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JOHN STRINGER PRIZE

7 October – 4 December 2022

The John Stringer Prize was inaugurated by The Collectors Club in 2015 in celebration of the memory of one of Australia’s most acclaimed art curators, the late John Stringer. A long-term friend and mentor to its members, he established The Collectors Club in Perth in 1996 to promote informed collecting and patronage of Western Australian art. The John Stringer Prize strives to continue his important legacy and since 2018, the John Curtin Gallery has been proud to present this annual exhibition celebrating artists making a major impact on contemporary practice in Western Australia.

Each year, a panel of three leading arts professionals are tasked with selecting six Western Australian-based contemporary artists whose practices they deem worthy of recognition. The panellists for this year’s prize were: Helen Carroll, Manager, Wesfarmers Arts; Jane Chambers, Revealed curator, Fremantle Art Centre and Sarah Wall, curator, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA). The six artists are invited to produce a new artwork in any medium for inclusion in the exhibition. In the months leading up to the Prize, members of The Collectors Club visit each of the nominated artists’ studios and intimately come to know their work. Club members then vote at this exhibition by way of secret ballot to decide on the Prize recipient.

John Stringer Prize 2022 finalists are: Amanda Bell, Bruno Booth, Jacky Cheng, Guy Louden, Katie West and Holly Yoshida.

ARTISTS

Amanda Bell is an emerging Badimia and Yued artist living and working on Noongar Boodja in Busselton. Their artistic practice developed as an avenue for them to experience and explore their culture and the world around them. They found a voice through creativity, particularly with sculpture, installation art and portrait painting, which they use with the intention of honouring their people and communicating their feelings on contemporary issues facing Aboriginal people today.

Bruno Booth is a disabled artist living in Walyalup, Fremantle. Their constructed experiences poke fun at the assumptions many people have surrounding disability, while simultaneously leaving lasting impressions that engender a deeper response from the audience. Their recent work uses participation and large sculptural forms that challenge the able-bodied to navigate a world that is uncomfortable by design.

Jacky Cheng resides in Yawuru Country, Broome. They were born in Malaysia of Chinese heritage, with their practice fundamentally exploring identity and awareness through cultural activities and memories of home, country and relationships. Their latest work reflects, documents and expresses personal cultural history using papers and fibres as the predominant medium. Their central focus is on correlating and weaving narratives from native experiences, whilst mapping esoteric and social relationships of their origins and newfound home.

Guy Louden is an Australian artist and curator, born in Toronto and living in Walyalup, Fremantle. Notions of capitalism, technology, and what the distant future may look like in the event of a societal breakdown, are explored in their practice. Laser engraving on paper has been their current artistic practice to explore social and political themes. They have successfully curated independent exhibitions in major cities, and co-founded two galleries.

Katie West is an artist and Yindjibarndi woman based in Noongar Ballardong Country. Their current work revolves around installation, textiles and social practice. Using found and naturally dyed textiles, sound and video, they create works and happenings that invite attention to the ways we weave our stories, places, histories and futures. Underpinning their practice is the process and notion of naturally dyeing fabric – the rhythm of walking, gathering, bundling, boiling water and infusing materials with plant matter.

Holly Yoshida is a painter based in Boorloo, Perth. Their practice is informed by historical painting and the conventions of still life, most recently through the medium of dry brushed oil on panel. A grisaille technique and subdued palette were employed to document and quietly elevate present-day mundanity. Through the process of painting they aim to depict the private and invisible by de-familiarising the everyday.