‘But the situation will improve,’ says the Arts in the Valley visual arts director, Gary Moore. ‘So we are forging ahead with Visual Arts in the Valley 2020 including the $6,000 Kangaroo Valley Art Prize (total prize money $10,000). Something to look forward to. Something to celebrate.’

Online entries: 3–28 August

Exhibition: 2–5 October, Kangaroo Valley, NSW

Kangaroo Valley Art Prize $6,000

Total prize money $10,000

2018 finalists (from left): Vanessa Stockard, Open Door; Sonja Bowden, Chirnside Shearing Shed; Kaye Johnstone, Night; Minuella Chapman, Byzantium (Arcadia) 1; Jon Frank, Music

Curator:  Jane Cush – former Curator and Director, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery

Judges:  Brenda May – owner/curator May Space, formerly Brenda May Gallery and Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney – & Damien Minton – formerly owner/curator Damien Minton Gallery and former coordinator Hughes and Watters Galleries, Sydney

Entry:  Original contemporary artworks by Australian artists, including painting in any medium, drawing, printmaking, digital, photographic and video art, textile and fabric art, multi-media and new media

Sales:  All accepted finalist artworks for sale at the Exhibition and in our Online Gallery through October

Over 1,000 people at the most recent Exhibition – 30% of artworks sold (25% commission)

Also Satellite Gallery: King Street Gallery on William @ The Hive, curated by Rex Irwin, former director, Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney

$10,000 in prizes: Kangaroo Valley Art Prize ($6,000), Highly Commended ($2,000), Salon of Local Artists Prize ($1,000), People’s Choice ($1,000)

For more information and to join the mailing list, go to www.artsinthevalley.net.au/visualarts

Alison Thompson from Coolangatta is one of just ten writers highly commended in this year’s prestigious UK Bridport Prize poetry competition for her poem ‘Trading Armadillos’.

The poem was selected from over 5,300 entries by poetry judge Daljit Nagra who said, “Judging a poetry competition feels a communal, a social and a moral act, where we are at our best and ready to receive.” He continued; praising ‘Trading Armadillos’, saying the poem is “wonderfully surprising and transformative”.

Alison Thompson is a poet and short story writer who lives on the South Coast of NSW. She is a longstanding member of the Kitchen Table Poets, a group of Shoalhaven Poets who have been meeting for two decades. Her poems and stories have been published in journals and anthologies in Australia and overseas. She has two chapbooks published with PressPress – Slow Skipping (2008) and In A Day It Changes in 2018. She was recently long-listed for the 2018 University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize. Her website can be found at alisonthompsonpoetry.wordpress.com.au

The Bridport Prize based in Bridport, Dorset, UK is one of the most prestigious open writing competitions in the English language with categories in poetry, short stories, flash fiction (stories of 250 words or fewer) and the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a first novel, named in honour of the Prize’s founder.

Established in 1973 and with over £18,000 in prize money to be won annually, the competition attracts entries from across the globe. This year over 12,000 writers from 79 countries competed for one of the 34 winner and highly commended awards.

The Bridport Prize is the flagship project of Bridport Arts Centre in Dorset and the competition raises vital funds for the Arts Centre’s work each year.

The Prize is known as a tremendous literary stepping-stone – the first step in the careers of writers such as Kate Atkinson, Tobias Hill, Kit de Waal and Helen Dunmore. The competition is open to anyone as long as the submitted work is previously unpublished.

An anthology of this year’s winning entries, including Alison’s poem, is available from the Bridport Prize website at bridportprize.org.uk

The competition for 2019 will be launched on 15 November with a closing date of 31 May 2019. Entries can be made by post or online with full information on how to apply available on the website.

‘Climate Change: Collaroy Reality’

Opening at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra on Saturday, 10 November, is an exhibition of recent works from Kaye Johnston, a contemporary artist based in Kangaroo Valley.

Johnston’s practice ranges from abstract and abstracted landscape paintings in oils, to sculptural works, conceptual photography and her bug pictures.

Before the launch gets underway on 10 November, there will be an In Conversation event featuring Johnston with other exhibiting artists, 11am to 12noon.

Front featured image: ‘Antarctica Ice Melting’

Antarctica is melting and sea waters are rising due to Climate Change. Life is in a delicate balance. How will life survive? How will bugs survive?

Bugs in this picture are Wobble Bugs, the red thin ones, who release spores to the universe, Diode Bugs the pink bugs (with lots of pubic hair which helps propel them through air and water). They are prolific breeders and can be found in large groups often in rural and industrial sites. They can be easily upset. Widgett Bugs the thin yellow ones, which can appear and disappear in a flash, Unicellular and Rock Bugs and Checker Bugs (the happy bugs who are always looking for a game).

‘Climate Change: Collaroy Reality’

In 2016 a wild storm caused the seas at Collaroy/Narrabeen (east coast of NSW) to break over the coast and wash away some parts of the houses that were on the edge of the beach. The surf club and a few houses were damaged extensively. One swimming pool was washed away from a house. There was a big debate as to how to prevent this from happening again by building rock walls. Aerial views of the coast showed just how close the damage to the coast was to the Pacific Highway. That will be impacted one day.

Down the south coast at Shoalhaven Heads, Bawley Point and other beaches there is still evidence of this storm and the sea rising from climate change. The hind dune areas have been extensively damaged pushing the new edge back by about two or three metres. Some beaches are being made inaccessible. The high water covers the buildings in this picture. Two swimming pools have been washed away and lie beneath the sea as well as a lounge.

Bugs in this picture are Flying Cross Bugs (these are very angry bugs. The zigzag pattern is usually a bright red, an evolutionary adaptation to scare off predators) Wobble Bugs, the red thin ones, release spores to the universe. Rock Bugs are stony-faced creatures that sit or stand around, in all locations. They are the silent observers. Diode Bugs are the pink bugs with lots of pubic hair which helps propel them through air and water. They are prolific breeders and can be found in large groups often in rural and industrial sites. They can be easily upset.

‘Cave Art Sales’

Art is a commodity to be bought and sold, even cave art, even Aboriginal cave art? Everything is up for sale including oil in this picture. Satellite dishes and microwave radios are present as part of this highly developed technological networked world.

Bugs in this picture are Cross Bugs flying above which are quite harmless, Rock Bugs (the stony faced yellow creatures) Checker Bugs, Widgett Bugs, which can appear and disappear in a flash and Space Vehicles being used as service vehicles.

‘Dump Here’

This picture shows life underwater where bins of oil are dumped and a metal-plated vehicle sits on the bottom with an unknown purpose.

Bugs in this picture are Wobble Bugs and Piano Bugs, which are black and white (and they lay black and white eggs). Piano Bugs are the entertainers of the bug world and can put on a concert at short notice. A new discovery, the Row Bugs, in yellow, are yet to be described.

‘Beach Space Vehicles’

This is a beach scene we could be familiar with: shark signs, people sunbaking, a large USB port for recharging devices and flying space vehicles. Our world has to be made sustainable based on renewable energy sources and thinking intelligent people who care for the environment. It includes Lightbulb People who are people with ideas for changing the world into a better place. They are mostly women, often lesbians and they fight against sexism, misogyny and homophobia.

Space vehicles are the vehicles of the future. They will consist of thick transparent Polyurethane (or the like) and they can bounce. They are powered by hydrogen and do not produce waste products other than water. They can accommodate from one to many people and animals. They can accelerate from a standing position vertically to a height of twenty metres in five seconds.

Other bugs included are the Long Haired Bugs (the adolescents of the bug world. They have a nervous and anxious disposition and are very concerned about presentation and fashion. They have their hair cut in an asymmetrical pattern). The stony faced Rock Bugs have their flotation devices on and there are Wobble Bugs.

kayejohnston.net

Foyer Gallery

Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra

12 Berry Street, Nowra, NSW, 2541

The 2018 exhibition will be curated by Allan Baptist OAM, noted curator and judged by Natalia Bradshaw international contemporary art judge, and Therese Kenyon, Sydney artist, educator and writer. The show will also feature the work of Bowral artist and dual Archibald Finalist, Vanessa Stockard.

The exhibition will be held in stunning Kangaroo Valley for four days over the long weekend, with all accepted work to be for sale at the exhibition and on-line for the following month.

Friday 28 September. Opening: 6pm for 6.30-8pm

Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 September 9am-4.30pm

Monday 1 October 9am-2pm

Kangaroo Valley Hall
Moss Vale Road
Kangaroo Valley NSW 

LSB16 Sculpture Trail winner, Jenny Crompton, ‘Sea Country Spirits’, photo by Ian Macrae

The Lorne Sculpture Biennale was founded in 2007 and with over 60,000 visitors attending the 5th  Biennale last year, the event was pronounced an unmitigated success.

The Curator, President and Committee now invite artists from across the globe to participate in the 6th Lorne Sculpture Biennale , ‘LANDFALL’ nature + humanity + art,  which will take place between 17 March and 2 April 2018.

Lara Nicholls, Curator of the 2018 Lorne Sculpture Biennale  has just released the Expressions of Interest for the unique event, full details of which are now available for download at www.lornesculpture.com

The Curator says, “we seek works that explore the intersection of nature, humanity and art and the pressing global issue of environment and endangerment.” Seven spectacular sites along the Great Ocean Road, home to one of the greatest natural wonders of the world ‘The Twelve Apostles’, have been identified for artists from the Land Art movement to exhibit within, allowing artists to weave their magic within the landscape where it will compete with nature at its radical best.

The curator explains, ‘this environment subsumes most man-made efforts to make an impression. The space and topography tend to make works look as though they are in miniature, so the challenge for the sculptor, is to forget everything they know about traditional gallery space and scale up. The paradox is that if one’s work is too grand, it can appear too deliberate and showy.’

There are a further twe20nty sites along the sculpture trail in and around Lorne where the Great Otway National Park meets the Southern Ocean and where artists will have the opportunity to entertain, inspire and enlighten visitors to engage with art at a deeper level.

The 6th  Biennale will incorporate a new Performance Art initiative, which explores the great theme of biodiversity and endangerment and will include an endangered music and culture program that specifically targets the Oceanic region of Asia Pacific.  While the sculpture trail hugs the coast, all performance events will be staged in a natural amphitheatre along the banks of the Erskine River, which provides an evocative and deeply spiritual setting for both entertainment and reflection.

Visitor numbers will exceed 70,000 for the 2018 Biennale with artists receiving wide exposure for their works as well as sales, grants, generous prize-money and residencies among the local community.

The closing date for the Expressions of Interest has been extended to now close on Friday 10th March 2017.

Entries for the 2017 Stencil Art Prize are now open.
Guatemalan artist Tinku won the 2016 Stencil Art Prize with his haunting
stencil painting ‘Tributo’ which pays homage to the indigenous women of Guatemala. 

The Stencil Art Prize is the only large scale prize in the world that exists to recognise and reward stencil artists. The Prize originally began as the Australian Stencil Art Prize which ran as an Australian only prize from 2009 – 2012. In 2013, in response to mounting interest from international stencil artists, the organisers of the Australian Stencil Art Prize restructured and relaunched the art prize as the ‘Stencil Art Prize’.

Three Dimensional Design & Sculpture
Including but not limited to: stone, glass, metal and wood work; ceramics, textiles. Image: Susan Phillips, no.31, 2014

The 11^th Aesthetica Art Prize is now open for entries, presenting an opportunity for emerging and established artists to further their involvement in the art world.

The award is an internationally renowned prize presented by Aesthetica Magazine and judged by industry experts. Enter the prize for a chance to showcase your work to wider audiences.

The award attracts thousands of entries in a range of innovative media from locations as diverse as Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. 2016’s finalists include Rachel Ara, founder of the artists collective [ALLOY]; Liz West, recipient of the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award; and Ellie Davies, who has since shown new and recent works in the exhibition Into the Woods at Crane Kalman, London.

Previous finalists include John Keane, former official British war artist, currently represented by Flowers Gallery in London; Julia Vogl, shortlisted for Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4?s New Sensations; Ingrid Hu, former designer at the Lubetkin-winning Heatherwick Studio; Marcus Jansen, a leading modern expressionist; and Bernat Millet, shortlisted for National Portrait Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.

Photographic & Digital Art Including but not limited to: photography, digitally manipulated work, neon work. Image: Gabriela Torres Ruiz, #1 from the series of silence (diptych), 2013

Painting, Drawing & Mixed Media Including but not limited to: painting, illustration, calligraphy, printmaking, collage. Image: Sandra Wadkin, They Came By Sea, 2015

Video, Installation & Performance Including but not limited to: video, installation, performance art.Image: Squidsoup, Aeolian Light, 2015

Prizes include:

• £5,000 prize money courtesy of Hiscox
• Group exhibition hosted by Aesthetica
• Editorial mention in Aesthetica Magazine
• Publication in the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology
• £250 art supplies vouchers courtesy of Winsor & Newton
• Art books courtesy of Prestel

Categories for entry: Photographic & Digital Art; Three Dimensional Design & Sculpture; Painting, Drawing & Mixed Media and Video, Installation & Performance.

Deadline for submissions is 31 August 2017. For full entry requirements and to submit, visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize

SHOALHAVEN LITERARY AWARD – SHORT STORIES 2017

The Shoalhaven Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers is excited to announce an increase in prize money for its prestigious Shoalhaven Literary Award, launched on 20 February 2017.

With the ongoing and valued support of the Shoalhaven Arts Board and Bundanon Trust, this year the writer of the winning story will receive $1500, together with a two-week artist residency at Bundanon, Arthur & Yvonne Boyd’s Gift to Australia, on the Shoalhaven River near Nowra, NSW.

Second prize is $250, third $150 and the Geoff Bolton Award for an entry from a Shoalhaven resident will receive $200.

This year the award is for short stories and will be judged by Laurie Steed. The Patricia Hackett Prize winning author of You Belong Here, Steed lives in Perth, Western Australia. His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in Best Australian Stories, The Age, Meanjin, Westerly, Island, The Sleepers Almanac and elsewhere.

He teaches Advanced Fiction for Writers Victoria and is a former member of the editorial board of Margaret River Press. In 2014, he became the first Australian writer granted fellowship in the history of the Sozopol Fiction Seminars and, in May 2015, he was selected for The 2016 Bernheim Writers Residency in Kentucky, USA.

Entries will close on Friday 27 May and winners notified after Saturday 16 September 2017.

Download an entry form from the FAW Shoalhaven website, www.fawnswshoalhaven.org.au. Results, judge’s report and other information will be published on the same site from 16 September 2017.

More information?

For further information contact: hollyhill at shoalhaven.net.au

2017 SCHOLARSHIPS OPEN FOR LOCAL ARTISTS 

The Veolia Mulwaree Trust is now calling for applications from local artists for the 2017 Veolia Creative Arts Scholarships. The Veolia Creative Arts Scholarships are available for practicing and emerging artists from any one of the seven Local Government Areas serviced by the Veolia Mulwaree Trust, including Goulburn Mulwaree, Oberon, Palerang, Shoalhaven, Upper Lachlan, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly Shire Council areas.

The Veolia Creative Arts Scholarships are now in their sixth year and were established to support the creative culture in our region and recognise the valuable contribution artists make to enrich our community. The Trust previously supported the Jennifer Lamb Veolia Creative Arts Scholarship in which eight scholarships were awarded over four years from 2008. Jennifer Lamb is the Founding Patron of the Veolia Creative Arts Scholarship and committee panel member for 2017.

Two scholarships valued at $3000 each are available for this year. The scholarships are on offer to local creative artists working in any arts discipline, including but not limited to, visual arts, music, theatre and writing.

One arts practice scholarship will be available for a creative artist to further his or her art practice, such as by making and/or completing a body of work for exhibition, publication or performance.

One arts study scholarship will be available for a creative artist to undertake a program of arts study in any format, for example, at a tertiary institution or other educational program, through a mentorship program or study tour.

The closing date for applications for the 2017 scholarship program is Thursday, 2 March 2017.

Applications can be lodged online on the Trust’s website www.mulwareetrust.org.au