CASULA POWERHOUSE ANNOUNCES 67TH BLAKE PRIZE FINALIST

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (CPAC) has announced 65 finalists for the 67th Blake Prize – one of Australia’s longest-standing and most prestigious prize.

The Blake Prize is a biennial event that engages local and international contemporary artists in conversations on the broader experience of spirituality, religion, and belief. The selected finalists will show their work at The 67th Blake Prize exhibition on 12 March – 22 May 2022.

The majority of this year’s finalists come from Australia, representing every state and territory in the nation. Many cultures and religions from across the globe are represented in the works, including Mexico, Japan, Iran, the Philippines, Israel and China. The themes explored within the finalist works include introspective explorations of spirituality, the natural world, xenophobia and racism, gender, Australian identity and COVID-19.

“This year’s Blake Prize finalists have delivered an incredible range of artworks, from painting, photography, sculpture, installation and digital media works exploring the wider experience of spirituality, religion and belief,” said CPAC Director Craig Donarski. 

“The works in this year’s exhibition express the huge changes the world has gone through over the last two years, as well as the changing cultural mix of Australia’s population, our attitudes towards religion and spirituality, and how our artists interpret, reflect, and question these notions via their work through art.”

The pandemic has given many of us the opportunity for reflection and this is echoed in the Blake Prize finalists works. In Ella Whateley’s Prayers for the Dead, Chinese paper is used as a prayer repository, marked with 44,250 painted strokes that represent the tiny proportion of the vast number of people who have died from COVID around the world. The Pyper’s Still Life in the Year of Fear depicts the paraphernalia intrinsic to the COVID experience; and the patron saint of plagues and dogs, Saint Roche, is given a contemporary update with a Western Sydney twist in Chris Longemann’s Cult of Saint Roche. 

Established artists featured in the exhibition include Shaun Gladwell whose video work Homo Suburbiensis follows a single figure who undertakes a series of actions in what ultimately becomes a transcendence of one’s physical state of being. Petrina HicksHercules speaks to the sacredicity of a woman’s right to govern her own womb. Abdullah M. I. Syed explores his own grief of losing his mother in a video work entitled Last Observances, and Khaled Sabsabi’s piece NOT OUR TEACHERS segment 2 features the closing of a Zikr ceremony that was filmed in a small village in the mountains between modern-day Lebanon and Syria.

Exploring Australian identity, history and culture is analysed in some of the works, including Ronnie Grammatica’s Roadside Memorial which looks at the tradition of roadside memorials in Australian culture and asks if they are succeeding traditional commemorative rituals. In SJ Norman’sCicatrix (All that was taken, all that remains) 147 incisions were made on the skin of the artist’s back, over a ritual work lasting 147 minutes to recognise the 147 Aboriginal people who have lost their lives while in police custody over the last decade. Robert Douma explores the Australian psyche in his work Strayan Idols: The Holy Trinity where the images of Ned Kelly, ‘Breaker’ Morant and Ben Roberts-Smith are used alongside the social media comments of their devotees to highlight Australia’s history of lauding criminals with religious zeal.

The winner of the 67th Blake Prize will be the lucky recipient of $35,000; the winner of the Blake Emerging Artist Prize will also take home a cool $6,000; and the winner of the Blake Established Artist Residency will receive a residency and a solo exhibition at CPAC. Winners will be announced at an official launch event on Saturday 12 March, 2022.

EXHIBITION DETAILS
67th Blake Prize exhibition
Launch and winner’s announcement: Saturday 12 March, 2022
Exhibition Dates: 12 March – 22 May 2022
Cost: Free
More info: www.casulapowerhouse.com

FULL LIST OF FINALISTS

Loribelle Spirovsk (Newtown, NSW)

Ronnie Grammatica (Sydney, NSW)

Timothy Cook (Milikapiti on Melville Island, NT)

Marian Abboud (Granville, NSW)

Petrina Hicks (Mossman, NSW)

Elyas Alavi (Hectorville, SA)

Khashayar Salmanzadeh (Caning Vale, WA)

Chris Logemann (Dulwich Hill, NSW)

Michaela Gleave (Campsie, NSW)

Phillip George (Bondi, NSW)

Robert Fielding (Mimili Community in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, SA)

David Charles Collins (Petersham, NSW)

Tina Stefanou (Wattle Glen, VIC)

Robert Douma (Aitkenvale, QLD)

Lucy Pulvers (Roseville, NSW)

David McKay (Paddington, NSW)

Jacki Fewtrell Gobert (Brooklyn, NSW)

asa Letourneau (Pascoevale, VIC)

Andrea Wilson (Darlinghurst, NSW)

Daniel Brinsmead (Pottsville, NSW)

Ella Whateley (Fitzroy, NSW)

The Pyper (Surry Hills, NSW)

Belem Lett (Marrickville, NSW)

SJ Norman (Chippendale, NSW)

Kristone Capistrano (Rooty Hill, NSW)

Murat Urlali (Woolloomooloo, NSW)

Ray Monde (Braidwood, NSW)

Jane Giblin (Lutana, TAS)

Toby Cedar(Thornton, NSW)

Glenn Morgan (Warrnambol, NSW)

Fiona Currey-Billyar (Dulwich Hill, NSW)

Szymon Dorabialski (Dulwich Hill, NSW)

Sakinah Alatas (Queens Park, NSW)

Keiran Gordon (Arncliffe, NSW)

Emma Rani Hodges (Belconnen, ACT)

Gaspare Moscone (Camperdown, NSW)

Tim Andrew (Marrickville, NSW)

Chidze (Yowie Bay, NSW)

Sergio Plata (Camperdown, NSW)

Margarita Sampson (Blackheath, NSW)

Eugenia Lim (Clifton Hill, NSW)

Penelope Cain (Lillifield, NSW)

Monica Rani Rudharb (Dulwich Hill, NSW)

Jane Theau, Sayd Abdali, Nasaphah Nasaphah (Cremorne, VIC)

Amanda Jane Reynolds (Ulladulla, NSW)

Rushdi Anwar (Muang in Chiang Mai, Thailand)

Shan Turner-Carrol (Darlinghurst, NSW)

Akil Ahamat (Braddon, ACT)

Braddon Snape (Islington, NSW)

Jacky Cheng (Broome, WA)

Laresa Kosloff (West Footscary, VIC)

Fernando do Campo (Bondi, NSW)

Ryan Andrew Lee (Binna Burra, NSW)

Katy B Plummer (Annandale, NSW)

Jodie Whalen (Parramatta, NSW)

Shaun Gladwell (Melbourne, VIC)

Emily Parsons-Lord (Darlinghurst, NSW)

Abdullah M. I. Syed (Ashfield, NSW)

Sam Doctor (Erskinville, NSW)

JD Reforma (Potts Point, NSW)

Amber Hafeez Hammad (Carlingford, NSW)

Damian Dillon (Ashfield, NSW)

Kate O’Boyle (Woodville North, NSW)

Khaled Sabsabi (Bonnyrigg, NSW)

Tina FiveAsh (Enmore, NSW)