Art Awards Announced!

Art Awards Announced!

There was a strong turn-out at the announcement of the 31st Comalco Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards on Saturday 4 November at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.

Artists, sponsors and community members attended the much anticipated event to hear the results read out by 2006 Judge Anne Kirker.

This year 354 entries were received from 219 artists, of which, 120 were local artists.

Local artists were also strongly represented amongst the awards with 13 of 20 going to local entries. During the announcement Anne also commended the standard of artworks by emergent artists. Praising local art teachers and high schools, Anne said the future of art in Australia looked exciting.

The overall prize, the Comalco Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award, went to 94 Days by local artist David Huntley. This mobile installation is made up of recycled video recorder parts and represents how fast modern technology is being superseded and becomes outdated in a constantly revolving world.

Some winning artists from further afield put a local flavour to their entries. Winner of the Central Queensland Ports Authority Award for Three Dimensional Works, Els Houwen commented she was thinking of Gladstone when she included a hard-hat in her artwork titled The Secretary.

The Comalco Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards will be on display at the Gallery/Museum until Thursday 7 December.

Download the complete winners list (PDF 28kb)

Inset: Els Houwen, The Secretary. Winner of the Central Queensland Ports Authority Award for Three Dimensional Works.