2D Art Prize
Celeste Chandler from New Gisborne, Victoria is the 2013 winner of the prestigious national SCAP 2D art prize, who receives a $15,000 cash prize for her artwork entitled, lovesick 7.
2013 SCAP judge Peter McKay, Curator of Contemporary Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) since 2011, said he was impressed with the high standard of artworks and in particular with Celeste Chandler.
“The buttery disguise that obscures many of the artist’s 
features is ambiguous and allusive: it could be interpreted very literally and seen as a beauty mask, food or paint; or it could be a kind of imaginary substance that illustrates a sensation of separation or isolation, feeling that sharing our individual subjective experiences is an impossibility.”
Peter McKay said he awarded the Highly Commended prize to David Nielsen from Sherwood, Queensland for his digital print, White Tracks, which documents a readymade form of land art, tracing the remaining and vanishing landscape in one of Queensland’s oldest mining regions. David receives $2500 prize money.
3D Art Prize
The winner of $15,000 cash prize for the 2013 SCAP 3D category is Chris Howlett from Bardon, Queensland for his artwork entitled Actor 1 which peers into the new non-physical worlds that are being engineered by digital developers and further shaped by consumers and other kinds of users.
Peter McKay says, “Our online experiences — set in conditions of gaming, social platforms or media outlets — can seem distant and disconnected from the physical world. In these alternative realties we can find new freedoms to pursue 
our whims, interests and desires.
“His subject relates to how these two worlds — one tangible and the other synthetic — interact and influence each other and to whose benefit.
Peter McKay awarded the SCAP 3D Highly Commended prize to Noosaville local, Lisa Brummel for her Raku fired ceramic pot entitled Creation.
“Given the theme of volcanic ruptures and the transformations to the landscape that molten lava brings, Lisa Brummel’s work demonstrates a wonderful synergy between and understanding of nature, culture, chance and knowledge,” he said.
T3 Art Prize
Division 12 Councillor Tony Wellington said SCAP T3 was open to all tertiary students living or studying on the Sunshine Coast and offered a $3,000 prize in each of the 2D and 3D categories.
“The aim of the prize is to promote local talent and at the same time raise awareness of the creative educational opportunities on the Coast.”
The winner of the $3000 cash prize in the SCAP T3 2D category is Jaala Alex from Noosa Heads for her artwork entitled Conversations with my Family. Peter Mackay describes the photography in her artwork as subtle and sophisticated in its use of light, colour and texture.
“The bodies featured in these compositions, abstracted through cropping, emphasize the rudimentary interaction between skin modulated by bones and muscle. In so doing, these considered works invite reflection on the vulnerability and transience of the human experience,” Mackay said.
Zoe Martin from Tewantin was awarded $3000 as the winner of the SCAP T3 3D category for her very creative installation aptly called Voting Booth.
“In her installation, the act of voting provides a participatory element that draws attention to our social and political environments,” he said.
“In her artwork, voting becomes a framework by which we can cast our opinions about art and, in so doing, emphasises the active role of audiences in cultural exchange. It can appear that audiences sometimes forget or ignore the powers that they have to shape their world — however the line of questioning that Zoe Martin pursues here invites reflection upon the influence of the individual.”
SCAP 2D
Caloundra Regional Gallery
Until 13 October, 2013
SCAP 3D
Noosa Regional Gallery
Until 20 October, 2013
SCAP T3
Butter Factory Arts Centre
Until 5 October, 2013
Images:
Celeste Chandler with her work lovesick 7, 2012, oil on linen on round stretcher, 70 x 70cm
David Nielsen with his work White Tracks, 2012, digital print on photo rag, 53.3 x 80cm
Chris Howlett, Actor 1 (Icecream Coles Polygon) – Edition 1/3, 2AP, 2013, polyurethane, epoxy resin, pigment and lacquer, 8 x 49 x 49cm
Lisa Brummel, 2012, Creation, oil built, Raku fired ceramic pot, 23 x 22cm
Jaala Alex, Conversations With My Family, 2012, photography, 30 x 85.89cm
Zoe Martin, 2013, Voting Booth, cardboard, paper, tape, plastic, a pencil, acrylic, carpet, balustrades, video footage & screen, 150 x 80 x 200cm
