Take a Look: Announcing the 2022 winners of the Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture
On Thursday 10 March at Juniper Hall Paddington, the 2022 winners of the Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture were announced by Sydney Contemporary Director Barry Keldoulis.
There were four Prizes on offer worth $26,000. The $18,000 Tom Bass Prize, the $5,000 Highly Commended Prize, the $2,000 Youth Prize and $1,000 Crawford’s Casting People’s Choice Prize.
The Tom Bass Prize ($18,000) was jointly awarded this year! $9,000 was awarded to each artist. The winning artists were New South Wales artist Jess MacNeil with her sculpture – Threshold and the other joint winner was Victorian artist Maudie Brady with her sculpture - Muninn’s Fate.
About Jess MacNeil’s Threshold: suspended at the irrevocable point where gravity takes hold after impact, the figure in Threshold is held in a liminal space of creation and disintegration. Splintered, volatile, evasive, pervasive; the figure continuously emerges and dissolves in an ongoing process of constructive destruction. Threshold embodies the intense fragility and immense power and vigour of life force.
About Maudie Brady’s Muninn’s Fate: in the Old Norse mythology of Odin, the messenger ravens Huginn and Muninn respectively mean ‘Thought’ and ‘Mind’. This work is about the inner struggle often created by these aspects of ourselves.
The Highly Commended Prize ($5,000) was awarded to Victorian artist Fiona J Schoer with her sculpture Finding Comfort in the Body.
The Curator’s Choice Prize went to New South Wales artist Stevie Fieldsend with her sculpture Song of Songs.
And the Crawford’s Casting People’s Choice Award went to New South Wales artist Paul Trefry with his sculpture Old Charlie liked to dip his toes in the water.
The 2022 Finalists’ Exhibition was a showcase of representational, abstract, innovative and contemporary works inspired by the human form. The free exhibition was on show at Juniper Hall, 250 Oxford Street, Paddington NSW from Fri 11 March - Sun 27 March 2022.
This year’s Prize attracted almost three hundred and fifty entries from across Australia, with thirty-seven artists selected for exhibition who were vying for the main Prize $18,000. The Prize was judged by three prominent figures of the Australian art industry: art advisor and gallerist Sally Dan-Cuthbert, artist Lea Ferris and Sydney Contemporary Director Barry Keldoulis. The exhibition was curated by Wendy Black. The first Prize was held in 2016 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Australia’s pre-eminent public sculptor, Tom Bass AM (1916-2010).
The Tom Bass Prize was initiated with the idea of engaging the community, youth and the artistic world in a figurative art prize - all three concepts which were fundamental to Tom Bass’ life’s’ work. The Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture is held every two years and has become a signature fixture in the Sydney and Australian art prize scene. For further information please go to www.tombassprize.com
Image captions: top left: Jess MacNeil, Threshold, acrylic sheet and oil paint, 25.5 x 23 x 29cm, top middle: Maudie Brady, Muninn’s Fate, Hydro resin, 82 x 50 x 35cm, top right: Fiona J Schoer, Finding Comfort in the Body, timber door, metal springs, calico, timber chair arms, wax, oil paint, metal fixings, 97 x 54 x 35 cm, bottom left: Stevie Fieldsend, Song of Songs, mirrored glass, steel, curtain fringe, 300 x 1500 x 60cm, bottom middle: Paul Trefry, Old Charlie liked to dip his toes in the water, silicone, yak hair, resin, steel, fabric, 93 x 25 x 17cm.