In an exciting first, LUMAS Gallery and Sequana are thrilled to announce two winners for the October round of the LUMAS Gallery and Sequana Arts Grant Program, Josh Dykgraaf and Nadine Karin Schmoll.
The judging panel, which consists 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, were blown away by both entries and because they were so different the unanimous decision was made to award both pieces.
Walsh and Fisseler therefore decided to increase their contribution to cover a full grant payment to both entries.
Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Dykgraaf’s piece ‘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.
Made from 3,000 layers in Photoshop and over 55 hours of work, the image is part of an ongoing series of images of wildlife are created from pieces of their natural habitat – either landscapes or micro forms such as leaves, bark and flowers.
Whilst Environmental Artist and Educator Schmoll’s piece ‘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.
Informed by eight months in the Great Barrier Reef observing a group of species called Cnidarians, which include corals and jellyfish. In response to rising sea temperatures, some corals have evolved to produce their own natural sunscreen, expressed as a fluorescent pigment. Coral colonies represent a symbiotic ecosystem that demonstrates cooperation and resilience in the face of adversity.
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 applications. Bottles have been collected in collaboration with the community, reflecting shared responsibility to care for the environment.
“The judging process just keeps on getting more exciting as we go, the works submitted keep on getting more and more diverse and challenging and the conversations around the judging intensifies. This month we decided to award two works for the grant, each approaching the photographic practice with a different approach,”
“The layering and painstaking work of Dykgraaf created a duo of birds with such personality and the colour palette unifies the composition. Schmoll’s approach creates a quite alien-like and discombobulating experience that invites you to delve deeper into the intense blue with performative aspects that utilise the body in creative ways,” said Anouska Phizacklea, Director, Monash Gallery of Art.
“Josh Dykgraaf’s winning piece, “Tawu Tawu” is simply breathtaking. The attention to detail and innovative method of digitising elements of the Town Frogmouths’ natural habitat to the construct the native birds is flawless. Combining elements of collage, abstract and computer-generated imagery, this piece serves as an intriguing exploration across multiple layers of these creatures and their environment,”.
“The second winning piece, ‘Interconnected’ uses light and texture to convey an inspiring message of resilience, adaptability, and ingenuity. By visually translating the behaviour and defence mechanisms of corals in response to rising sea temperatures, Nadine Karin Schmoll’s creatively captures the humans and their impact on the natural world,” said Eugenia Wilson, Managing Director, LUMAS Gallery Australia.
Sequana Managing Partners, Mike Walsh and Frank Fisseler are passionate about the arts and helping artists during these difficult times and the LUMAS Gallery and Sequana Arts Grant Program is a joint initiative by project management consultancy Sequana Partners and LUMAS, and is designed to support and celebrate creatives of all calibres, providing Australian artists with both funding and a platform to showcase their work.
Applications for the next monthly grant are open until Saturday 31 October and will be awarded each month until December 2020, providing a one-off grant of $4,000 as well as host each winner’s work in an exhibition in January 2021 to showcase the six winning artworks.
