National Art School grad exhibition - 4 December

We like checking out emerging artists at big lamington and they don't get more emerging than the graduate exhibition at the National Art School. It is on in the galleries there until 14 December but the first weekend had the studio spaces open as well. The 3 year old art critic and I went along on a sunny Saturday afternoon to check out the offerings ...

I was really impressed by some of the work the students had on show, and was also a little surprised to see that quite a lot of it was for sale. But that's commercialism and HECS for you I guess. We didn't make any purchases but I did make a serious enquiry on behalf of the junior collector. She was quite taken by one of Zoe Walford's images. Hers were all pop style collage / painting on board. One of them included a very striking purple pony which naturally caught the eye of someone who herself collects this theme in depth. Zoe's other images of a Japanese nurse probably weren't suitable for a childs bedroom so on we went.

Another little thing I noticed were the number of awards handed out to the graduating class. The first time I saw it I thought to myself, oh congratulations, X has won the prize. But by the time I saw the 5th or 6th marker advertise this I was a little less impressed. It was lucky I saw ceramicist [bear with me while we try and locate our notes and get the artists name!] early and was impressed by her prize winning work. She had a couple of pieces in the main gallery and we saw more of her work, including a nifty little video, in the studio.

The Big Lamington prize, if awarded this year, would have gone to Angus Fisher (don't worry readers, he had won another prize) whose bird print of a north american turkey could have gone straight to my pool room (or more appropriately, library). The Little Lamington prize, again if awarded, would have gone to Stephanie Gallagher for her work endless space (pictured).

The committee awarded the points this week, 3 for Stephanie (the "tents" as they were referred to left a lasting impression), 2 for Angus and 1 for Zoe.