Downloading broad bands of colour

Sara Hughes' op-art acrylic work 'Download'

Auckland artist Sara Hughes has won one of New Zealand's leading art prizes with her op-art acrylic work Download. The painting was judged best overall entry for the Wallace Art Awards and wins the artist a $35,000 cash prize and a residency in Britain. It is described as a colourful exploration of space on a two-dimensional surface.

The 2001 Elam arts school graduate was named in 2003 the Frances Hodgkins fellow to Dunedin, where she developed a range of mosaic-like digital motifs in her work.

Her large-scale works often spread across walls and floors. Hughes says they are not like hanging a picture on a wall - "the architecture becomes part of it".

Reuben Patterson won a $15,000 development award, including travel to New York, for a strong black-and-white glitter work called Nemesis. His glitter dust pieces reference his Maori heritage, and he collaborated with World fashion designers Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper on a range of glitter suits shown at New Zealand Fashion Week several years ago.

Runner-up awards went to Robert McLeod and Richard Lewer. The awards, now in their 14th year, are supported by arts patron and industrialist James Wallace.
The winners are on show at the Wallace Gallery, 305 Queen St, Auckland, until October 7 from 10am to 4pm. Entry is free.