By TANIA PHILLIPS
NOTED photography writer and historian Helen Ennis is set to open this year’s Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture at the Tweed River Art Gallery this weekend.
The $20,000 portraiture award features the work of 91 finalists from around Australia including the work of 15 photographers from the Northern Rivers and Gold Coast.
The exhibition encourages entries from both emerging and established photographers. All entries are portraits that haven’t been previously shown elsewhere.
The finalists were selected from 381 entries by Associate Head at the School of Art, Australian National University, Helen Ennis, and form an intriguing exhibition covering themes of youth, marriage, play, identity and death.
“The potency of the portraits in the 2013 Award relates to their narrative potential – what they say about a person, about society and about our times. Viewers will also recognise some famous faces and local identities,” Ms Ennis said.
Helen Ennis is a noted photography curator, historian and writer. She has written two books and numerous articles on the photographer Olive Cotton.
She will present a talk about Olive Cotton at Tweed River Art Gallery at 11am on Saturday. This will be a significant opportunity to learn more about Cotton, who is acknowledged as one of Australia’s leading twentieth century photographers.
The Olive Cotton Award exhibition will be officially opened on the evening of Saturday 10 August at 5pm along with the exhibition Leaf and Limb featuring the work of regional artist Valentina Palonen, who grew up in Murwillumbah.
At 5.30pm, Helen Ennis will announce the much-anticipated $20,000 winner of the 2013 Olive Cotton Award. This acquisitive award is funded by the family of Olive Cotton, through the well-known Sydney based art dealer Josef Lebovic, and the winning portrait acquired for the gallery collection.
Additional purchase awards to the value of $4000, and chosen by the gallery director Susi Muddiman, will also be announced. These awards are funded by the Friends of the Tweed River Art Gallery and also join the gallery’s portrait collection. Visitors to the exhibition may also vote for their “People’s Choice” which awards $250 to the most popular finalist according to the vote count at the end of the exhibition.
Additional public programs on photography will be held on Sunday 15 September. At 11am, Dr Doug Spowart will present an exhibition floortalk discussing some of the themes, techniques and photographers in the exhibition. At 1pm the same day there will be a presentation on The Artist and Social Media – making connections and making art with Dr Spowart and Dr Victoria Cooper.
Complementing the 2013 Award is the ABC Open digital exhibition 100 Faces, the best of ABC Open’s Snapped: Faces. This is a small selection from over 1000 portraits, captured by amateur and professional photographers throughout regional Australia, for the ABC Open June photography challenge SNAPPED: FACES.
