CANBERRA glass artist Masahiro Asaka is the winner of the inaugural Hindmarsh Prize, it was announced at a packed function in the Fitters’ Workshop last night.
John Hindmarsh, executive chairman of the $5000 prize’s initiator, Hindmarsh, told those present (though his speech was all but inaudible in the much-touted acoustic of the Fitters Workshop) that the prize, also supported by the Tall Foundation, recognised excellence and would promote appreciation of the world-class artists working in glass who live and practice in the ACT and region.
Asaka’s work “Surge 19, 2015” was selected by the judging panel from 18 shortlisted finalists. As well as the $5000 cash prize he now has the opportunity to do a four-week residency at Canberra Glassworks.
The judges, Gerard Vaughan, director of the NGA; independent writer and curator Julie Ewington; Eva Czernis-Ryl, curator, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences; Magda Keaney, senior curator, Photographs, Film and Sound, Australian War Memorial and Ewan McEoin, the Hugh Williamson Senior Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, National Gallery of Victoria, who said of Asaka’s winning work: “This is a beguiling and beautiful work. The twisting form recapitulates the transition of glass from molten to solid, to crystalline. This invites the play of light on the different surfaces. Its presence – its reality – has a magical quality.”
The beautifully-installed prize exhibition, all agreed, suited the Fitters’ space very well, and had been curated by Aimee Frodsham. All of the works are for sale, but the Hindmarsh Group has first option on purchasing the $22,000 winning work.
“Surge 19, 2015” and the shortlisted works will be exhibited in the Fitters Workshop, adjacent to Canberra Glassworks, Wentworth Avenue, Kingston, 10am-10pm, Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, 10am-4pm as a highlight of the Winter Glass Market 2016. The exhibition will then return to the Canberra Glasswork galleries, July 28-September 4.
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