Gold Coast City Gallery has announced Sydney-based artist Owen Leong the winner of the 2015 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award for his self-portrait titled Mudra.
A ‘mudra’ is a spiritual gesture made with the hands and fingers in Hinduism and Buddhism. In this self-portrait the artist, cloaked dramatically in black, reflects on his Chinese heritage and cultural knowledge as he holds his own hands cast in the forms of mudras as a gesture towards healing. In his right hand is held the karana mudra, a powerful gesture for dispelling negative energy, while in his left he holds the gyan mudra, for opening oneself to knowledge.
The $20,000 prize was judged by Melbourne-based curator, writer and Senior Research Fellow at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Natalie King, who had the challenging job of narrowing down the selection from more than 330 entries to 58 finalists and eventually one winner.
“Since 2002, the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award has become a signature art prize on the art calendar roster and I am delighted to have the honour to shortlist and select a winner for acquisition for the Gold Coast City Gallery Collection. It’s a testament to the prize that previous winners including Polixeni Papapetrou, Darren Sylvester and David Stephenson have re-entered, demonstrating an ongoing engagement with the award and the high calibre of artists’ submissions. I was mesmerised by their work and many other worthy photographers,” King commented.
Gallery Manager John Walsh agreed that the Award has become a significant and anticipated annual event for the Gallery.
“The varied and diverse works of the finalists makes for an engaging and challenging exhibition that demonstrates contemporary Australian photographic practice,” Walsh said. “This year will also see the launch of the publication Prizing Diversity: The Josephine Ulrick Prizes 1998-2014 which celebrates the photography, literature and poetry prizes that The Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts initiated over a decade ago,” he said.
The winning work will be acquired by the Gold Coast City Gallery for its permanent collection and an exhibition of the works of all finalists will be on show until 31 May.
Gold Coast City Gallery
Until 31 May, 2015
Queensland
Owen Leong, Mudra, 2014, pigment print on archival paper
Courtesy the artist and Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Projects, Melbourne and Artereal Gallery, Sydney
