Acquisitive Art Prize 2021
Arts, camera, action!
After a quiet 2020, the art world at Wesley College has sprung back to life this May. Presented by Wesley College Society for the Arts, the 24th annual Society for the Arts Acquisitive Prize, home to countless masterpieces, was held at Coates Pavilion on Tuesday 11 May 2021 at the Glen Waverley Campus.
The Acquisitive Art Prize highlights Year 10 to 12 student work, including the previous year’s Year 12 cohort. Each year’s exhibit is essentially a competition highlighting artwork across any fine arts medium. Carrying forward the legacy and a renewed commitment to diversity, inclusion, and excellence, this year our 120 entries included sculptures, textiles, photography, drawing, printmaking, and painting.
The exhibition was judged by prominent Melbourne illustrator and author of children’s books, Bic Walker. Bic was born in Vietnam and originally trained and worked as an architect for ten years, prior to becoming a creative entrepreneur and founding SketchMill a bespoke print illustration brand. Her books entail themes of multiculturalism and identity: growing up Asian in Australia, being an outsider and trying to fit in as well as stories about resilience and her own experience as a child refugee.
25 years ago, The Society for the Arts launched the Acquisitive Art Prize in 1996 with an aim to encourage students to hone their artistic talent in the visual arts. Apart from further developing artistic visual appetite, it is hoped that the award-winning recipients and participants continue to embody their creative expression through the arts, even after graduating from Wesley College.
According to Michele Maher, Head of Art at the Glen Waverly Campus, ‘This exhibition provides an opportunity for students to exhibit their art to the public and amongst the broader school community. For many it is the first time they have exhibited and entered an art prize and as such will always provide find memories. Being an exhibition on campus also stimulates interest from other students and year levels in the visual arts with respect to mediums and themes and provides a platform for classes to visit and discuss the works.’
Likewise, Amelia Judd, Head of Art at St Kilda Road Campus notes, ‘This exhibition which sees students exhibit to a public audience not only builds their confidence but also supports their journey in the arts beyond school’.
2021 Acquisitive Art Prize Winners
Acquisitive Art Prize
Bridget Dowland Year 12 GW 2020 – All Stitched up – Recycled Textile Jacket
Bridget Dowland (OW2020) receives her trophy from Head of Glen Waverley Campus, Sheriden Vella. Bridget created All Stitched Up, for her VCE Studio Arts course during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work uses recycled plastic and foil wrappers, from common household foods, such as Tim Tams and Smiths Crisps to highlight the extensive waste and use of plastics in Australia. Polyethylene plastic is highly recalcitrant and an inert material hence it is difficult to degrade in the environment even after buried for twenty years in landfill.
People’s Choice Award
Yu Tung (Jane) Li Year 12 GW 2021 – Tomb of Humanity - Ink on paper drawing
Yu Tung (Jane) made this extraordinary pen ink drawing in response to studying Leonardo da Vinci and his use of linear perspective and mathematics for her Extended Essay within the IB Diploma program. It encapsulates a setting inside a gothic cathedral, in which light pours in and comments on the end of civilisation and humanity. Jane is in the final year of her IBDP course.
Tomb of Humanity
Encouragement Awards
Lucinda Campbell Year 11 GW 2021 – Outnumbered - Digital art on canvas
Lucinda started at Wesley College in ECLC and is now studying the IBDP Visual Arts course at Glen Waverly. She is a dedicated Art student who enjoys working across a range of mediums including digital, fibre, drawing and painting. Outnumberedsaw Lucinda work digitally using Adobe Photoshop prior to printing on canvas. This work is in response to a political art unit she is currently studying and voices the gender disparity of the few women in senior management positions in Australia.
Packers Prize
Packers Prize – Christina Nelson - Year 12 GW 2021 – Holidays – ceramic Kombi
The Packers Prize is chosen by the art technicians from Glen Waverly and St Kilda Road who hang the annual exhibition. This year they were spoilt for choice but narrowed down their Prize to Christina Nelson and her playful Kombi van made from white earthenware clay, which has been sculpted by hand, complete with surfboard. Christina is currently completing her Year 12 IBDP studies this year. In Visual Arts she has created a body of work centred around the theme of Australia. Her work, Holidays, is part of her final works and is synonymous with road trips around this vast land.
