Hedland Art Awards 2016 - Judging Panel Announced

Applications for the awards close on 18th July 2016 and applicants are encouraged to enter their highest quality work in anticipation of another extremely competitive year. Last year's awards received more than 200 entries from individual artists and remote Aboriginal art centres from the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne, Mid-West and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. The Hedland Art Awards remains WA's richest cash art prize, and as such attracts artworks of the absolute highest calibre.

FORM Executive Director Lynda Dorrington said this year's judging panel offered a diverse range of knowledge of the arts market in both a regional and national context.

"With more than $100,000 in prize monies being awarded over nine categories, the Hedland Art Awards are a fantastic opportunity for established and emerging artists to gain exposure and be in the running for some substantial rewards," she said.

We are delighted the Courthouse Gallery is hosting Tim, Thea and Pilar as judges. Based on the incredibly high quality of work included the 2015 exhibition, we expect that the job of this year's judges will be a tough one, with so many deserving artworks expected in this year's selection."

Alongside the exhibition opening and awards ceremony on Thursday 18th August 2016, the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery will host a special arts market in the form of the West End Markets: Visual Arts Edition. Held on the morning of Saturday 20th August, this market will celebrate the Pilbara's diverse artistic talents, and will feature stalls from local and regional artists, alongside visiting Aboriginal art centres. Coinciding with the North West Festival 2016, the awards ceremony and arts market will offer locals and visitors alike the opportunity to experience the extraordinary creativity that exists in the Pilbara and across regional WA.

2016 Hedland Art Awards applications can be found on the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery website, alongside details of the upcoming West End Markets. Applicants and stallholders are invited to contact the Courthouse Gallery on (08) 9173 1064 or mail@courthousegallery.com.au for further information.

2016 Hedland Art Awards Judging Panel Biographies:

Tim Acker

Tim Acker has worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists throughout regional and remote Australia since 1999. This work has ranged from establishing new art centres in desert communities, to remote area employment and training initiatives and major creative and cultural projects and exhibitions. He also recently led a six-year research project that investigated the production and sale of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in Australia.

Thea Costantino

Thea Costantino is an artist and lecturer, her creative practice spanning drawing, sculpture, video, photography, written works and performance. She has exhibited and undertaken residency projects within Australia, Europe and the United States both in a solo capacity and collaboratively.

Broadly, Costantino's work investigates the representation and memorialisation of the past: the use and abuse of history, the continuing influence of the past on the present, and the ways in which repressed or forgotten material can resurface. Her work is held in collections including The Art Gallery of Western Australia, the City of Perth, City of Joondalup, the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, Murdoch University and John Curtin Gallery. She works as a Lecturer at Curtin University.

Pilar Mata Dupont

Pilar Mata Dupont is a multi-award winning artist based between Perth and Rotterdam. Her video works and photographs use highly produced theatrical and cinematic methods to investigate ideas of nationalism, female identity, and mythology, through the use of parable and allegory. In 2015 she won awards in the UK at the Plymouth Contemporary Open and in Brazil at the 19th Contemporary Art Festival. She has recently exhibited in group shows at museums and galleries such as Secession, Vienna; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne; Izolyastia Platform for Cultural Initiatives (the former Lenin monument site), Kiev; and in 2014 had a solo exhibition at the Rappu screen space at Pori Art Museum in Finland. In 2010 she won the Basil Sellers Art Prize and participated in the Sydney Biennale in collaboration with artist, Tarryn Gill.