MAMA acquires 15 National Photography Prize works
Murray Art Museum Albury – MAMA – has added 15 stunning new photographs – by eight talented Australian artists, including two locals, to its permanent collection thanks to the 2016 MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize.
MAMA Art Foundation Chair Tony Smith announced the 2016 acquisitive prize winners at the official launch on Friday 20 May of the National Photography Prize exhibition, opening Saturday 21 May and continuing until 7 August, featuring over 100 entries by more than 60 shortlisted photographers.
The works, which tackle the themes of Narrative, Object, Landscape, Portrait, Documentary and Construct will be on show, and also available for purchase until Sunday 7 August.
This year’s prize pool of $47,000, raised by the MAMA Art Foundation, is being used to acquire:
- Three works by the award-winning Brisbane-based photographer Michael Cook, Pram, Swimming Pool and Bicycle, from his extraordinary Mother series evoking the Stolen Generations
- Two works, A successful older man talks to an attractive woman while standing by the pool and Two men looking to their left, by Bronek Kozka, the Melbourne-based photographer, visual artist and RMIT lecturer in photography and portraiture
- Three works by Dasha Riley, whose passion for the Italian Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age of painting is evoked in her beautiful portraits of her daughter, Julia, in Girl with a Basket, Thoughts of Spring and Autumn Walk
- Two works by Kergunyah artist, Andrew Pearce Until the Seventh Day (Pop a Pill) and National Anthem
- Shut Up, by Albury-based photographer, Karen Donnelly
- Milkteeth by Owen Leong, an award-winning contemporary artist who has exhibited widely here and overseas
- Two striking works by talented Melbourne-based photographic artist Polixeni Papapetrou, Heart and Amaranthine
- Melbourne-based photographic artist, Garry Moore’s, Still Life 2
Girl with a Basket of Fruit, 2016
Digital photograph
Image courtesy of the artist
Shut Up, 2015
Digital print
Image courtesy of the artist
Amaranthine, 2016
from the series Eden
Pigment ink prints
Images courtesy the artist and Stills Gallery, Sydney
Two men looking to their left, 2015
Digital inkjet print
Image courtesy of the artist
In addition to the acquisitive prizes, the MAMA Art Foundation also awarded the $3000 John and Margaret Baker Memorial Fellowship, offered since 2000 to provide encouragement and financial assistance to an emerging artist to Natalie Ord.
Established in 1983, the biennial prize is the longest-running and, at $50,000, among the most lucrative, acquisitive photography prizes in Australia.
More than 90 works have been acquired by MAMA since the award’s inception, adding to and enriching the museum’s superb collection of more than 1000 photographic works.
"Having been involved in the National Photography Prize from its inception I am delighted that over 400 works were submitted and the opening tonight saw 106 works exhibited representing 65 finalists."
Smith further said, "This reflects very favourably on the status that MAMA has achieved in a short time and is a recognition of the very substantial $50,000 provided by the MAMA Art Foundation, which has been a significant factor in attracting such a high quality and large number of works.
"Photography is the cornerstone of the gallery’s collection. Tonight we have been able to add another 14 pictures to the already significant collection. I believe visitors to MAMA will be challenged, rewarded and delighted with the range, quality and depth of the exhibition.”
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