Glass artist Kathryn Wightman is one of three Whanganui finalists in this year's Parkin Drawing Prize.
Three Whanganui artists have been selected as finalists in the annual Parkin Drawing Prize.
There were 463 entries for the prize, with 77 works making the shortlist. The winner will receive $25,000 and there will be 10 highly commended prizes of $500.
This is Jutta Humpfer’s fourth time as a finalist – and this year she is one of only two artists with two artworks that made the shortlist.
Her first work is titled Play my Strings, and the second is Humba Täterä.
Like her previous artworks that have been finalists, both pieces are made from outlived pantyhose but, unlike her previous entries, these two are large works, not small.
Humpfer’s fascination with pantyhose started a few years ago when she got attached to a pair of pantyhose that she bought in Germany when visiting her mother.
“They were white with many coloured dots in them. But, of course, they usually don’t last a lifetime, hence I tried to give them an afterlife of some sort.”
Humpfer described her work as play and process-oriented.
“I play by blending, bending, adding, scanning, enlarging, printing and reprinting parts of old fabrics, in particular outlived pantyhose. I force them into new dimensions and meanings, creative new mages that blur the boundaries between fibre and drawing.”
She said she was always excited to see her work exhibited alongside other contemporary artists but was disappointed she would not be there in person, as she was travelling to New York to participate in a four-day creativity workshop before visiting Venice.
Glen Hutchins was inspired by his hometown when working on his shortlisted drawing, titled Night Shift.
Hutchins said he was inspired by the landscape and the industrial area of Castlecliff where he grew up.
“As a child, I would bike on what felt like endless roads, along the river and out to miles of beach. I was free to explore the coast, port and industrial areas.”
He said it was all flat planes, long lines and surfaces that were rough and weathered, with marks from the land and from industry. That was reflected in his artwork.
“The work is spontaneous, random, direct, and playful, and explores the notion of space.”
When creating Night Shift, Hutchins used graphite, black spray paint and duct tape on paper. The whole piece is 2090mm by 1250mm.
Hutchins, who has been drawing and painting since he was 15, said during his time at school it was all he did.
After he finished school, he went to art school in Whanganui and then completed his Master of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.
His next exhibition in Whanganui, which opens at Space Gallery on July 17, will feature drawings from the same series as Night Shift.
Kathryn Wightman was inspired by motherhood in her piece titled Disrupted.
She said she tracked the rhythm of motherhood through glass, by hand pulling and stretching glass cane that had been bent through heat and gravity to create a series of drawings that embodied the tension and fluidity of daily life.
“The shapes capture the stop-and-start rhythm of motherhood. These moments of creation, though brief, are grounding, reflecting the delicate valance between the demands of children and the need for artistic expression.”
She said she was really excited to make the finalist selection as her usual practice would not typically be described as drawing.
“To receive recognition for the entry means a lot to me and provides me with motivation to continue to expand as an artist.”
Typically, Wightman works with glass. She is a trained glassblower but since completing PhD research she has developed a process for sifting and sintering glass powder through a silkscreen.
“I love colour and material, surface and form are key to my work with the distortion and manipulation of printed imagery and pattern also playing a pivotal role.”
Wightman said she discovered her passion for art by accident.
She initially enrolled for a psychology degree and quickly realised it was not for her.
She then discovered the Glass Department at the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom.
“I enrolled as a degree student in 2000 and emerged 12 years later with a PhD. I then relocated to Whanganui to begin my lecturing career at the Whanganui Glass School.”
Alongside teaching, Wightman has her own studio where she makes works for national and international exhibitions.
The national competition, now in its 12th year, was founded in 2012 and has been supported by arts patron Chris Parkin 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 commended recipients at the gala opening of the Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington on Monday, August 5.
The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition will run until Sunday, September 1, at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington. For the full shortlist visit https://parkinprize.nz/