Very happy to announce that my painting Stilled lives (snapper + prawns) 2017, is one of 40 finalists in this years’ Sunshine Coast Art Prize at Caloundra Regional Gallery.
The exhibition will run 16 August- 14 October, 2018, with the major awards announced on 30 August. The finalists for this years award can be seen at:
https://gallery.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Art-Prizes/Sunshine-Coast-Art-Prize/Finalists-2018
My artist statement for this work is below:
‘Walking near the shoreline one morning I saw a pile of partially filleted pink snapper and prawns against the break wall, dumped overboard by local fishermen. Current scientific data indicates that global fisheries stocks may collapse beyond recovery by 2050. The painting reflects my complex feelings about global fragmented ecosystems impacted by human industry, the encounter recorded and expressed in lush fleshy impasto oil painted layers. Like the fish, the composition is fragmented, not whole, the visual data incomplete. The random formation of the fish spilled over the stone steps, echoed deliberate cascade compositional effects found in Dutch still life paintings. However, these bodies do not celebrate nature’s endless bounty, they are not memento mori for human mortality. This is a death portrait of unique species, an anti-still life painting – a reminder of what the biosphere and humanity stands to lose should fish disappear from our oceans.’
emma lindsay 