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Meet the 2021 Blacktown City Art Prize Judges

by Hnin Win

We’re thrilled to announce the judges for the 2021 Blacktown City Art Prize. This year, we welcome Pedro de Almeida Senior Curator, C3West at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Dr Fan Dongwang Chinese born Australian artist and Leanne Mulgo Watson  artist, educator and book illustrator to our judging panel.

Learn more about them below.

Pedro de Almeida

Pedro de Almeida is Senior Curator, C3West at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. He has produced artistic and cultural programs that have been distinguished by their emphasis on commissioning new work and engaging culturally and socially diverse artists, communities and audiences. He has held senior program positions at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2012–2019) and Campbelltown Arts Centre (2008–2011), with a focus on a multidisciplinary programs and socially engaged practices. In addition, he has curated exhibitions and produced programs for the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney Living Museums and Sydney Olympic Park.

Dr Fan Dongwang

Dr Fan Dongwang graduated from Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts following comprehensive training in traditional Chinese art forms. He obtained a Master of Art at COFA, (now UNSW Art and Design) and also a Doctor of Creative Art at Wollongong University. He has been awarded the Mosman Art Prize, Festival of Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Liverpool City Art Prize, Willoughby City Art Prize, Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, and the Art on The Rocks Prize. Fan also designed two large Dog lanterns as part of City of Sydney’s Lunar New Year Lantern Exhibition in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

Leanne Mulgo Watson

Leanne Mulgo Watson is a Darug artist-educator based in Blacktown who has illustrated children’s books including Cooee Mittigar and contributed to Young Dark Emu. Leanne is the daughter of Aunty Edna Watson. She has been a director of the Darug Custodian Aboriginal Corporation for many years. Cooee Mittigar is her first book. She says “I had always wanted to create books to share our knowledge, as education is the key to our culture staying strong”.

Learn more about Blacktown City Art Prize

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ArtCultureInspiration

Songlines and Sightlines | Opening highlights

by beth sorensen

Watch highlights from the opening of our Songlines and Sightlines exhibition at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre including Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Tony Bleasdale OAM and local First Nations Elders Uncle Wes Marne and Uncle Greg Simms.

The walls are filling up fast with all your drawings and notes for Blacktown — past, present and future. Visit us today to take part in this free interactive drawing and colouring-in gallery.

Did you know you can listen to audio by the artists and read about the images and stories in the exhibition? Click here to learn more about Songlines and Sightlines.

 

Songlines and Sightlines – Colouring in Blacktown
22 May – 19 June 2021
Free admission
Click here to register your visit

Images and video
Hypereel Brand

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ArtNews

New exhibitions in 2021

by beth sorensen

We have an exciting program coming up in February – April 2021 including Choose Your Fighter, an exhibition about placemaking by local young people, POWER, an exhibition of capes made by Dennis Golding and students of Alexandria Park Community School, a major survey of Faraimo Paulo’s work called Eleni – Navigators of Polynesia and film, video and sound artist Darrin Baker’s exhibition Pemulwuy and the Naming of Things.

 

 

Choose Your Fighter: An exhibition exploring world-building, placemaking and code-switching, bringing together the work of young people local to the Blacktown area. Click here to learn more.
6 to 27 February 2021

 

POWER: As the artist in residence for Solid Ground, Dennis Golding worked with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at Alexandria Park Community School to create 100 superhero capes depicting visual representations of connections to Country, memory, heritage and lived experience. Click here to learn more.
6 February – 13 March 2021

 

Pemulwuy and the Naming of Things: Film, video and sound artist Darrin Baker explores the history of the western Sydney suburb Pemulwuy – and the stories of the Bidjigal man and resistance leader for whom the suburb is named – in this multiscreen, surround sound installation. Click here to learn more.
13 February to 27 March 2021

 

Eleni: Navigators of Polynesia: As emigration and rising water levels from global warming threaten to erase the traditional Tokelauan lifestyle, Faraimo Paulo has embarked on a mission to realistically capture on canvas the culture, stories and scenes of Tokelauan society, often using his family members as models. This exhibition represents a major survey of Faraimo Paulo’s recent work. Click here to learn more.
6 March – 3 April 2021

Click here to check out our full program.

Images:
Left to right:
1. This engraving by James Grant of ‘Pimbloy’ is believed to be the only known depiction of Pemulwuy (illustration courtesy National Library of Australia, from Grant’s ‘The narrative of a voyage of discovery, performed in His Majesty’s vessel the Lady Nelson, of sixty tons burthen, with sliding keels, in the years 1800, 1801 and 1802, to New South Wales’, 1803 – nla.cat-vn2312357)

2. Amy Toma in costume from Say Swear workshop series at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre, September 2020. Photograph by Jade D’Amico

3. Courtesy of Faraimo Paulo

4. The Block by Dennis Golding

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ArtNews

Blacktown City Art Prize finalists announced

by beth sorensen

One hundred and thirteen artworks from across Australia have been chosen as finalists in this year’s Blacktown City Art Prize. The works will be competing for a total prize pool of $20,000, and will be part of the exhibition at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre from 28 November 2020 to 28 January 2021.

Of the finalists, 25% are artworks by Blacktown City residents, and will be eligible for the Local Artist Prize. Ten per cent are by Aboriginal artists, and will be eligible for the Aboriginal Artist Prize.

The works were judged by a panel comprising Kyra Kum-Sing (Artist and Curator, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative), Pedro de Almeida (Senior Curator, C3West at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney) and Cath Barcan (Artist and Head Teacher of Visual Arts, Nepean Arts & Design Centre, TAFE NSW-Kingswood).

A record number of 893 entries were received this year – a 69% increase on the number of entries received in 2019. Entries were received from 660 artists across Australia, ranging from painting and drawing to sculpture, ceramics and mixed media.

Please see the full list of 2020 Blacktown City Art Prize finalists below.

Marian Abboud
Juice

 

Erandi Amarasinghe
Commuters No.2

 

Lauren Ami
Rego

 

Felicia Aroney
Everything Green

 

Vanessa Ashcroft
Road trip to Blayney

 

Walter Auer
Memory 1

 

Karima Baadilla
Blue Robe

 

Min Woo Bang
Uncertain Sky (Jindabyne)

 

Debra Beale
Series of 3 – LAYERS

 

Robert Bennetts
Suburban Musing

 

Liam Benson
Deliquescent Jack

 

Karen Bloomfield
Desire VS Reality

 

Joe Blundell
Sunset through Bracken

 

Linda Brescia
Peggy

 

Alexandra Byrne
Other Stories

 

Kristone Capistrano
Portrait of a Man

 

Russell Carey
Dodge

 

Isabella Carturan
Poppies

 

Darren Charlwood
Mismanagement

 

Graham Cheney
Auntie Rita Wright

 

Gabrielle Courtenay
The Guardian

 

Carolyn Craig
Mining the Sublime: The Fold

 

Rob Davis
Am I Not A Man & A Brother

 

Travis De Vries
Journey to Water Totem

 

Tamara Dean
Fleeting

 

Niek Dingemans
Recalibration

 

Paula do Prado
Vuelo/Flight

 

Rosalie Duligal
After the Ball

 

Nicolle Duncan
Coolamon: Cradle of Life

 

Azarmidokht Elahi
Covid19 Plus Quarantine Equals to Toilet Paper

 

David El-Melky
Mayor of Blacktown City

 

Vanessa Encarnacao
Crocheted Camouflage 2

 

Dongwang Fan
Pandemic Body

 

Nick Ferguson
Three Swimmers (The Flicker)

 

Jason Fitzgerald
Concertinaed Technicolor

 

Stan Florek
Deputation

 

Cameron Forsyth
Cheeseburger with Extra Pixels

 

Hayley Megan French
The Pipeline Polaroids (Guildford 15)

 

Sarah Frost
Filter

 

Lisa Giles
Lockdown 1

 

Minka Gillian
Personal Icon Rainbow

 

Carmen Glynn-Braun
In the Eye of the Beholder

 

Dennis Golding
From Home to Home

 

Rachel Govett
Let me carry your burden

 

Naomi Grant
Twists and Turns

 

Alannah Grasso
Tortellini

 

Amala Groom
ADMINAUSTRALIA NSW

 

Amber Hammad
Decolonizing Cook

 

Orson Heidrich
Fold

 

Nick Heynsbergh
When I was in grade 6, the ‘cool’ guys would corner me and my best friend and throw us against the back of the portables, insisting that we were gay. I didn’t even know what ‘gay’ meant.

 

Annarie Hildebrand
Silver Dollars and Blushing Bride Composition

 

Jude Hungerford
Desert Monuments

 

Pleasance Ingle
Best in Show series, Blue Jacket

 

Jennifer Jackson
Histories Strara

 

Lauren Johnson
Awah

 

Locust Jones
Bethlehem Diary

 

Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger
Stingray Bay Mangrove Series – Into the Light

Ben Kenning
Displaced Persons II

 

Samia Khan
Belonging 2

 

Mada Krivoruchko
Badger

 

Ruth Le Cheminant
Covid19 series – A Study in Contemplation

 

Hyun Hee Lee
Nothingness

 

Lee Leibrandt
Oh hi 2020

 

Anne Leisner
Light Rail Roadworks

 

Catherine Leung
The Road in Between

 

Songshi Li
Landscape

 

Erin Litschauer
The Shed Floor

 

Gabriella Lo Presti
On the slope of the embankment, angels swirl their woolen dresses through pastures of steel and emerald

 

Margaret Lopez
2766 the New 90210 Gang

 

Carmel Mackie
Cheeky Gang Gang

 

Paul Maher
Morning steps through the trees – Boomerang Beach

 

Nic Mason
Straining the Lot

 

Asma D. Mather
From what the River knows (a contemplation)

 

Simon McGrath
For Lease

 

Dani McKenzie
Storm Rolling In

 

Paul McKnight
Stocks & Nougat

 

Tanika Meeks
Unprecedented

 

Heidi Melamed
Combine Panel Bubble Gum Blue Set

 

Ray Monde
We Emerged Blinking in the Daylight

 

Rodney Moss
Emerging from Isolation

 

Terry Murphy
Summer 2019

 

Barbara Newton
It’s That Kinda Day

 

Adam Norton
Red Star

 

Holly Oakley
Bear of Unity

 

Peter Op’t Land
Parramatta

 

Raven Pajarillaga
By Chance in the West

 

Jasmine Poole and Chris Sewell
I have something to tell you

 

Jian Hua Qian
Through


Nikita Redkar
Lucas

 

Peter Rush
Know Justice

 

Khaled Sabsabi
The Prophet

 

Julie Scifo
Penrith station through dirty window for the department of infrastructure, transport, regional development and communications

 

Roqayya Shehata
Self Portrait

 

An Sheng
Worry (Self-portrait in front of the webcam)

 

Marija Skroza
Salmon Still Life

 

Melissa Smith
Drawn to Listen Closely

 

Lauri Smith
Shadow Self

 

Sara Sohrabian
First Six Months of Love

 

Sara Sohrabian
“Heechestan” (Nothingness)

 

Rosalind Stanley
And so It Grows

 

Sally Stokes
Among the Milky Trunks

 

Abdullah Syed M. I.
Capital Couture: AMIS 5AU$ Outdoor Coat after Renouf Rig Diplomatic Uniform proposed by Alan Renouf, the former Australian Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs

 

Reza Taghipour
Melting

 

Anna Tebar
New Beginnings

 

Thomas Thorby-Lister
Untitled (Rolling Tide)

 

Yvette-Marie Tziallas
Lost in Abstract

 

Damien Van der Meer
L-FRESH The LION

 

Jay Wassell
Recycled memories

 

Zoe Watson
Lucid Gaze

 

Debbey Watson
Ruminations

 

Shaun Wilson
The Climate Refugees

 

Jason Wing
Captain James Crook

 

Leon Zhan
AirDrop

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Artist Jumaadi sitting on the ground with his shadow puppets projected by a light onto the wall next to him
ArtArtistNews

New Jumaadi Performance and Artist Talks | Terra inFirma

by beth sorensen

World premiere
Saturday 31 October at 3 pm and 6 pm
$5 per ticket
25 minutes + post-show Q&A
Suitable for ages 10+

Join us for the world premiere of Jumaadi’s new performance work at a special day of events taking place alongside the Terra inFirma: Sovereignty and Memory exhibition.

Featuring five artists, two projectors and an assortment of traditional gamelan and contemporary musical instruments, Jumaadi’s Sea of Thorny Fruits is an intense but humorous new shadow play which explores the relationship between humans and the sea. Read more about the performance here.

Before the performance, artists Alex Byrne and Julie Vulcan join Terra inFirma: Sovereignty and Memory curator Paul Howard to discuss their works in the exhibition. Learn more about Terra inFirma here.

Free spiced Javanese tea and coconut juice drinks will be served.

Tickets are limited – please book early to avoid disappointment. Book now.

Session 1
2 pm – Alex Byrne and Julie Vulcan in conversation with Paul Howard
3 pm – Sea of Thorny Fruits performance followed by Q&A with Jumaadi

Session 2
5 pm – Alex Byrne and Julie Vulcan in conversation with Paul Howard
6 pm – Sea of Thorny Fruits performance followed by Q&A with Jumaadi

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ArtInspirationNews

Meet the 2020 Blacktown City Art Prize Judges

by beth sorensen

We’re thrilled to announce the judges for the 2020 Blacktown City Art Prize. This year, we welcome Kyra Kum-Sing (Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative), Cath Barcan (Nepean Arts & Design Centre, TAFE NSW) and Pedro de Almeida (Museum of Contemporary Art) to our judging panel.

Learn more about them below.

Kyra Kum-Sing

Kyra Kum-Sing is a Malera Bandjalan, Mitakoodi woman. Kyra has been the curator at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative for the past 3 years and has a Bachelor of Media from Southern Cross University.

Throughout her career, Kyra has curated a number of exhibitions including Boomalli’s 25th Anniversary Mardi Gras Exhibition: Original Box, Deadly Women of Redfern at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence, the MCA Art Bar and inVISIBLE.

Kyra is also a consultant for the Aboriginal site heritage and repatriation work on Bandjalan Country in Northern New South Wales, where she is working on revitalising the Malera Bandjalan language. Kyra has extensive experience working in services for Aboriginal people, including at the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern; Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal and Yabun Festival. Kyra is a passionate advocate for Aboriginal rights and self-determination and the Aboriginal arts and cultural sector.

Kyra is an Encounters Fellow Alumni from the National Museum of Australia. In 2019 she travelled to London, Paris and Canberra to receive mentoring from major international institutions as part of her fellowship.

Cath Barcan

Cath Barcan has exhibited photography in Australia for over 30 years. She is Head Teacher of Visual Arts at Nepean Arts and Design Centre, TAFE NSW- Kingswood. A graduate of the University of Newcastle and the University of Tasmania, Cath also holds a Masters of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.

Cath has been a finalist in major Australian art prizes including the Blake Prize for Religious Art, the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, the National Photography Prize, and most recently, the Headon Landscape Award. In 2017, Cath was awarded the Premier’s University of NSW Creative Arts Scholarship, and undertook post-graduate study in Museums and Galleries entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The twin themes of wrapped food and the wrapped landscape have preoccupied her works over the last 5 years, and were explored in her recent solo exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.

Pedro de Almeida

Pedro de Almeida is Senior Curator, C3West at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. He has produced artistic and cultural programs that have been distinguished by their emphasis on commissioning new work and engaging culturally and socially diverse artists, communities and audiences. He has held senior program positions at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2012–2019) and Campbelltown Arts Centre (2008–2011), with a focus on a multidisciplinary programs and socially engaged practices. In addition, he has curated exhibitions and produced programs for the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney Living Museums and Sydney Olympic Park.

Pedro’s writing on art is published regularly in artists’ monographs, exhibition catalogues and magazines including ArtAsiaPacific, Art Monthly Australasia, Broadsheet Journal and Photofile among others. He was founding editor of 4A Papers (2016–2019) that saw him commission seven issues of writing from contributors working in the Asia Pacific region. In 2017, he participated in the Experimenter Curators’ Hub, Kolkata.

Click here to enter the Blacktown City Art Prize

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ArtCultureNews

Costume making with Justine and Leila

by beth sorensen
Storytelling through costume making

Free school holiday workshops for LGBTQIA+ young people (ages 12-25) living in the Blacktown area.

Explore your connections to place and community, and turn these personal stories into wearable pieces. Led by artists Justine Youssef and Leila El Rayes, you will learn how to make spectacular costumes and adornments from items that can be found around the home.

 

A figure stands tall in the middle of this photographic portrait amidst the Auburn Botanic Japanese Gardens. The non-binary figure is wearing two giant bright orange paper mache Nike Tn sneakers on their feet, one giant bright green paper mache Nike Tn sneaker on their head, one Adidas bumbag and reflective tracksuit pants. There are bright green trees behind them with pink flowers. A figure is squatting on a stone with their back to the camera amidst the pond of the Auburn Botanic Japanese Gardens in this photographic portrait. Red, yellow and white flower petals line the pond and the stone. The colorful flora of the gardens can be seen in the background. The non-binary figure is wearing bright green acrylic nail clip-ons, a bright green t-shirt, bright green slides, and a navy blue Adidas wind-breaker. Feathered wings adorn their back, a toy-store halo is floating above their head, and fake tattoos are lined down their fore-arm. Their hand is raised and resting behind their head.

Images: Leila el Rayes and Justine Youssef, ‘Say Swear’, 2019, video still, three channel video installation, dimensions variable.

WHO:
For young people aged 12-25 living in the Blacktown LGA who identify as LGBTQIA+ or who may be questioning.

WHEN:
Mondays 28 September and 5 October
Thursdays 1 October and 8 October
1 – 4 pm

WHERE:
You will have the option of participating via Zoom or in person at the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre, 78 Flushcombe Rd, Blacktown.
If you are joining via Zoom you are not obligated to use your microphone or video function to engage.
In-person workshops will comply with Covid-19 regulations.

COST: Free

 

Register your interest here

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ArtArtistNews

Mary Nguyen | Solo exhibition

by beth sorensen

Mary Thi Nguyen is a local Vietnamese artist who received a Blacktown Arts Pat Parker Residency in 2019. She is also a part of our Open studio group of local artists.

Mary’s residency dealt with issues that Vietnamese women struggle with when they migrate here. With their limited English skills, they find jobs in the beauty and nail industry. This is an area of employment they think will allow expression of their beauty ideals. However, they are frequently exploited.

For this project, Mary visited a number of nail and beauty salons in Blacktown and Western Sydney to interview women. As no one was willing to speak, she focused on her own experience to create the works for this exhibition.

This is an exhibition of Mary’s work for the Pat Parker Residency and the Open studio.

The exhibition will be open from 4 September to 26 September 2020.

Click here to learn more
Click here to register your visit

 

 

Image: Pretty Nails from the series of works created for the Pat Parker Residency

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Blacktown City Art Prize 2020 logo
ArtArtistNews

Blacktown City Art Prize 2020 | Entries open!

by beth sorensen
The Blacktown City Art Prize is a much loved open-themed award and exhibition which celebrates its 25th year in 2020. Artists across Australia are invited to submit work for the prize, which culminates in an exhibition of the finalists’ work at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre.

A total prize pool of $20,000 is on offer across four categories:

  • Blacktown City Art Prize: $15,000
  • Aboriginal Artist Prize: $2,000
  • Local Artist Prize: $2,000
  • People’s Choice Prize: $1,000

Finalists in the Prize will be exhibited at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre from Saturday 28 November 2020 – Thursday 28 January 2021.

The work awarded the Blacktown City Art Prize will be acquired for the Blacktown City Art Collection. All other artworks in the exhibition will be available to buy in person or online via the Blacktown Arts website for the duration of the exhibition.

 

Entries close at 5 pm on Tuesday 6 October 2020.

Key information:

  • Entry fee is $30 per artwork with a maximum of 2 artworks per entrant
  • There is no theme, and artwork can be any of the following mediums: sculpture, painting, drawing, mixed media, photomedia, textiles, print-making, ceramics
  • The Prize is open to all residents of Australia

 

Click here to learn more and enter

 

 

Image: Tanika Meeks, Sunset Dreaming, Finalist 2019 Blacktown City Art Prize
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ArtArtistInsight

Close Encounters with the Blacktown City Art Collection | Simryn Gill

by beth sorensen

Simryn Gill is a Malaysian-Australian artist who is known for her work in photography, video, and using found objects. Her work ‘Pearls’ was created using two of Gough Whitlam’s retyped speeches and is now part of the Blacktown City Art Collection.

Blacktown City Art Collection has over 300 artworks, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, drawings and site-specific installations. It tells the story of Blacktown, through its people, its histories and its environment.

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