Pāpāmoa sculptor Tawhai Rickard supreme winner of Tauranga's 2018 Miles Art Awards

Miles Art Award winner Tawhai Rickard with his wife Tania Lewis-Rickard. Photo / Andrew Warner

The winners of the 2018 Miles Art Awards were announced at the awards and exhibition opening event at Tauranga Gallery last night.

Tawhai Rickard, of Pāpāmoa, has won the overall supreme award with his sculptural work titled Victorian Waka of Social Curiosities.

Rickard also received the $10,000 cash prize thanks to the generous support of the
Venetta Miles Trust.

This is the largest financial accolade since the Miles Art Awards began in 2010.

The biennial event is named after one of Tauranga Art Gallery's original donors, Venetta Miles, who is remembered for her considerable foresight and generosity.

Cat Thompson won the Friends of Tauranga Art Gallery Award for her ceramic work titled I cede to you and $1000 prize money.

The Mayor's Award of $500 was awarded to Darcell Apelu for her work titled To Secure My Place I Must Leave.

Lynette Fisher, with her work titled My Friend Awhina, 1981, won the Ethel MacMillan Award and received $250 prize money.

The Incubator Emerging Artist Award, a new award this year, was presented to Isaac Crowe for his work titled Angela of Makawe.

Crowe's prize for winning was the opportunity to exhibit at the Incubator Gallery.

This is part of the Incubator Creative Hub initiative titled First Solo, an emerging artists exhibition series.

Awards judge Nigel Borell said he was impressed with the diversity, vitality and brilliance of the more than 100 entries for the 2018 awards, 39 of which were chosen as finalists.

"The pursuit of excellence and quality is surely one of the goals for any artist and there are some outstanding examples of this idea in the 2018 nominees."

The final award, the Bay of Plenty Times People's Choice Award, will be presented after the exhibition closes and public votes have been counted.

Members of the public will be able to vote for their favourite artwork during the exhibition which runs until September 2.

All selected artworks, if not already pre-sold, can be bought from the gallery.

Tauranga Art Gallery Director Karl Chitham said: "This year we had a huge range of entries in terms of materials, scale and subject matter, which really shows the sheer number and diversity of artists we have working in the Bay of Plenty."