Dean Smith has been announced as the 2013 winner of the Clunes Ceramic Award, with his work Autumn Frost II. Smith receives a $5,000 prize, and his work will be acquired by the Castlemaine Art Gallery & Historical Museum.
Award judge Neville French says, “Dean Smith’s winning work Autumn Frost 11 is a highly refined wheel thrown bowl that has a unique and evocative surface. The unusual colour and texture is compelling in the way that it stimulates the imagination. The icy surface conjures associations with unfamiliar elements and foreign landscapes. It is superbly crafted with a matt, microcrystalline glaze and shows wonderful nuances in the form, surface and contours.”
The Encouraging Artists’ Awards were awarded to Sarah Hudson with her work Twin Bead Necklace Series in Black, Keiko Matsui’s Mother and Child, and Maria Chatzinikolaki with Fibril.
“The finalists for this year’s Clunes Ceramic Award have all submitted outstanding works,” French says. “There are exceptional vessels and sculptural works that are unique and masterful examples of particular ceramic processes and the range of techniques, styles and expressions made the judging a very difficult task.”
Graeme Johnstone, president of the Clunes Ceramic Award is equally enthusiastic about the quality of this year’s entries. “This year the exhibition has an interesting variety of work and of very high standard. Visitors to the exhibition will be excited by the outstanding work,” he says.
The finalists for the 2013 Clunes Ceramic Award will be exhibited until Sunday 13 October (Thursday to Sunday 11-4pm) at the Union Bank Artscentre, Fraser Street, Clunes.
Dean Smith, Autumn Frost II, 2013
