Congratulations to Melbourne-based artist Nina Sanadze, winner of ‘the churchie’ emerging art prize 2021, a $15,000 non-acquisitive cash prize, for her work titled Apotheosis (2021).
The Georgian-born artist’s sculptural work is constructed from the surviving studio archive of prominent Soviet monumental sculptor Valentin Topuridze (1907-1980), whose public sculptures were torn down in 1989 with the fall of the Soviet regime.
Guest judge Rhana Devenport ONZM explained, in the winning work: ‘Plaster models, moulds and fragments are rescued and accumulated to form unexpected conversations as limbs, bodies, horses and uniforms entwine in a tumbling concatenation of loss and hope.’
Nina Sanadze, Apotheosis, 2021
On Sanadze’s practice, Devenport commented: ‘Drawing on her own familial history in Georgia (former USSR), Nina Sanadze is compelled to respond to some of the great forces of our time – ideology, authority, monuments, conflict and survival – amidst the transient yet insistent fabric of memory, beauty and tenderness. Evocative and dramatic, Nina transforms the once victorious into a tumbling morphic vortex of fragility.’
Devenport remarked that Sanadze ‘possesses a powerful ability to draw on the political, the familial and the poetic with great clarity and aesthetic poignancy.’
The judge continued: ‘In another layer of complexity, the installation is inspired by the much-reproduced 19th century painting The Apotheosis of War (1871) by Russian war artist Vasily Vereshchagin, which is itself a stark commentary on humanity’s potential and ideological viewpoints.’
Sanadze adds: ‘A sense of urgency to respond to and grapple with a myriad of contemporary socio-political and personal developments drive my creative practice… Humour and beauty allow me to address often disturbing concerns, reflecting the complex paradigm of our existence, which is simultaneously sublime and horrific.’
Kyra Mancktelow
In addition to the Major Prize, a Special Commendation Prize of $5,000 was awarded to Brisbane-based Kyra Mancktelow. ‘Through her beautiful prints, objects, and body adornments, Quandamooka artist Kyra Mancktelow addresses the fraught legacies of a traumatic and complex colonial past,’ said Devenport.
Riana Head-Toussaint, First Language
A Commendation Prize of $1,000 was awarded to Sydney-based Riana Head-Toussaint for her video work First Language (2020), a meditation on movement; it considers the inherent choreography at play in wheelchair use, which Devenport described as ‘an arresting and sensuous time-based work.’
A second Commendation Prize of $1,000 was awarded to Brisbane-based Visaya Hoffie for her multimedia installation where ‘Popular culture and hierarchies of information collide in this playful and anarchic assemblage of materials, forms and imagery,’ described Devenport.
Visaya Hoffie, Rich in Cryptocurrency
Now in its 34th year, ‘the churchie’ has become one of Australia’s leading prizes for emerging artists, platforming up-and-coming contemporary artists on a national stage.
The prize winners were selected from 14 finalists: Akil Ahamat, Tiyan Baker, Christopher Bassi, Leon Russell (Cameron) Black, Ohni Blu, Riana Head-Toussaint, Visaya Hoffie, Kait James, Alexa Malizon, Kyra Mancktelow, Ivy Minniecon, Nina Sanadze, Jayanto Tan, and Joanne Wheeler whose artworks span painting, video, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, installation, and more. Their work provides a survey of the pressing artistic concerns of early-career artists from across Australia following a year of extraordinary events.
‘the churchie’ emerging art prize 2021 finalists’ exhibition, curated by Grace Herbert, can be viewed at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, until 18 December 2021.
Gallery visitors are invited to lodge their votes for the People’s Choice Award of $3,000, announced at the conclusion of the exhibition.
