |
| TOM POLO | Smithfield, NSW | Painting | Fields of Uncertainty |
| ELLA BARCLAY | Bondi, NSW | Mixed Media | Ebb |
| JOHN A DOUGLAS | Arncliffe, NSW | Video | The Visceral Garden |
| BRYDEN WILLIAMS | Glebe, NSW | Sculpture | Techno Fire |
| SERENA BONSON | Maningrida, NT | Mixed Media | Wangarra Spirits |
| CHRIS BENNIE | New Farm, QLD | Video | The Western Fields |
| LIAM O’BRIEN | Bowen Hills, QLD | Video | Whistling in the Dark |
| VINCENT NAMATJIRA | Alice Springs, SA | Painting | Award |
| MAUREEN BAKER | APY Lands, via Marla, SA | Painting | Ngayuku Mamaku Ngura (My Father’s Country) |
| SIMON MacEWAN | Brunswick, VIC | Watercolour | All that is solid melts into air |
| GEORGE EGERTON-WARBURTON | Fitzroy, VIC | Video | Boredom is a desk with human legs in a fish spa |
| BENJAMIN FORSTER | Perth, WA | Mixed Media | Dysgraphia |