How can art be judged? Are art prizes worth winning? Does winning an art prize set you up for a successful art career? What kind of works are more likely to win? Are there biases at play?
In a moment when art prizes seem to have reached saturation point, the question of their impact on artists’ careers is more pertinent than ever. Professor Susan Best (affirmative) and artist Charles Robb (negative) debate the relevance and importance of art prizes. Artist, prolific art-prize finalist, and 2019 Churchie patron Sam Cranstoun will chair.
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Susan Best is Professor of Art History and Theory at Griffith University, Meanjin/Brisbane, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She is the author of Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-Garde (2011) and Reparative Aesthetics: Witnessing and Contemporary Art Photography (2016). Both won Art Association of Australia and New Zealand best-book prizes.
Charles Robb is a Lecturer in Visual Art at QUT, Meanjin/Brisbane. He has been a practising artist for more than two decades and his work has been seen in exhibitions at venues including MONA, Hobart; the MCA, Sydney; the Ian Potter Centre, Melbourne; and NGV Australia, Melbourne. His work explores the interplay between portraiture and incidental form, explored through sculptural, digital, and photographic media. His most recent body of work involved the production of a life cast of the Ian Fairweather memorial rock at Bribie Island.
Artist Sam Cranstoun lives and works in Meanjin/Brisbane. His practice traverses mediums, including painting, collage, sculpture, and video, and focuses on figures, events, and images to explore how history is shaped. He has been in exhibitions, including GoMA Q, Queensland Art Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane, 2015; Light Play, UQ Art Museum, Meanjin/Brisbane, 2015; and Guarding the Home Front, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool NSW, 2015. He has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize and The Churchie. His work is held in the collections of UQ Art Museum and QUT Art Museum. He is represented by Milani Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane, and Sophie Gannon Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne.
