The Tweed River Art Gallery is the first gallery outside Sydney to exhibit the finalists in the renowned Portia Geach Memorial Award 2011, an annual award for portraiture by contemporary Australian women artists.
The award was first given in 1965 in memory of the artist Portia Geach. It displays selected entries from artists across the nation, celebrates the talent and creativity of female portrait painters and has been an important catalyst in developing the profile of Australia’s women artists.
In 2011, the winner of the Portia Geach Memorial Award was Kate Stevens for her painting Indian Dream.
A Tweed gallery spokesperson said it was gratifying to see that the Northern Rivers is well represented by three finalists Nitza Flantz, Mahala May Magins and Michelle Dawson, who received a Highly Commended for her portrait of local artist Rene Bolten, titled Sparrow Man.
The exhibition opened last week and runs till March 18.
Another new exhibition which opened this week is Perspective Cutouts by Paul Selwood, a Maitland Regional Art Gallery touring exhibition consisting of a small series of sculptures.
On Friday 10 February an exhibition featuring artworks by 25 Chinese and 25 Australian artists of national profile who work in the tradition of fine-art printmaking will be on display.
It’s called Personal Space: Contemporary Chinese and Australian prints.
Photos Jeff Dawson
