Feb 15

Sunshine Coast Art Prize winner Marian Tubbs’ 2021, “The Farm”, hangs in office

Sunshine Coast Art Prize winner Marian Tubbs’ 2021 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, “The Farm”,

For the fourth consecutive year, Argon Law together with the Sunshine Coast Council are the proud Major Sponsors of the Sunshine Coast Art Prize.

This year we are lucky enough to have last year’s winner Marian Tubbs’ 2021 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, “The Farm”, hanging in our office.

The work is a constructed image, manipulated in detail to read as an underwater landscape. The image welcomes viewers into the midst of a contemporary kelp farm that is simultaneously lush, solarised and pixelated.

While natural kelp farms die out throughout Australian waters from climate change, industry development of underwater farms is booming.

We hope this year brings more local talented finalists of which there were six out of a pool of forty. We interviewed David Green from Buderim, Miles Allen from Flaxton and Peter Hudson from Maleny as well as Amanda Shadforth from Alexandra Headlands whom we also had a special ‘meet the artist’ experience at the gallery.

This year’s guest judge will be Ellie Buttrose, Curator, Contemporary Australian Art, QAGOMA, who will judge prize categories Major Prize, Highly Commended and Artist Residency awards. The artwork awarded with the Major Prize will be acquired into the Sunshine Coast Art Collection and the People’s Choice prize is also decided by way of public vote by exhibition visitors.

We look forward to another fabulous year with the amazing team at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the Sunshine Coast Council. The call for entries opens on 21 February 2022 and closes 9 May 2022, 5pm AEST.

Image left to right: John Gallagher, Argon Law Director, Nina Shadforth, Sunshine Coast Art Collection Curator, Caloundra Regional Gallery and James Blevin, Argon Law General Manager