Meticulous visual form and careful consideration of soundscape and duration characterised the works of the six finalists in this year’s Macquarie Digital Portraiture Awards, an art prize supporting artists working with screen-based technology, cultivating digital portraiture as an evolving art form.
On Friday 28 August at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, the Director of the Macquarie Group Collection, Helen Burton, announced the winners for the most outstanding digital portraits. The professional development cash prize, for entrants aged 18 and over, has been awarded to Ilya Milstein from Victoria for his work The Wandering Jew. The winner of the professional development residency, for entrants aged 18 to 30, is Victorian artist Isabelle de Kleine for her work Untitled.
Ilya will receive $10,000 from the Gallery, made possible through the generous support of the Macquarie Group Foundation. Isabelle will undertake a multifaceted professional development program at The Edge at the State Library of Queensland, one of Australia’s leading centres for the development of contemporary art across digital technologies, valued at $15,000.
Of the two winners, National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator Dr Christopher Chapman said “Ilya Milstein’s portrayal is dreamlike in its complexity, taut and suspenseful. Isabelle de Kleine has created a cool and enigmatic portrait with sci-fi overtones. Both winning portraits convey strong psychological intensity.”
The other finalists are Joel Burrows (NSW); Tina Havelock Stevens (NSW); Devika Bilimoria (VIC); and Jacobus Capone (WA). These digital works, in addition to that of the winners, forms the ‘Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award’ exhibition.
Judges for the 2015 awards were National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator Dr Christopher Chapman; Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia Anne O’Hehir; Contemporary artist Nell; and the Portrait Gallery’s Director of Access and Learning, Karen Vickery.
National Portrait Gallery
Until 25 April, 2016
Australian Capital Territory
Isabelle de Kleine, Untitled, still from the digital portrait
Ilya Milstein, The Wandering Jew, still from the digital portrait