Octogenarian shark conservationist Valerie Taylor has given her name to Australia’s newest art prize, an award that permits the public to buy the winning works and entries so the proceeds can be reinvested to fund marine conservation.
Sulman Prize winner Joan Ross, known for using fluorescent colours in works that protest Australia’s colonial legacy, was named the inaugural winner of Blue World: The Valerie Taylor Art Prize for Ocean Advocacy at Carriageworks on Thursday.
Ross immediately used her award win to call on Australian grandparents to act to protect the health of the world’s oceans for their grandchildren’s sake.
The artist took out the $40,000 annual art prize with a work titled The beginning of greed, which highlights the insensitivity of early settlers netting a huge haul of salmon in Sydney Harbour while indigenous women take only enough fish to feed their families. The spectacle was said to have enraged Barangaroo, Bennelong’s second wife.
“One of my main loves is the ocean,” Ross said. “When I was 15 my best friend and I used to make banners and protest to save the whales. I’ve always been an advocate for nature, and my works always carry a strong political and environmental message.
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“I live in Clovelly and snorkel every day at Gordon’s Bay and I love being underwater, it’s my favourite place, and I’m certain that fish numbers are dwindling. The world has a big problem and, if people want to look after their grandkids, they need to do it now.”
Launched on World Ocean Day, the annual prize is supported by conservationist and philanthropist Rob Keldoulis, head of the not-for-profit Blue World organisation, whose idea was to find a way to leverage the strong support of artists for global marine conservation efforts.
He turned to cousin Barry Keldoulis, who has recently stepped down as director of Sydney Contemporary, to establish a new art prize to promote a love of the ocean while compensating artists for their time spent creating major works.
“All artists have expressed a love and concern for the health of the oceans, under threat from overfishing, warm water temperatures, and polluted agriculture and industrial runoff, but they are not expected to do something for nothing,” Barry Keldoulis said.
“I don’t know how much will be raised, everything helps, and we are grateful for the artists’ support, and their galleries and will be happy with whatever we raise for this urgent cause.”
Under the unique terms of competition, the prize is non-acquisitive, meaning Ross not only collects the $40,000 prize money but her framed edition is selling for $9900, all in the name of conservation.
Anna May Kirk’s glasswork Whale Fall (sold) and Teho Ropeyarn’s Ipi (water, rain) were highly commended.
All 30 works created at the invitation of the award organisers are for sale, with the retail price to be split equally between the artist and the benefiting charity, the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
Taylor says many artworks tell powerful stories of maybe a king, a war, a death, or a shipwreck: “These paintings tell a story of a troubled ocean.”
The public can purchase works by leading artists Janet Laurence ($16,000), Guy Fredericks ($7700) and Caroline Rothwell ($9750), newcomers Jason Phu ($6500) and Dylan Mooney ($1500), and mid-career artists Abdul Abdullah ($32,500) and Angela Tiatia ($27,500).
Curator Coby Edgar, one of three judges (alongside Sydney Opera House chair Lucy Turnbull and Art Gallery of NSW’s Anne Ryan), said Ross had “a way of positioning past dumb decisions that are directly connected to the present circumstances of environmental and social crisis in Australia”.
“It’s clear, it’s using familiar images, but telling the story a bit differently. Hindsight is the sucker punch of this work. It cleverly captures the human behaviours that directly influence all other living things, both then and now.”
Works are available to purchase here until June 11, 2023.
Sydney Morning Herald subscribers can enjoy 2-for-1 tickets* to the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales during June 2023. Click here for more details.
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