NorseweART award details from website

Hawke's Bay Exhibition Centre
201 Eastbourne Street East, Hastings
(06) 876-2077 10am - 4.30pm daily

April 14th - May 27th 2007

Entry Fee $6
School Age children: Free



Selector's Statement

It is with a mixture of pleasure and sadness that I write on behalf of the Selection Committee of this year’s Norsewear Art Award. Pleasure reflecting the enjoyment Moyra, John, Douglas and I have had in choosing the 2007 exhibition – and the very deserving winners – from the exciting range of nearly 500 works in a variety of media that were submitted from throughout the country for consideration this year. Sadness because this, the 21st Norsewear Art Award, will be the last in its current format.

At such a defining moment in the history of the Norsewear, I would like to make a few observations about the way in which the Award has developed in recent times.

Well into its teenage years, the Norsewear Art Award retained its Central Hawke’s Bay/Hawke’s Bay focus – and with it a reputation as an interesting, often quirky but essentially regional competition. However in 2000 a decision was made by the organizing committee to accept the challenge of making the Norsewear an Award of truly national significance and importance. The last six years have seen the progressive refining of the processes and structure of the Award into what it has now become – a vehicle for exhibiting the best of creative arts practice in New Zealand. Singular in its inclusiveness and range, the Norsewear is unique in Australasia.

As a veteran of the past four years’ Selection Committees, it has been gratifying to see the improving standard of entries over this time. The message the 2004 Committee sought to send when it declined to award an overall winner in that year has been clearly heard amongst the arts community with the result that each subsequent year’s entries have reflected an ever higher level of creativity and professionalism.

It is a source of particular satisfaction to see the progress made by a number of artists whose work has demonstrated an increasing confidence over the period they have submitted entries to the Norsewear. Similarly pleasing is the subsequent success in the wider exhibiting sphere of several artists who first came to prominence in the Norsewear – Peata Larkin and Israel Birch to name but two.

Now, in 2007, we are delighted to have awarded the $20,000 first prize to a rich and accomplished painting by Seraphine Pick, an artist working at the peak of her profession today. Merit Award Winners Peata Larkin and John McLean are both regular Norsewear entrants whose paintings this year have succeeded in achieving the perfect balance in their respective fields of abstraction and figuration, while with her Mynah Collie, Merit Award Winner Emily Valentine Bullock has given us one of those wonderful quixotic creations which have become almost a defining feature of the Norsewear. As well as these four winners, the Committee is delighted to have been able to select an exhibition of artworks each of which demonstrate the enormously creative talents of New Zealanders from throughout the country.

I’m sure I speak for all those who have been involved in the Norsewear, whether as entrants, selectors or viewers, when I say that we will be keenly anticipating the direction the organizers will take this nationally important event in the future. In the meantime, we offer our sincere thanks and admiration to all those who have made this, the 21st Norsewear Art Award, the best yet.

Martin Browne (Chairman)
Moyra Elliott, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, John Gow


Phone/Fax: (06) 870-6306
Email: norsewearart@xtra.co.nz
Help Desk: (027) 221-3761


2007 Award Winners

Winner
$20,000
Seraphine Pick, Wellington
Phantom Limb
oil on linen, 1500 x 1400mm

MERIT AWARD 2D $4000
John McLean, Taranaki
Farmers Wife Departs with Traveller
oil on canvas, 605 x 700mm

MERIT AWARD 2D
$4000
Peata Larkin, Auckland
I am Tuhourangi (The Pink & White Terraces)
mixed media, 1300 x 1800mm

MERIT AWARD 3D
$4000
Emily Valentine Bullock, Wellington
Myna Collie
mixed media with mynabird feathers
170 x 100 x 120mm

Floor Talks

As from Wednesday 18th April, Floor Talks will be held each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11am during the Exhibition.
This is included in the $6 Entry fee.

This was my image selected for the awards exhibition

'uncertain journey'
every path that
you may choose
has its uncertainties
but here
lies
the beauty