Dani McKenzie has won the 2019 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize with her work entitled, Camp (2019).
Bayside Gallery Curator, Joanna Bosse, speaking on behalf of the remaining judging panel – Jane Devery, Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Curator, TarraWarra Museum of Art – said the work captivated the judges with its cinematic quality and sense of unfolding narrative.
Dani McKenzie, Camp, 2019, oil on linen, 61.5 x 87cm. Courtesy the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne
‘The work has a dreamlike quality, and her use of historical material as the basis of the work coupled with the blurred surface of the image is like a veil of memory,’ Bosse said.
‘Camp has a material and compositional complexity, revealed by McKenzie¹s clever use of negative space and placement of formal elements. It¹s a compelling image that lingers in the mind.’
This year’s $3,000 Local Art Prize was awarded to Fiona McMonagle, for her painting Toast with jam (2018). McMonagle has strong ties to Bayside having spent her formative years as an artist living in Brighton East.
Bosse said Toast with jam was imbued with a heavy nostalgia akin to a forgotten family photograph: ‘McMonagle’s painterly treatment of the figure is delicate and nuanced and she manages to capture the self-satisfaction of the quiet pleasure of eating toast with jam.’
Fiona McMonagle, Toast with jam, 2018, oil on linen, 77 x 72.5cm. Courtesy the artist and Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne
The Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize is a celebration of contemporary Australian painting. The finalist exhibition brings together a broad range of artists whose varied approaches to the painted medium conveys the breadth and diversity of painting in Australia today. The 2019 finalists’ are: Penelope Aitken, Matt Arbuckle, Darcey Bella Arnold, Martin Bell, Kate Beynon, Natasha Bieniek, Seth Birchall, Amber Boardman, Dord Burrough, Doris Bush Nungarrayi, Samuel Condon, Jarryd Cooper, Yvette Coppersmith, Renee Cosgrave, Marcel Cousins, Pilar de la Torre, Nicola Dickson, Laurel Foenander, Martin George, Helga Groves, Imelda (Yukenbarri) Gugaman, Marion Harper, Christine Healy, Euan Heng, Kez Hughes, Linda Judge, Tony Lloyd, Lindsay Malay, Jordan Marani, Aaron Martin, Judy Martin, Kiata Mason, Elyss McCleary, Dani McKenzie, Fiona McMonagle, Lilly Kemarre Morton and Julieanne Ngwarraye Morton, David Neale, Rose Nolan, David Palliser, Steven Rendall, Brad Rusbridge, Adriane Strampp, Ebony Truscott, Judith Van Heeren, Bradd Westmoreland, and Greg Wood.
The 2019 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize is currently on show at Bayside Gallery, Melbourne until 21 July 2019.
