The Churchie Emerging Art Prize 2020

  • 'The Churchie Emerging Art Prize 2020', Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2020. In view: James Nguyen 'Monochromes' 2018–ongoing; Nabilah Nordin 'Anti-Poem' 2020; Marina Pumani Brown 'Ngayuku Ngura Kuwari (My Home Now)' 2019. Photo: Louis Lim.

  • 'The Churchie Emerging Art Prize 2020', Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2020. In view: Martin George, 'Bubble', 2019; Nabilah Nordin 'Anti-Poem' 2020; James Nguyen 'Monochromes' 2018–ongoing. Photo: Louis Lim.

  • Georgia Morgan 'This Dream Is Real' 2020. Photo: Louis Lim.

  • Guy Louden 'Snake' 2020.

  • Nathan Beard 'White Gilt 3.0' 2020. Photo: Louis Lim.

  • Emily Parsons-Lord 'Standing Still (With Practice, One May Learn to Accept the Feelings of Groundlessness)' 2020. Photo: Louis Lim.

  • Tom Blake 'Loop (uu)' 2020. Photo: Louis Lim.

  • Lachlan McKee 'Blocks' 2020 and 'House' 2020. Photo: Louis Lim.

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The Churchie Emerging Art Prize 2020

18 September–19 December 202018 Sep–19 Dec 2020

#thechurchie

Since its inception at Anglican Church Grammar School in 1987, The Churchie has sought to identify and profile the next generation of contemporary artists from around the country. Today, it is one of Australia’s leading prizes for emerging artists.

The Churchie Emerging Art Prize has returned to the IMA once more in 2020, debuting a new look and approach. The 2020 exhibition provides a survey of some of the most compelling art being produced by emerging artists in Australia today. Independent curator Talia Smith has curated this year’s exhibition around the idea of ‘failure’, supporting artists to present their work at the IMA.

Thanks to generous supporters, The Churchie offers a prize pool of $25,000, with the overall winner receiving a non-acquisitive $15,000 cash prize donated by long-standing sponsor, BSPN Architecture. The prize was judged by Tarun Nagesh, Curator, Asian Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art and announced at the IMA 18 September 2020. The Major Prize Winner was Emily Parsons-Lord. Special Commendation went to Nabilah Nordin. And further Commendations went to Marina Pumani Brown and Georgia Morgan. The People’s Choice Award also went to Morgan.

 

 

Artists

Nathan Beard, Tom Blake, Jessica Bradford, Martin George, Yasbelle Kerkow, Guy Louden, Lachlan McKee, Georgia Morgan, Nabilah Nordin, James Nguyen, Emily Parsons-Lord, Marina Pumani Brown, and Athena Thebus

Curated By
  • Talia Smith
Artist Bio
Nathan Beard

Nathan Beard is a Perth-based artist who addresses the complex interplay of culture and memory in the shaping identity. His practice situates sincere and intimate exchanges with his Thai family alongside broader cultural signifiers to generate slippages of identity and query ‘Thainess’. Within this collision of aesthetic and emotional influences his practice personalises broader perspectives around diasporic identity. Beard holds a Bachelor of Arts (Arts) with First Class Honours from Curtin University. He has recently exhibited at Firstdraft (2020), Cool Change Contemporary (2019), Bus Projects (2019), Turner Galleries (2018), and Art Gallery of Western Australia (2017). In 2017 he was selected for the 4A Beijing Studio Program, shortlisted as a finalist for the John Stringer Prize, and awarded Highly Commended in the Fremantle Art Centre Print Award.

Tom Blake

Tom Blake’s work addresses the psychological, architectural, and technological frameworks that surround us through fragmented moments, looped imagery, and recurring motifs. Drawing is the starting point for many of his works. He has exhibited in Australia, Japan, and Italy, been a finalist in Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC) Print Award, the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, the CLIP Award, and The Blake Prize, and been awarded a Clitheroe Foundation Emerging Sculptor Mentorship. His work has been exhibited at Artspace, AGWA, FAC, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), Murray Art Museum Albury, C3 Contemporary Artspace, Firstdraft, and KNULP. He is also part of Momo Doto, an ongoing collaboration with Dominique Chen.

Tom Blake’s work addresses the psychological, architectural, and technological frameworks that surround us through fragmented moments, looped imagery, and recurring motifs. Drawing is the starting point for many of his works. He has exhibited in Australia, Japan, and Italy, been a finalist in Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC) Print Award, the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, the CLIP Award, and The Blake Prize, and been awarded a Clitheroe Foundation Emerging Sculptor Mentorship. His work has been exhibited at Artspace, AGWA, FAC, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), Murray Art Museum Albury, C3 Contemporary Artspace, Firstdraft, and KNULP. He is also part of Momo Doto, an ongoing collaboration with Dominique Chen.

Tom Blake
Jess Bradford

Jess Bradford is a Singaporean-born and Sydney-based artist working across painting, ceramics, video, and installation. Her work explores her mixed-race heritage by examining representations of cultural and national identity. Bradford has exhibited at various institutions and art spaces including Art Gallery of South Australia, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2019), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (2015), Fairfield Museum & Gallery (2014), and Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest (2013). She has been a finalist in the Ramsay Art Prize, John Fries Memorial Prize, the Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, and the Jenny Birt Award. Bradford is represented by Galerie pompom, Sydney.

Martin George

Martin George is a Sydney-born, Melbourne-based artist who works with painting and drawing. He creates visual conversations between different types of mark-making—impulsive or considered—that depict imaginary environments. He has exhibited at Haydens (2019) and Conners Conners (2020), and been shortlisted for prizes, including the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize (2017), Redland Art Awards (2018), and Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2020, 2019). He undertook a studio residency at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, in 2017.

Martin George is a Sydney-born, Melbourne-based artist who works with painting and drawing. He creates visual conversations between different types of mark-making—impulsive or considered—that depict imaginary environments. He has exhibited at Haydens (2019) and Conners Conners (2020), and been shortlisted for prizes, including the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize (2017), Redland Art Awards (2018), and Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2020, 2019). He undertook a studio residency at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, in 2017.

Martin George
Yasbelle Kerkow

Yasbelle Kerkow is an Australian-born, Fijian (vasu Batiki, Lomaiviti) artist. Her work focuses on promoting Pacific communities and their stories in Australia. She is a community-arts facilitator and leader of the Kulin Nations–based art collective New Wayfinders.

Guy Louden

Guy Louden is an Australian artist and curator living in Fremantle/Walyalup and born in Toronto. He explores capitalism, technology, and what the distant future may look like in the face of a social breakdown. He has founded and run experimental galleries and curated major exhibitions. From 2014 to 2016, he was a director of Moana Project Space. In 2015, he cofounded and managed Success, a large art space in Fremantle. His work has been exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane.

Guy Louden is an Australian artist and curator living in Fremantle/Walyalup and born in Toronto. He explores capitalism, technology, and what the distant future may look like in the face of a social breakdown. He has founded and run experimental galleries and curated major exhibitions. From 2014 to 2016, he was a director of Moana Project Space. In 2015, he cofounded and managed Success, a large art space in Fremantle. His work has been exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane.

Guy Louden
Lachlan McKee

Lachlan McKee boils down the logic of pleasure, desire, and cultural production through painting, collage, and animation. Born in 1998, he lives and works in Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) with Distinction from the Queensland College of Fine Art and is currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Georgia Morgan

Georgia Morgan lives and works in lutruwita/Tasmania. She explores the assumed hierarchies of materials and places through site-based research, performance/invented ritual, and sculptural installations. She uses photocopies, building materials, and detritus, assembled with ceramics, videos, and paintings, blending ‘high’ and ‘low’. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2019 and was the recipient of the Bett Gallery Award.

Georgia Morgan lives and works in lutruwita/Tasmania. She explores the assumed hierarchies of materials and places through site-based research, performance/invented ritual, and sculptural installations. She uses photocopies, building materials, and detritus, assembled with ceramics, videos, and paintings, blending ‘high’ and ‘low’. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2019 and was the recipient of the Bett Gallery Award.

Georgia Morgan
Nabilah Nordin

Nabilah Nordin is a Singaporean-Australian sculptor. Interested in material invention, her installations embrace wonky craftsmanship, playfully celebrating the monstrous, visceral, and anthropomorphic qualities of materials. Nordin’s work has been exhibited locally and internationally at galleries, museums, festivals, fairs, and biennales including; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore Biennale, Neon Parc, The Commercial, COMA, LON Gallery, Artbank, Firstdraft, DISINI Festival, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, and Margaret Lawrence Gallery.

James Nguyen

James Nguyen uses documentary and performance, working with family and friends, to make work about the politics of art, self-representation, and collective risk. Nguyen was the recipient of the Clitheroe Foundation Scholarship and the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship.

James Nguyen uses documentary and performance, working with family and friends, to make work about the politics of art, self-representation, and collective risk. Nguyen was the recipient of the Clitheroe Foundation Scholarship and the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship.

James Nguyen
Emily Parsons-Lord

Emily Parsons-Lord is concerned with air and explosions. Recent work has recreated the air from past eras in Earth’s evolution, recreated starlight in coloured smoke, and experimented with pheromones, aerogel, and explosions. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. She participated in Primavera (2016), the 2016 Bristol Biennial, NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (2017), A Broken Link, Central St Martin’s, London (2017), Liveworks (2017), and John Fries Award (2018); and Stuttgart Film Winter Festival for Expanded Media, Firstdraft, and Vitalstatistix, amongst others.

Marina Pumani Brown

Marina Pumani Brown was born in Mimili Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far northwest of South Australia. She comes from a long line of strong female painters and grew up watching these women paint. Her grandmother was Milatjari Pumani, one of the most famous artists in the APY region, her mother is Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, and her aunt was Ngupulya Pumani.

Learning from these women, and beside them, she has since developed her own interpretation of the Tjukurpa passed on to her. In her art practice, Marina shows contemporary ways of seeing her ancestral knowledge, sharing insights into her experience of day-to-day community life. She references her family’s homeland around Antara and Victory Well, which lie nestled in the granite hills of the Everard Ranges. Marina often spends the weekends out on country with her mother and daughter, collecting minkulpa (bush tobacco) and maku (witchetty grubs).

Marina Pumani Brown was born in Mimili Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far northwest of South Australia. She comes from a long line of strong female painters and grew up watching these women paint. Her grandmother was Milatjari Pumani, one of the most famous artists in the APY region, her mother is Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, and her aunt was Ngupulya Pumani.

Learning from these women, and beside them, she has since developed her own interpretation of the Tjukurpa passed on to her. In her art practice, Marina shows contemporary ways of seeing her ancestral knowledge, sharing insights into her experience of day-to-day community life. She references her family’s homeland around Antara and Victory Well, which lie nestled in the granite hills of the Everard Ranges. Marina often spends the weekends out on country with her mother and daughter, collecting minkulpa (bush tobacco) and maku (witchetty grubs).

Marina Pumani Brown
Athena Thebus

Athena Thebus uses sculpture, drawing, and writing to explore notions of desire. She has presented solo and collaborative work at Next Wave Festival, Performance Space’s Liveworks Festival, Campbelltown Arts Centre, ACE Open, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, and Verge Gallery, among others. She guest edited the Runway Journal’s 39th issue (2019) and is a co-director at Firstdraft, Sydney.

Curator Bio

Talia Smith is an artist and curator from Aotearoa New Zealand and now based in Warrang Sydney. She is of Cook Island, Samoan, and NZ European heritage. Her curatorial and visual arts practice examines concepts of time, memory, and ruin with a particular focus on photography and moving image practices. She has curated exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand including Artbank Sydney, Cement Fondu, Artspace Ideas Platform, and Papakura Art Gallery. She was Artbank’s emerging curator (2018), Firstdraft’s emerging curator (2017), and was a part of the 4A Curatorial Intensive (2016). She recently undertook a two month curatorial residency in Frankfurt, Germany with Basis and has a mentorship with the Director of the Singapore Photo Festival for 2020. Her writing has appeared in Art New Zealand, Art Almanac, Running Dog, among other publications and essays. Talia was the Chair of Runway Journal 2017-2018 and is currently completing her Masters of Fine Arts (Research) at UNSW.


Related Resources

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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