6th Annual Prospect Portrait Prize

13 December 2009 to 17 January 2010 Prospect Gallery 6th Annual Portrait Prize opened by Peter Goers
Prospect Gallery
1 Thomas Street, Nailsworth
Tues 10:15 – 8:30pm Wed – Fri 10:15 – 6:00pm

All of the works exhibited and entered for the competition are self-portraits. The exhibition was opened by the inimitable, Peter Goers.

On looking around the intimate gallery space one is reminded of the high level of skill that artists acquire through their struggle for artistic expression. Each work has merits, but one has the energy to draw you closer, with its bold colour and skilled mark making. The artist is directed and bold. Linzie Ellis’ piece, in ink on canvas, is a well-constructed contemporary work that speaks volumes about the sensitivity of the artist and her visual communication skills. It is not over worked and the freshness of the inks is applied with pure energy. The bold background red defuses the red of the face and the audience is left with a warm feel to the representation of the skin. The composition of the self-portrait shows a strong, self-reliant ease in representing the self. The subtlety of the brush-marks and the raw canvas showing through depicts a very humane contemporary portrait, showing the hand of the artist with its fragility and boldness.

The work of James Cochran’s self portrait, metro dreaming, is anchored in the Seurat pointillism tradition where Cochran takes the application of paint a step further by using drips, but still retaining a coherent work filled with light and depth, giving the audience the feel of the hum and buzz of a moving train.

Talia Wignals delicate drawing is a skilful insight to renewal, rebirth and growth.

Lee Salome’s use of his body as a canvas and the portrayal of the shaved heart on his chest delves deep into the emotions and the raw expression of the heart. He extends this with a subtle humour by placing the photograph on a medieval hair-brush, comfortably coming to terms (as the artist said to me) ‘with his hairy body’.

Trudy Harley’s powerful portrait, as if looking in the mirror, has a kind of sensitivity and celestial depiction through the application and colour of the background. This is in contrast to the skilful brush marks of the face, which portrays a well executed, mature and emotional construction of the face.

This exhibition on the whole is about emotions and culture, and it was good to see the artists extending their visual language.

Reviewed by Gina De Pieri Salvi for GLAM Adelaide