The Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA) is an annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland. The program aims to provide a platform for further professional development.
The Mervyn Moriarty Landscape Award Touring Exhibition is the inaugural tour of the finalists from the 2023 QRAA award category. The selected artists, chosen by finalist judge Jonathan McBurnie, will have their work showcased across the state, accompanying the 2023 QRAA Perspective Touring Exhibition, and also featuring as a stand alone show.
2024 TOURING EXHIBITION LOCATIONS
Cairns Court House Gallery, Cairns – 21 March to 27 April 2024
Goondiwindi Regional Civic Centre, Goondiwindi – 1 June to 13 July 2025
The Judith Wright Art Centre, Brisbane – 12 – 30 August
Laypunyah Art Gallery, Chinchilla – 1 November to 6 December 2024
BROCHURE
2023 THE MERVYN MORIARTY LANDSCAPE AWARD JUDGING PANEL
Jonathan McBurnie, Director, Rockhampton Museum of Arts, Rockhampton.
The Flying Artist, 2023 – Aaron Butt
Inspired by Jeffrey Smart’s painting ‘The traveller’ (1973), “The Flying Artist’ pays tribute to Mervyn Moriarty and his pioneering work. I was struck by Mervyn’s 70’s appearance and the harsh surrounding landscape, a kind of nostalgia for a bygone era not actually experienced.
Banksia dusk after fire, 2023 – Adrienne Williams
This piece is a return to working on board and studying old banksia friends as I embark on a new direction following a wildflower-laden residency last year. Using the confluence of a pandemic isolation and a multi-year La Niña rain event, I planted a new garden at my home. It has flourished and failed through too much rain-love. Coastal banksias died, swamp banksias thrived, birdsong rang out across the flat red earth farmlands that surround where I live, and forests grew fuel for future fire seasons. It dries out now, we watch and wait as summer approaches and the fires begin.
Gate or pathway, 2023 – Barbara Pierce
From a global perspective there are big decisions to make with regard to the choices that are available. At an individual level we all make many decisions every moment of every day. My own experience of decision-making is a mixed bag. I have made instant decisions about ‘big things’ and agonized for a long time over ‘small things’. This painting of a closed gate beside an unobstructed pathway in a landscape setting makes reference to choices and the decision-making process. When in the natural environment I am drawn to man-made structures that have a look of history or weathering about them. I often take photographs of fences, gates, and well-trodden pathways as well as other things. That is why a gate and a pathway have found their way into this painting. (Also the decision to show this work was not an easy one).
Heading for Heights, 2023 – Beatrice Prost
Beatrice’s work makes you want to reach for the sky. Who has not looked up in a forest and wish to be reaching up? It symbolises many of our goals to achieve the impossible. Our eyes lead the way to arrive to the apex of a magnificent light filled eucalyptus. That is more than a simple geometrical perspective! That is faith. Beatrice hand carves her own photography printed as a once off on aluminium. Her mark making is finely etched into the surface, irreversibly retrieving the ink by superimposing her personal narrative and design.
Bribie Billabong #2, 2023 – Gabi Mika-McNaughton
Without perspective my work amounts to absolutely nothing! Especially when I delve into a landscape. All my works derive solely from my perspective. Whether from plein air or from a photo I have taken, the composition is what my mind finds comfortable or perhaps complete. With this work most of the perspective has been gifted to me by the natural environment. But then my eye will spot something that needs to change. Something in the composition that I don’t like. I may add more branches to force the viewers eye to stop at a particular point or stray further into the distance. My objective is to get my audience to see things from my perspective. BUT WILL THEY?
Australian in landscape, pine and palm, 2023 – Gary Abkin
“This artwork, centered around the theme of ‘Perspective,’ employs contrasting elements to engage viewers in profound contemplation. At its core, the composition showcases a central female figure discharging pistols into the sky, set against a backdrop of sweeping pink and black tones. Distant palm and pine trees further contribute to the juxtaposition of geographical and environmental perspectives.
The dual shadows cast by the protagonist, one stark and black, mimicking, the other brown, rising from behind and firing from the hip, symbolize perceived action versus an internal point of view. These shadows underscore the intricate layers of human identity and cognition, offering multiple perspectives.
In summary, the work provokes a profound exploration of the interplay between action, environment, and contrasting perspectives within the sphere of human perception.”
Parallel Lines, 2023 – Grant Quinn
One can be mistaken that perception is more than what meets the eye.
‘Parallel Line’ blurs the reality and asks the question…’what if’
Looking at what we can store away in our mind at various depths, through discomfort, fear, trauma, or just some blurred vision in a busy world. With a vision that is anchored in the belief that art has the power to evoke emotions, provoke thought and promote empathy. By exploring the intricate interplay of light, shadow, colour and depth and in creating this work, I have endeavoured to create ‘Parallel Lines’ to ‘blur’ the perception between the extraordinary within the ordinary.
Holding On, 2023 – Helen Dennis
The sociological perspective of Symbolic Interaction is one of the unique ways in which we can explore and explain the various aspects of society and human behaviour. Its premise is that everyone interacts with things based on the meanings they have for them. The meaning of these things are created through social interactions with other people, constantly modifying and revising.
In ‘Holding On’ I seek to provide a symbolic interpretation of what I perceive within my environment and create a communication with the viewer. By delving deeply into the organic structure of the tree roots one can be taken on a journey into the ‘mindset’ of the tree; its daily search for sustenance, its complex interfaces with a harsh environment, and the micro-interactions occurring within its capillary system.
Following the tree’s example, we can be inspired to be innovative in our view of society and in our interactions with others.
The Gulf, 2023 – Ian Waldron
The Gulf creatively collages together a collection of Waldron’s signature motifs and stories into the landscape imagery of Normanton River. Kurtjar language words, black & white scenes from Delta Downs Cattle Station, Palm Cockatoo and advertising signage are seen through a screen of bloodwood totems. The bloodwood tree, a eucalyptus encased in a thick, rough bark, is a Kurtjar clan totem.
The artist comments that “Every work that I have ever painted is anchored in The Gulf one way or another. My art culminates as a visual representation of my identity – I am my country. As a title, The Gulf is my homeland, but also an ambiguous reference to a chasm between the two worlds that inhabits an Indigenous presence and a contemporary life.” Waldron continues to paint and articulate this space, this hybrid perspective.
It’s Complicated, 2023 – Jodi Bowen
It’s Complicated challenges traditional perspectives when mangrove forests were viewed as wastelands. The beauty and the importance of these ecosystems were overlooked and replaced in many instances, by coastal development.
The physical complexity of these forests is part of their beauty. The twisted branches and root systems have a wild untamed presence, preventing erosion. From this perspective, they are essential to coastal biospheres.
Using oil pencil on birch boards, a triptych format is used to create layers, depth and perspective to the work.
It’s Complicated invites the viewer to challenge their own perspectives of mangroves and appreciate the beauty and significance of these native forests.
Mudjimba Morning, 2023 – John Emerson
“Mudjimba Morning,” is a painting depicting an iconic landmark Mudjimba Island, which sits directly off the Sunshine Coast. The painting highlights movement of the water in the foreground against the perspective of the Island which locals colloquially call, “Old Woman Island.” The painting interprets the surrounding environment through colour vision. It features photopic (daylight) light reflected by the stillness of the Island in the background in order to create perspective.
After The Floods, 2023 – Kirsty O’Brien
The tumultuous force of flooding violently scoured the Bremer River in 2022, leaving behind a sombre, muddied landscape. This video collage portrays the rejuvenation of river life, verdant and vibrant. Birds, animals, plants and the river were captured in video and still photography sessions, then brought together and enhanced in an arrangement from a favourite viewing point. I share my perspective of this space, and also my time perspective, measured by my perception of the duration of the indefinite and unfolding of events, to focus on a future time horizon. Times lapsed and layered with time continuum, I explore the river’s cathartic journey, revealing its inexorable return to a state of lush equilibrium.
Walking Home, 2023 – Laura Castell
This work shows how my point of view of the nature I see as I walk around has been slowly transforming, from a larger perspective to an increasing intimate experience. An awareness of the fragility of the natural world has modified my vision, finding beauty in every mark, gentle or rough. Gum trees are a strong part of our everyday lives, reminding us of what we still have. This work also represents my effort to honour their presence and ‘bring home’ the experience of my walks.
Disconnection, 2023 – Serinah Williams
I am a Yiman woman living on Gubbi Gubbi land, disconnected from my Country. In ‘Disconnection’ I have explored a range of photographic mediums to disrupt historical photographic norms from my perspective. Photography was weaponised by Western colonisers to record data and dehumanise my ancestors. I am reclaiming photography’s problematic history, blindly believed as truth. Using this to my advantage, I am re-telling the narrative of colonisation and exposing the truth of what dispersal means for Aboriginal people. I re-photographed family photos on 120mm film with a pinhole camera. I have manipulated the film to suggest bullet holes on scanned negatives and digitally printed with holes at 9mm, faking the indexical trace of a real bullet. This is a form of truth-telling used to discuss the dispersal of my mob, using photographic mediums to represent my lack of connection to Country and culture due to the dispersals.
Bimblebox Expression, 2023 – Sharon Kirk
Perspective has a Latin root meaning to “look through” or “perceive” so I understand the term as being a particular way of looking, a way of perceiving things. It could also mean an understanding of the relative importance of things.
This work uses materials from the landscape itself to attempt to tell its own story through a different perspective rather than just looking at it from a viewer’s lens. By using these elements, it puts value and importance on the material composition of the landscape itself.
Paint made with Earth pigments, ground Bimblebox leaves, ink made from Bloodwood sap, ground charcoal and bark along with a small amount of acrylic paint have all been combined to create a work that attempts to allow this particular landscape to put forward its own perspective.