The winner of this year’s Sunshine Coast Art Prize and recipient of the $25,000 major prize is Marian Tubbs, with her artwork The Farm.
Tubbs will now stake her claim in the region’s art history with her winning artwork being acquired into the Sunshine Coast Art Collection. Prize judge Renai Grace said Tubbs was recognised at a national and international level and had strong personal connections to the Sunshine Coast region. “Marian Tubb’s award-winning artwork, The Farm was a standout,” Grace said. “Her use of a constructed image that has been manipulated, challenges perceptions of value and truth as well as raises ecological issues.”
Speaking about her own work, Tubbs said the piece was as much about photography as a medium of seduction, truth, and falsehoods as it was about the subject captured. “The scale and view into the image welcomes a viewer into the midst of a contemporary kelp farm that is simultaneously lush, solarised, and pixelated. It interrogates relationships between medium and subject while conceptually setting sights on creating visible ecological narratives.
“The work represents my practice as it is right now and has been a catalyst for a new body of work underway that will be shown in 2022. I am proud to have a significant family connection to South East Aboriginal Australia. and I dedicate this win to my late Nanna Joan Marian Foley, who called this place home for the better part of 99 years.”
Sunshine Coast Community Portfolio Councillor Rick Baberowski said each year he looked forward to seeing the scope of works and the variety of new material presented. “The artworks are an important historical representation of the year they were created. They provide a unique lens on Australian life depicted by leading contemporary 2D artists. I encourage anyone who hasn’t enjoyed the inspiring experience provided by the 40 finalist artworks on show, to throw themselves a challenge and head along to the gallery.”
The exhibition is on show until October 10 at Caloundra Regional Gallery and admission is free.
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