John Stringer Prize 2019
The John Curtin Gallery partnered with The Collectors Club of Western Australia and the Kerry Stokes Collection to host the prestigious John Stringer Prize – created in honour of acclaimed curator, the late John Stringer (1945–2007).
The annual Prize was established in 2015 and commissions six Western Australian artists to create new work from which the winning artist will be determined by a secret ballot conducted by The Collectors Club members.
The 2019 exhibition will feature new work by the selected artists Bjoern Rainer Adamson, Ngamaru Bidu, Rebecca Dagnall, Elham Eshraghian, Kendal Gear and Holly O’Meehan.
Artist Statement for Spoiled Soils
Through the combined use of several seemingly unrelated mediums; ceramics, crochet and found objects, Holly O’Meehan’s work attempts to entice and repel the viewer through texture and medium, inspired by micro climates of native bushland and coastal landscapes found within the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The soft, flowing landscape of crocheted hills hide the harsher yet more intriguing underside of spikes, quills, thorns and teeth. An instinctive form of protection and defence. By replicating repetitive patterns found in nature, this work has developed through a combination of mimicking these elements and drawing from the artist’s imagination. Spoiled Soils attempts to focus the viewers attention on notions of acceptance within a world of disfunction, segregation and discrimination; nurturing the odd and the ugly. Within a whimsically playful installation, the artist ventures to find a balance between strength and fragility.