Kate Bergin wins Albany art prize
Victorian artist Kate Bergin has won the City of Albany Art Prize, one of the richest visual arts awards in the State.
Bergin's oil painting Call of the Highly Improbable, of a black swan with spectacles and a Bakelite telephone in the manner of a 17th century Flemish still-life, was announced the best of 30 national finalists at the Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany.
The Bendigo-based artist won $25,000 plus four weeks in a self-contained studio cottage in Albany and $2500 in expenses. Tasmanian artist Stephanie Tabram and Melbourne artist Annika Koops were highly commended and won $1000 each.
Bergin said her work was inspired by commentary on the global financial crisis referring to the black swan as an emblem of the highly improbable.
"The Ern Malley literary hoax that produced sustaining images such as the Black Swan of Trespass has always had particular appeal and hearing the black swan referred to in connection to the global financial crisis made the concept topical again," she said.
"The title of this painting comes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable."
The judges were Art Gallery of WA director Stefano Carboni, Perth International Arts Festival visual arts program manager Margaret Moore and Jason Smith, director of the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Victoria.
"Bergin's painting is a highly distinctive work from a field of ambitious and exceptionally accomplished paintings," the judges said.
The 30 finalists, on show until April 18, were selected from 220 entries from around the country.
The award is provided by the Jack Family Charitable Trust which initiated it three years ago to create an art prize of national significance in Albany.
