Ben Apfelbaum

PORTIA GEACH MEMORIAL AWARD 2023 @ S. H. ERVIN GALLERY

Trish Tait (Put the needle on the record. (Hugh Tait))
Sassy Park (Shirley Bassett)
Rebecca Armstrong – Rose Chong & one of her mannequins
Rachel Robb – Self Portrait with Bird
Michelle Zuccolo The tirade (self portrait)
Margaret Ackland Balance- ( Self Portrait))
Kathrin Longhurst – Icon-ic (Bianca Spender)
Janine Dello – Divorce Cake (Self Portrait)
Deborah Walker – Longhand (Judith Lucy)
Caroline Zilinsky _ The Mondrian Plane (Jane Adams)
Alison Mackay -Single Use Only (Richard Morecroft)

This is simply an outstanding exhibition of portraits, conceived in many different ways, by some of our leading female artists.

First awarded in 1965, the Portia Geach Memorial Award was established by Florence Kate Geach in memory of her sister, artist Portia Geach. Perpetual is trustee of the Award and as per the direction of the will, it is presented annually to an Australian female artist for the best portrait painted from life of a man or woman distinguished in art, letters or the sciences.

The judging panel included Katherine Roberts, Senior Curator, Manly Art Gallery & Museum; Natalie Wilson, Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Jane Watters, Director, S.H Ervin Gallery.

The panel commented: ‘The judges appreciated the diverse approaches to portraiture from the traditional to conceptual depictions in order to capture their subject. In the final judging the high standard of the finalists was evident, and they would like to acknowledge the artists for their efforts.’

The judging panel selected 57 works from 374 entries received from female artists across Australia.

On the winning entry,  Kate Stevens portrait of whistleblower David McBride who was the military lawyer with Australian Special Services who helped to expose war  crimes in Afghanistan, they said: ‘The painting confidently demonstrates the artists painterly skills as well as evident empathy with her subject. The judges admired the intensity and authenticity of the subject as depicted by the artist and responded to the powerful narrative of the two-panelled work.’

An exhibition of all finalists’ works is open for public viewing at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in The Rocks, Sydney. The exhibition has one week to go, closing on Sunday 17th December 2023. Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11am-5pm.

There is a lovely cafe adjoining the gallery.

Go see! 

Featured image – Kate Stevens – ‘The Whistleblower ‘(David McBride) – The winning entry. Text and photos of artworks by Ben Apfelbaum

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.