Provocative art wins award
Friday 3 August 2012, 3:52PM
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Hannah Salmon, a 22-year-old Massey University fine arts student from Wellington, has won a 2012 New Zealand Art Show Emerging Artist Award. She will receive $3000, thanks to the NZ Affordable Arts Trust, NZAAT, and the generosity of trustee/patron Richard Nelson.
The executive director of NZAAT and the New Zealand Art Show Carla Russell says, “Hannah works across an impressive range of platforms and has actively brought art out into the community. We look forward to seeing her work in the New Zealand Art Show this August.”
Ms Salmon’s art practice spans zine and comic publishing, posters for musicians and record labels, and exhibitions in galleries and project spaces. Her art is political and provocative, seeking to use the power of art to spur social change. For example, her zine Daily Secretion often satirises powerful people and institutions, and won the Wellington Zinefest Best in Fest award in 2010. She has been instrumental in founding the Concerned Citizens art collective and two community-based gallery spaces, the Garrett Street Gallery and the 19 Tory Street Open-Source Community Gallery.
She says the award is a huge boost: “I feel very privileged. I think it’s great that the relationship between art and activism is being recognised at a time of social and economic upheaval. I look forward to the opportunities to engage with both the art world and the wider community this award will provide.”
Head of Massey’s School of Fine Arts, Associate Professor Heather Galbraith says a faculty committee selected Ms Salmon’s award-winning submission from a strong field of current students. “Hannah’s submission was compelling and comprehensive. We were looking for an exemplary student who engages with the art world outside the University and who is working enthusiastically to further their future career as an artist. Hannah fits the bill.”
The recently announced NZAAT Emerging Artist Awards were established by the NZAAT, in conjunction with the country’s leading tertiary schools of art, to recognise and reward emerging New Zealand artists. Each participating art school: Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland; School of Fine Arts, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington; University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts, Christchurch; and Otago Polytechnic’s Dunedin School of Art, is able to select one of their students as an Emerging Artist Award recipient.
The 2012 NZAAT Emerging Artist Awards came about through the generosity of a New Zealand Art Show patron and NZAAT trustee, Wellingtonian Richard Nelson. “We are fortunate that Richard, an avid art collector and patron of the New Zealand Art Show, donated $12,000 so the NZAAT could establish these awards. We intend that the Emerging Artist Awards become an ongoing part of the New Zealand Art Show. To that end, the NZAAT will seek support from individuals and organisations to ensure that we can continue to acknowledge the talent of emerging artists like Hannah,” Carla Russell says.
This year’s New Zealand Art Show runs from Thursday, August 2 to Sunday, August 5 at the Events Centre, Queen’s Wharf, Wellington. Tickets can be purchased through www.artshow.co.nz or at the event. Adults $10.00; Children 12 years and younger, free.