Good evening and welcome to all.
I will keep this short as I don’t want to interfere with drinking time.
Again, I have had the privilege of coordinating the MIFGS exhibition.
This year we had 147 entries from 80 artists.
This event is not the effort of one person. I had a great team in Jenny Rickards, Yvonne Monik and Gillian Govan in the planning and execution. Andrew Bryant was my right-hand man and Jenny my left hand? for set-up and Elnaz Nourizadeh for her great social media work as well as Anne Anderson for organizing the sitting roster and Jenny Whiteside for organizing the demonstrators and demonstrations. Finally Meredith Plain for her continued sponsorship and supplying the limestone blocks. I also want to recognize the continuing support of Marcus Gale and Lauren Fyfe from IMG who allow us to use the site and provide all the services to us free of charge. Through IMG we are also given the services of Hot House Media who are IMG’s promotion company. They do a fantastic job of promoting our event.
The exhibition would not be an exhibition without the amazing efforts of the artists.
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| Rob Anderson and his assistants recording the exhibition |
Each year the quality and diversity exceeds the previous year’s. When I look at the works it really makes me wonder what goes on in your minds. Henri Matisse said that "Creativity takes courage" I think we have a lot of brave people. It is hard to put your ideas on display for someone to see and make comment, which brings me to the next part of the evening, The Awards.
This year Geoffrey Edwards was kind enough to accept the challenge of being our judge. He was the Director of the Geelong Art Gallery and former Senior Curator of Sculpture, National Gallery of Victoria. Currently Advisor for the Point Leo Estate Sculpture Park. He is well regarded in the world of sculpture.
Unfortunately, he could not be here tonight due to his busy schedule. He has asked me to pass on his apologies and to read out his deliberations.
He has not commented on the individual pieces as his criteria apply equally to all the works regardless of category. He also stated that "Everyone is a winner in my books".
The following are Geoffrey’s remarks:
As Jenny Rickards reminded me when l arrived to view the impressive array of works in this year’s exhibition, it was some 9* years since l last had the pleasure of judging the ASV event.
If that is so, then the ASV annual exhibition is clearly going from strength to strength. And while that is a good thing for the ASV, for artists and for visitors to the event, it doesn’t help an event judge who finds many more prize-worthy exhibits on offer than there are awards to make.
So, an exciting exhibition it is, and my congratulations to all participants.
My usual criteria for deciding prizes such as these are:
• I look first for clarity, confidence and freshness of idea.
• Then for an awareness of current practice in the particular style or idiom adopted by an artist – abstract, realist, whatever.
• Obviously, the successful realizing of an idea requires competence in the technique employed. So, l look for that too.
• Then, regardless of the type or scale of work, l admire an artist who has set themselves a serious challenge, whether technical or conceptual, and been successful in meeting it.
• Finally, and difficult to explain, l expect a standout work to speak to me, to stop me in my tracks as l walk up to it.
And there were plenty of works, big, small, abstract and realistic, serious and fun, that did just this.
But l was restricted to 3 gongs each in the splendidly-titled categories of Courtyard Garden and Estate. Louis XIV himself couldn’t have come up with a more enticing trio of awards.
So, the prizes go to the following artists:
Estate:
1. First Prize Matt Hill Grazing and Foal (134)
2. Second Prize Todd Stuart Praying Mantis (143)
3. Special Mention Paul Cacioli Birds on a Bench (129)
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| Matt Hill "Grazing and Foal" |
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| Matt Hill "Grazing and Foal" |
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| Matt Hill "Grazing and Foal" |
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| Todd Stuart Praying Mantis |
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| Todd Stuart Praying Mantis |
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| Todd Stuart Praying Mantis |
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| Paul Cacioli Birds on a Bench |
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| Paul Cacioli Birds on a Bench |
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| Paul Cacioli Birds on a Bench |
Garden:
1. First Prize Helen Jeffs Birds of Prey (94)
2. Second Prize Charlie Aqualina Plant Form (81)
3. Special Mention Luke Neil The Twists and Turns (99)
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| Helen Jeffs Birds of Prey |
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| Helen Jeffs Birds of Prey |
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| Helen Jeffs Birds of Prey |
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| Charlie Aqualina Plant Form |
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| Charlie Aqualina Plant Form |
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| Charlie Aqualina Plant Form |
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| Luke Neil The Twists and Turns |
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| Luke Neil The Twists and Turns |
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| Luke Neil The Twists and Turns |
Courtyard:
1. First Prize Sonia Payes Woman in Orange (54)
2. Second Prize Lucy McEachern Australian Magpie (41)
3. Special Mention Vicki Combridge Harry and The Hydrant (16)
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| Sonia Payes Woman in Orange |
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| Sonia Payes Woman in Orange |
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| Sonia Payes Woman in Orange |
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| Lucy McEachern Australian Magpie |
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| Lucy McEachern Australian Magpie |
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| Lucy McEachern Australian Magpie |
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| Vicki Combridge Harry and The Hydrant |
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| Vicki Combridge Harry and The Hydrant |
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| Vicki Combridge Harry and The Hydrant |
Thank you all for participating and hopefully see again next year.
* Jenny’s note - more like 19 - but neither of us want to dwell on that too long.
Images of the work in the exhibition can be seen on the website at
https://sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/exhibitions/view_exhibition/2019-melbourne-international-flower-garden-show along with the winner of the Peoples' Choice Award Chris Anderson for Erin the Wedge Tail Eagle runner up was Helen Jeffs' Birds of Prey - so a year for Eagles - well done!
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| Chris Anderson Erin the Wedge Tail Eagle |
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| Chris Anderson Erin the Wedge Tail Eagle |
MIFGS Report from the Coordinator
This year we had an exceptional show with 147 entries from 80 artists. We sold 35 sculptures and had 4600 People’s Choice votes. It was great to see many new faces as well as the usual suspects. The quality and standard keeps getting better every year and Geoffrey Edwards was suitably impressed with all the works. It was again a privilege to be the Coordinator for the event and of course, without your creative pieces of art the event would never have happened.
This event is the result of a team effort and I, again, would like to thank Jenny Rickards, Yvonne Monik, and Gillian Govan who were part of the organising committee. I also want to thank Anne Anderson, Andrew Bryant, Elnaz Nourizadeh, Jenny Whiteside and John Bishop for their contributions as well as all the others that helped me during the show. It was much appreciated.
The commission we receive from the sale of your work goes to the maintenance and development of our website, the organisation and promotion of exhibitions and the other activities that allow us to promote you and your work as sculptors.
High resolution images of your work can be purchased for $30 per sculpture. Low resolution versions of these images have been uploaded to the ASV website. Some of the money goes to generally supporting ASV exhibitions, some goes to our professional photographer Rob Anderson as a licensing fee for using the images.
We have established a great foundation and we are beginning to plan next year’s show and our relationship with IMG management and their publicity team to ensure that it is bigger and better.
We look forward to your continued support and we welcome any suggestions and offers of help you may have for the continued improvement of the exhibition.
Best regards
Paul Cacioli
ASV Coordinator for the MIFGS Sculpture Exhibition
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