The annual John Fries Award for emerging artists has been won by Eric Demetriou. The Victorian artist took out the $10,000 prize with his installation work, An Afternoon with Herb Jercher, which was made with the assistance of the eponymous sound artist.
Oliver Watts, curator of the award exhibition and one of five judges of the 2016 prize, said of the winning work, “This exciting and strong work seems to reference the drover through the sounds and effects of lashing whips. Its duality is what makes it appealing, as the sound of the whip evokes the Man from Snowy River, but it’s mediated through pop culture, art and technical recording devices.”
Jessie Bullivant was highly commended for her video, In the Event of Winning, an acceptance speech which no one was allowed to watch unless she won.
Works by all 14 finalists, selected from 1000 entries, are showcased in the John Fries Award Exhibition.
The Copyright Agency | Viscopy John Fries Award is sponsored by Fries family in memory of former Viscopy director and honorary treasurer, John Fries.
John Fries Award Exhibition
UNSW Galleries
19 August – 1 October
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art is an extraordinary account of the unique art of this continent, published alongside a landmark exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art. Necessary and urgent, it tells the story of Indigenous Australian art; a new art history unlike anything we’ve seen. For Jane O’Sullivan, it’s a remarkable and must-read book.
In a new series of illustrated postcards available as a free gift with purchase only at the Art Guide Bookstore, Oslo Davis takes on classic and contemporary art terms and genres and reimagines what they could be referring to.
With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up the major summer exhibitions in each capital city, open all summer long. Spanning Yayoi Kusama, Magritte, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and many more.
Developed in 2022 by Artback NT as part of Apmere Mparntwe—the Australian Ceramics Triennale— touring exhibition Clay on Country, showing now at New England Regional Art Museum, showcases the diversity of ceramics in the Central Desert.
Ahead of the National Gallery of Victoria’s major retrospective on singular Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, we invited four artists to respond to the influence of Kusama on their own practice—and meditate on what her work means to them.
In two new exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, René Magritte and Cao Fei speak to each other across cultures and eras about the way that perception can unsettle reality—and the places the real intersects with the surreal.
