GCS art award 2015

2015 Catalogue​

2015 GCS art award exhibition_catalogue.pdf

​Finalists 2015 Grace Cossington Smith Art award

​GCS art award exhibition 2015_media release.pdf​

The Grace Cossington Smith Gallery and Abbotsleigh are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2015 Grace Cossington Smith art award. The winner, announced at 3pm on Saturday 7 November, will receive $15,000 and the remaining finalists will each receive $1,000.

Entries were received from around the country from artists who created two dimensional artworks responding to the theme of Making Connections.

The selectors, Anneke Jaspers, Assistant curator Contemporary Art, Art Gallery NSW and Dr Stephen Little, Head of Painting, National Art School, acknowledged that creating a shortlist of only 15 finalists from 300 submissions made the selection process difficult.

The diversity of the submissions revealed great rigour and quality from artists at differing stages in their career. 

Grace Cossington Smith art award announces 2015 winner

GCS art award 2015_media release winner.pdf​

Jake Blaschka with his artworks:

rebajas مصخ ,سفانم (Drawing as object 3), 2015, Untreated steel, duratrans print, acrylic, fluorescent lights, timber.156 x 104​

Obelus 3, 2015, Aluminium composite panel, timber, fluorescent light, acrylic paint, 150 cm x 100 cm

The judges, Geoffrey Legge and Damien Minton from Watters Gallery in Sydney, announced that Jake Blaschka's artworks Obelus 3 and rebajas were awarded the $15,000 prize for the second Grace Cossington Smith art award.

Abbotsleigh is proud to sponsor this annual exhibition. The acquisitive art award contributes to the development of an art collection that will provide an outstanding cultural attraction and learning resource for Abbotsleigh, the gallery and the North Shore community.

Artists are invited to submit original, two dimensional artworks reflecting the theme of Making Connections. This theme is inspired by the works of Abbotsleigh alumna Grace Cossington Smith, a pioneer of modernist painting in Australia, who created brilliantly coloured observations of the world around her.

Anneke Jaspers, Assistant Curator Contemporary Art, Art Gallery NSW and Dr Stephen Little, Head of Painting, National Art School, were the 2015 selectors and they chose the 15 finalists from 300 entrants. Each finalist will receive $1,000.

Congratulations to all 15 finalists as well as the many artists who submitted their work for consideration for the exhibition.

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Statement from the GCS art award judges Geoffrey Legge and Damien Minton

We were very impressed by 'rebajas' as a most accomplished collage which was purposely made to seem unplanned and haphazard, because information which people are subjected to in their day-to-day life is mostly unsought and haphazard.

This unsought information has been torn up by Blaschka, made indecipherable, and arranged in this seemingly casual but visually fascinating arrangement, then photographed to become the large back-lit image which incorporates shadows, suggesting it is being lit from the front.

The torn edges of the material used inform us that we are viewing torn-up bits and pieces of the unsought information that besiege us, yet, at the same time, these torn edges are the very skillfully used aspect of the work.

'Obelus 3' can be thought of as an-after image of the collage. The gentle light that surrounds it is like the idea of truth eclipsed and made obscure by falsehood.

Jake Blaschka is an honours student majoring in Drawing at Sydney's National Art School. His work explores connections between art and advertising and questions the role advertising plays within our contemporary society. His submission comprises two works:

rebejas a cropped image of large scale collages placed in a steel frame resembling back-lit bus stop advertisements, while Obelus 3 is a dense black surface with remnant traces of characters suggesting it could have once supported an advertisement.

The Winner was announced at 3pm on Saturday 7th November at the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery. 

 North Shore Times Friday 13 November 2015​​

Exhibition Photographs

All exhibition photographs © Richard Glover

Judges and Selectors 

Judges: Geoffrey Legge, Director, Watters Gallery and Damien Minton, Gallery Manager, Watters Gallery

Selectors: Anneke Jaspers, Assistant curator Contemporary Art, Art Gallery NSW and Dr Stephen Little, Head of Painting, National Art School.

Key dates 2015

• Period in which work must have been completed: after 1 September 2014 

• Artists must have been a resident of Australia/New Zealand: September 2014 to September 2015

• Submission of entry applications and fee: from 1 May -  CLOSING DATE EXTENDED TO FRIDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2015 5pm

• Finalists notified, email, phone and website: 7 October 2015

• Finalists’ artworks delivered to the GCS Gallery: 26 to 30 October 2015

• Announcement of winner: 7 November 2015

• Grace Cossington Smith art award 2015 exhibition: 7 November to 5 December 2015

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Grace Cossington Smith art award 2015​

Entries are now open to Australian residents 18yrs and over for a national acquisitive contemporary art prize. The $15,000 Grace Cossington Smith art award winner and finalists’ artworks will be displayed at the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery at Abbotsleigh, Wahroonga from 7 November to 5 December 2015.

Finalists will each be awarded $1,000 and will be selected by a committee nominated by the Director of the gallery. The award is sponsored by Abbotsleigh and commemorates one of its alumni, Grace Cossington Smith, who is known as a pioneer of modernist painting in Australia.

Artists are invited to submit original two dimensional artworks that reflect the theme of Making Connections. The cost of entry is $50 for up to three submitted artworks. The winning entry will form part of the permanent collection of Abbotsleigh’s Grace Cossington Smith Gallery.