Take a Look: Entries Open for the 67th Blake Prize
Eddie Abd, In their Finest, 2020. Video. Winner of the Blake Emerging Artist Award, 2021.
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (CPAC) is proudly presenting the 67th Blake Prize, a bi-annual event held at CPAC since 2016. Entries are currently open until 15 November, with a prize pool of up to $42,000.
The Blake Prize has followed the changing demographics of Australia's population, our attitudes towards religion and spirituality, and how our artists interpret, reflect, and question these notions via their work through art.
The best contemporary artworks that engage with religion, spirituality, and/or belief will be chosen by the judges with three prizes to be won:
1. The Blake Prize- A non-acquisitive prize of $35,000
2. The Blake Emerging Artist Prize- An acquisitive prize of $6,000
3. The Blake Established Artist Residency - Consisting of a residency and solo exhibition hosted by CPAC.
All prizes are strictly non-sectarian with entries not restricted to works related to any faith, or artistic style. The Blake Prize has cultivated the expression of ideas through religion and spirituality for artists internationally and nationally since 1951 and the prize has been managed by Casula Powerhouse since 2016.
The Blake Prize has evolved over the past 70 years from a focus on religious figures to a space for artists to explore the complexities of spirituality in today’s society and ongoing concerns; our colonial pasts; mass migration of people due to war; idolatry and media; capitalism and inequality; and the prevailing effects of climate change.
Despite the uncertainties of the pandemic, CPAC are eager to see the number of entries for the 67th Blake Prize skyrocket. “After the record-breaking entries from our last Blake Prize earlier this year with our winners setting the benchmark for exceptional digital art, we invite and encourage artists from all over Australia to embrace their new freedoms and express their spiritual and religious journeys through their unique work,” said CPAC Director Craig Donarski.
Exhibition view: The 66th Blake Prize Exhibition, Hopper Gallery, 2021. Photography by Chantel Bann.
The judges from the 66th Blake Prize had the difficult task of selecting winners from a pool of 1200 entries and 86 finalists. 3 NSW artists were selected as the winners. As the 67th Blake Prize entries close in, a new panel of judges will decide among an array of contemporary artworks, exploring a multitude of global conversations connecting to notions of religion and spirituality, the winners for the 67th Blake Prize
The 67th Blake Prize panel of judges will include Australian multi-disciplinary artist, Abdul Abdullah. Abdullah’s engagement with work lies with different marginalized minority groups and he is particularly interested in the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience. Rosemary Crumlin will also join the judges panel for the 67th Blake Prize. Key exhibitions projects she has curated include ‘Beyond Belief: Modern Art and the Religious Imagination’ (1998) at the National Gallery of Victoria, and 'The Blake prize for religious art: the first 25 years' (1984) at Monash University Gallery. Rosemary also published ‘The Blake Book’ exploring the first 60 years of the Blake Prize, she has a deep knowledge of the prize and its history. Completing the judges panel will be Megan Monte, Director of Ngununggula. Her previous roles include Director of Cement Fondu and Curator of Contemporary Art at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Megan has a BVA (Sydney College of the Arts), Diploma Secondary Education (New England University) and Masters in Curating and Cultural Leadership (UNSW Art & Design).
The prestigious Blake Prize has featured an abundance of talented artists over the years and of these include recipient of 66th Blake Prize Leyla Stevens, for her three-channel video work, Kidung/Lament, winner of the Blake Emerging Artist Prize Eddie Abd for her video project In Their Finest and recipient of the 65th Blake Prize (2018), Sydney based artist Tina Havelock Stevens. Her video work Giant Rock captured the judge’s attention, specifically for the representation of how certain life beliefs for some individuals are the antithesis for others.
Exhibition view, The 66th Blake Prize, Hopper Gallery, 2021. Photography by Chantel Bann.
The exhibition has also featured works by First Nations Australians such as the renowned artist Redfern-based Blak Douglas tackling colonial influences of religion through his work, Kirsty Burgu from WA representing Wandijna, sacred ancestral beings through her artwork Creation Story and Northern Territory sculptor Jack Nawilil, who in the last Blake Prize took a powerfully moving approach depicting a Balngarra Clan burial funeral ceremony with Bininj (human) bones wrapped in paperbark.
CPAC Director Craig Donarski says, “Returning for the 7th year in a row at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, audiences and artists continue to cement the rare diversity of religions, faiths, cultures, languages and races that only the Blake Prize exhibition can bring.”
Entries will close on the 15th of November. Casula Powerhouse will announce the shortlist of artists on the 4th of February.
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