Three Northland artists finalists in country’s top drawing prize

Kerikeri artist Jane Molloy-Wolt has been selected for the second time as a finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize award, with two of her works in the running

Kerikeri artist Jane Molloy-Wolt is hoping her second time as a finalist in the prestigious Parkin Drawing Prize award sees her lift the country’s top award.

Molloy-Wolt, who has two works in contention, is one of three Northlanders in the running for the Parkin Drawing Prize with Kaipara’s Jay Allen and Melanie Badenhorst from Paparoa each having one work included.

Molloy-Wolt has her works The Darkest Nights and Ink Script in competition, while Allen has her work Seed Vault included.

Molloy-Wolt was delighted to have her works selected as Parkin finalists.

“These large drawings on vintage cotton The Darkest Nights and Ink Script are a way of documenting and archiving family histories and stories. The inky repeating symbols and patterns are a visual language that has developed and evolved over years of drawing and painting,’’ he said.

‘’I think my earliest inspiration was in my 20s when I worked at The Canterbury Museum, illustrating insects. When you are drawing using a microscope, everything changes, the detail is mind-blowing. The recording of research to preserve family stories is my way of acknowledging a specific moment and place, piecing the parts together to process my own personal journey. The drawing process for me is many things, performative, at times painstaking but mostly pure joy.”

Kaipara artist Jay Allen’s work Seed Vault, amid concerns of flooding, is a finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize award

Allen said the concept of seed banking provided the catalyst for this work from 2024 as a rich symbol of our global climate concerns.

‘’My starting point was the Svalbard Seedbank, a bunker containing the world’s seeds, nestled in an arctic snowdrift in our rapidly warming world. What begins with finely drawn rows descends into abstraction and decay at its lower levels, as the water rises,’’ she said.

‘’Seeds sprout or mould, panels warp and become impossibly thin. I have used ceramic as a medium for its qualities of both fragility and strength, and the length and care of the process required to bring each piece to completion.’’

Badenhorst said from an archeological map from 1948, her artwork Africa - created this year - explores the primordial nature of the continent; showing its magnificent and terrifying creatures of the sea with minimal information on the map itself.

‘’Ovamboland in the far North is where the indigenous people of my childhood came from. I am a ceramic artist, and the word ‘Ovambo’ means ‘those who made pots’. This tribe was dispersed and handed small lots of land, shown on the map. I wanted to create a sense of peace as well as tension, with the floating sea creatures symbolising the blood thirsty threat of invasion.’’

Paparoa artist Melanie Badenhorst is one of three Northland finalists in the country’s top drawing award the Parkin Drawing Prize with this work Africa

The Parkin Drawing Prize is the country’s premier award for drawing. There were 463 entries and 77 works made it to the shortlist. The winner will receive $25,000 and there will be 10 highly commended prizes.

The National competition now in its 12th year, was founded in 2012 and has been supported by arts patron Chris Parker since then. The winner will be selected and announced by New Zealand writer, art critic and curator Justin Paton, who is head curator of international art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Paton will announce the winner and highly commendeds at the gala opening of the Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington on Monday. The exhibition will run until September 1.

A full list of finalists and more details can be found at parkinprize.nz

■ This story has been updated to include details of Paparoa artist Melanie Badenhorst’s entry, which was inadvertently not provided to NZME for the initial story on the Parkin Drawing Prize.