The environment and sustainability will be centre stage at a special one-off exhibition at LUMAS Gallery on Thursday 29 April, 2021.
The exhibition will showcase seven unique, original pieces that highlight water, sustainability and the environment. Each winner was awarded a LUMAS Gallery and Sequana Arts Program grant in 2020 which culminates at this special exhibition in honour of the seven recipients.
The LUMAS Gallery and Sequana Partners Arts Grant Program was established in July 2020 to support members of the creative community during the coronavirus pandemic.
The program was a joint initiative by project management consultancy Sequana Partners and LUMAS Australia to support and celebrate the creative community, providing artists with funding and a platform to showcase their work.
If you would like to attend this exclusive event, you can RSVP here. Limited spots available!
The seven winning artists and works include:
- Prudence Bansemer: ‘Pink Lake’ was inspired by the increased threat of climate change and increasing awareness of the importance of water to global ecosystems. The photograph was shot at Melbourne’s Westgate Park, where Saltwater Lake’s rosy hue has become a tourist attraction. The lake – which first turned pink in 2012 and has been changing colour every summer since – could be considered a litmus test of the effects of climate change.
- Jenny Reddin: ‘Evolution’ is a thought-provoking painting executed in a style reminiscent of an ancient washed-out photograph, but with an important underlying message told through a powerful visual. The image in ‘Evolution’ of a whale in a dry and arid landscape is intended to jolt the viewer into recognising the impossibility of life without water.
- Gabrielle Hall-Lomax: ‘Transformed Surfaces’ is a photograph which serves as an investigation into how we perceive and relate to our natural environment in the current geological epoch known as the Anthropocene, defined by the significant reshaping of the earth’s geology and eco-systems due to human activity.
- Josh Dykgraaf: ‘Tawu Tawu’ is a striking image of a pair of Tawny Frogmouths created from images of leaves and branches shot at Wilson’s Promontory National Park between lockdowns in June of this year, using images of Frogmouths found there as a reference image to build from – native Australian animals constructed directly from pieces of their natural environment.
- Nadine Karin Schmoll: ‘Interconnected’ is a photographic self-portrait shedding light on the interrelationships between the natural marine environment and humans in the context of the global impacts of climate change and plastic pollution. In the photograph Schmoll is wearing an exoskeleton of coral polyps formed using waste plastic bottles that have been cut, moulded and textured using heat application.
- Vic McEwan: ‘Speciman – Koala Paw’ is part of a series ‘Specimen in Smoke’ which was inspired by the fires that raged across Australia in January 2020. He projected photographs that he had taken of animal specimens from the National Museum of Australia Institute of Anatomy specimen collection, into the suffocating smoke-filled night air.
- Alana Holmberg: ‘Idle Hours’ captured at Pound Bend in Warrandyte, Melbourne is a photograph which reflects water but more specifically, the draw of water for leisure time. Nestled in a green pocket of Melbourne, Pound Bend offers a refuge and escape from the city.
The LUMAS Gallery and Sequana Partners Arts Grant Program judging panel, which consisted of Anouska Phizacklea, Director of Monash Gallery of Art (MGA); Eugenia Wilson, Managing Director, LUMAS Gallery Australia; and Mike Walsh and Frank Fisseler, Managing Partners, Sequana Partners, were impressed with the strong link to water, sustainability and the environment in the winning artworks – a key part of the assessment criteria.