THE finalists of the 2024 Rick Amor Drawing Award have been announced.
The drawing competition, overseen by McClelland Gallery in Langwarrin, is in its second year. It had 150 applicants vying for $20,000 in prize money.
The award is named after Frankston-born artist Rick Amor, who helped establish the exhibition. He said, “a room full of drawings is a wonderful thing to behold”.
“This prize gives people one more reason to keep drawing on paper – the most direct and intimate expression of an artist’s sensibility,” Amor said.
The finalists are Kylie Blackley, Moira Burke, Carmel Byrne, Philip Cooper, Matthew Clarke, W.H.Chong, Yvonne East, Linda Fardoe, Vivien Gaston, Harry Hay, Ian Hay, Barbie Kjar, James Money, Susan Morse, Adam Nudelman, Catherine O’Donnell, Massimo Palombo, Ignacio Rojas, Claire Sheperd, Mary Tonkin, Caroline Walls, and Michelle Zuccolo.
The finalists will have their work exhibited at McClelland Gallery between 30 March and 30 June. McClelland director Lisa Byrne said “drawing has traditionally been used for preparatory sketches and studies ahead of finished paintings or sculptures. This award demonstrates the vibrancy of drawing practice as exciting media in its own right, full of invention and experimentation.”
“Once again there was a terrific standard of drawing practice across a range of still life, abstract and conceptual. Of the 21 selected there is a strong diversity of approaches to drawing, from fluid, to controlled drawing practice, to disciplined and some freer suggestive ways of drawing,” she said.
McClelland Gallery is at 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin.