Posts Tagged ‘Martin Hansen Memorial Art Awards’
MARTIN HANSEN MEMORIAL ART AWARDS: Our Works

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Once again we entered the Martin Hansen Memorial Art Awards at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum. These Awards are the 48th event – Congratulations to the Gallery Team and the continued recognition of Martin Hanson’s early patronage of artists initiatives in Gladstone through these Awards.
For us each award entered is a place to present new works and their presentation – it is a challenge that hones our skills as artists.
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This year Victoria’s entry was an artist book entitled String Theory Explained.
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Victoria COOPER’s String Theory Explained presented
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String Theory Explained… its all about the unplanned and chaotic nature of everyday life… the beauty and terror within the order of “normal” existence.
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Opening up the book
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Bibliographic Details:
Format: Concertina book embedded in folded cover
Media: various pen inks on art paper with Stonehenge black cover
Size: 764 x 230mm
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Doug’s entry this year was Story Trees – First Nations a concertina artists book presented in a circular form.
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Doug SPOWART – Story Trees artists book
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Artist’s Statement:
For me a poignant physical sign of First Nations presence remains embedded in the dead trees found throughout Mokoan. In witnessing these scar trees I found a profound sense of a time now passed and thoughts of the many stories that this place can tell.
This book was book two in a series of personal responses to encountering the locality of Mokoan and the Winton Wetlands. It was part of my contribution to the PALIMPSEST collaborative exhibition with Maggie Hollins and Victoria Cooper shown at Bainz Gallery in Wangaratta in August.
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Bibliographic Details:
Format: Concertina book
Media: Pigment inks on photographic paper
Size in circular presentation: 600 x 700mm
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Doug’s Story Trees installed at GRAGM
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The Martin Hansen Memorial Art Awards exhibition will be on show until 2.00pm on the 27th of January 2024 at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.
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Here is some information about the 2023 Awards and the Entry Form.
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CLICK THIS LINK MH 23 Catalogue Online-r
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CLICK THIS LINK Martin Hansen Award 2023 Entry Details
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Photo of gallery installation courtesy of GRAGM
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COOPER+SPOWART books win ‘works on paper’ Awards
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THE MARTIN HANSON ART AWARDS
For 45 years the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum has annually presented the Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards. The Awards encompass the following art-making areas – easel works, works on paper, three-dimensional & fibre works and digital works. There are three awards for each category and seven special awards including the Pamela Whitlock Memorial Acquisitive Award and the overall Rio Tinto Martin Hanson Memorial Art Award of $15,000. The $40,000 Award prize monies are supported by individuals and community organisations including the Gladstone Regional Council and with significant support from Rio Tinto, Queensland Alumina and other Gladstone mining and industrial businesses.
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ABOUT THE JUDGE: SUE SMITH
Sue Smith is an artist, writer and curator. She has held the position of Art Collection Manager at CQ University Australia since August 2012, after serving for nine years as Director of the Rockhampton Art Gallery and Manager Art Services for the Rockhampton Regional Council.
Ms Smith is an exhibiting artist and her works are held in public and private collections in Australia. She trained in the visual arts at the Queensland College of Art and the CQ TAFE; and studied at the University of Queensland, where she graduated in Art History and Modern and Ancient History.
Her postgraduate studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, were in the History of European art.
ABOUT OUR AWARDED ENTRIES
Over many years we have occasionally entered the Martin Hanson Memorial Awards with previous awards in the ‘works on paper’ category.
Both of the books we entered had been hand-printed and bound earlier in the year and had been finalists in the Artspace Mackay Libris Awards.
Last Saturday evening a friend who had been watching the Awards announcement via ‘Live-stream’ texted us to say “log-on and your names have been mentioned”. So we did and were excited to hear the result first-hand and also the comments from the judges Sue Smith.
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HERE ARE THE RESULTS
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THE CREATIVE GLADSTONE REGION Inc AWARD
for the ‘works on paper’ section
went to VICTORIA COOPER for her artists’ book BEING PRESENT
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJkk-cW1-Bs?
Victoria Cooper’s BEING PRESENT
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Being Present has its physical origins from the Bundanon Trust and the Shoalhaven River.
The electron microscopic images come from unexplored work made during an earlier residence in 2007 of collected detritus from the river. The montages were constructed with these microscopic images as interventions into a riparian environment near the property.
The book is informed by the work of notable writers, thinkers and philosophers, Martin Heidegger and Rachel Carson.
Judge Sue Smith’s comment about the work…
The Creative Gladstone Region Inc. Award
Victoria’s little book is beautifully designed and its semi-abstracted examination of trees and poetic texts asks us to consider wider cosmic questions.
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THE AUSTRALIA PACIFIC LNG AWARD
for the ‘works on paper’ section
went to DOUG SPOWART for his photobook HOME
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYN47eINBwc?
Doug Spowart’s book HOME
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
This book was conceptualised and created during an artist’s residency at Bundanon near Nowra in New South Wales in June 2018. The final design of the book took place in 2019.
For 5 years I have been homeless resulting from the need to travel, seeking work, looking for a place to settle, and maintaining connections with supporting friends and colleagues. The residency enabled inner thoughts to emerge that have been suppressed throughout this time.
Self-imaging is not something new to me. What is new however in this work is the frank reality of the expression, pose and perhaps vulnerability I present in these moments contemplating ‘home’ and what it means to me.
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Judge Sue Smith’s comment about the work…
Australia Pacific LNG Award
This small book contains a masterly series of photographs contemplating self and the concepts of home and human vunerability, the human figure merging into environmental images that hover between representation and abstraction.
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OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE AWARD
Exhibition Opened – Saturday, 17 October 2020 and Closes – 5pm, Saturday, 30 January 2021
This year’s Art Awards is reaching further into the virtual world, providing an alternate enjoyment experience via Council’s Conversations platform. Artist have been asked to post their profiles online as an accompaniment to their submitted artwork – They can be viewed here:
https://conversations.gladstone.qld.gov.au/projects/45th-martin-hanson-art-awards-2020/artist-profiles
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After November, in addition to viewing the exhibition at the Gallery & Museum, all artwork entries can be found in the online gallery here: https://conversations.gladstone.qld.gov.au/projects/45th-martin-hanson-art-awards-2020/entries-martin-hanson-memorial-art-show
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