Guest Judge, 2021 St Kevin’s Art Show

May 22, 2021 Catherine Asquith

I was both delighted and honoured to have been invited to judge the 2021 St Kevin’s Art Show, and indeed, to be part of the 50 Years celebrations.

The St Kevin’s Art Show is a non-acquisitive art prize and exhibition of contemporary art by emerging and established Australian artists. Hosted by St Kevin’s College in Toorak, the Art Show has a long and proud history as one of the longest running exhibitions of its type in the country. In addition to being an art prize, it is also a fundraising exhibition, with all exhibited artworks offered for sale. Artists receive 75% of sales proceeds and the 25% sales commission contributes to a range of College and philanthropic projects.

As I mentioned in my speech on Friday 21st May, it is a privileged position to be the judge of a contemporary art prize, and as I had anticipated it was no easy feat, with so much talent on display.

My comments on the winners were as follows:

“In discerning an overall winner, I was struck immediately by a particular work, which continued to pull me back again and again; it is subtle, elegant, possibly quite dark in mood and emotion, and yet there is some small glimmer of hope wrestling with the overarching theme of transience. This artist has used an unorthodox but thoroughly appropriate method of technique in combination with the genre of still life, to present their interpretation of our ‘inextricable’ connection to the planet, and the need to nurture a “vulnerable, ephemeral and beautiful” nature.

I am delighted to award the $10,000 prize for overall winner in any medium to Valerie Sparks for her work, “Memento Spiritum”.

Valerie Sparks, “Memento Spiritum”, pigment inkjet print on paper, 37 x 104cm

There are many beautiful works on paper in this art award and again it was an challenging task to select the winning work. Personally, I find a purity about works on paper; they illuminate very quickly the artist’s hand. A masterful facility of line drew my attention on this occasion for an incredibly disciplined and complex composition, one which contains multiple layers of meaning – a recording of a moment in time, a comment on obsolescence and waste, and ultimately the inherent destructive characteristics of consumerism.

I am very pleased to award the Brother McCarthy Work on paper award of $3500 to Paul White for his work, “Sunset to Stardust”.

Paul White, “Sunset to Stardust”, pencil on paper, 95 x 120cm

Finally, there are two more artists which beckoned me, as it were, and warrant mention: and for this category I am happy to bestow a Highly Commended for the meticulous and superbly evocative drawing, “Down Amongst the Bones” by Kim Anderson, (left below) and a Highly Commended for a beautifully ethereal, ‘botanical’ work, composed with distilled ink from plants as it medium, and entitled “All that we Are (Pelargonium Phase)” by Penelope Aitken (right below). Congratulations to you both.”