Hobart artist named as major winner of tidal.22 art prize

Congratulations to Hobart artist Sara Maher, the recently announced winner of the $20,000 acquisitive tidal. 22: City of Devonport Tasmanian Art Award for her artwork Open Listening (Lunawanna-alonnah/Bruny Island), 2021.

A panel of three judges awarded this year’s tidal prize: Raymond Arnold, Artist; Ashley Bird, Senior Curator Visual Art and Design, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery; and Michelle Boyde, Artistic Director, Design Tasmania.

Sara Maher, Open Listening (Lunawanna-alonnah/Bruny Island), 2021, ink on paper, 115 x 120cm. Courtesy the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Bird said:

“Sara Maher’s work is at odds with the majority of the artworks currently installed at the Devonport Regional Gallery. It’s not ‘blue’ for a start and is tucked away in a far corner to avoid the reflection of light. What makes it a worthy winner, however, of tidal.22 is its power. The work draws you into an emotional and liminal space – a location of the mind as well as the surface of something calm and wild in equal measure. The work is also relevant and sensitive to current Tasmanian experience, speaking to non-indigenous people’s re-calibration of personal relationship to this place. The artist is successful in viscerally capturing a sense of the ever-changing, tidal sea – responding strongly to the set theme.”

The judges also awarded Highly Commended to Forth-based artist Anne Morrison for her painting when starfields and oceans collide, and Launceston artist Sarah Rhodes for a pigment print titled Colleen.

Forty-nine finalist works are on view at Devonport Regional Gallery from 10 December 2022 to 28 January 2023. The $1,000 People’s Choice Award will be announced at the close of the exhibition.

paranapleartscentre.com.au/devonport-regional-gallery

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