Visual Art News

The Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art Awards is open to senior students statewide. Judging for the 2021 competition has now taken place and we are very pleased to announce that out of 500 entries, two of our Year 12 students were selected for awards: Dino Lopes was one of only 37 recipients to have received an Excellence Award and Sam Jensen has received a Commendation Award. We congratulate both boys for being recognised through the high quality of work they produced.

We would also like to congratulate Year 10 student, James Beling who was selected from numerous entries from across the state for a unique programme in Visual Art, “In Residence” which is being facilitated by the Gallery of Modern Art. James submitted an artwork and artist statement based on an environmental concern. All entries were scrutinised by a selection panel and shortlisted to 150 applications, followed by further judging to a final 40 students who were deemed as excellence winners. “In Residence” is a three-day event that provides Year 10 Queensland Visual Art students with the opportunity to strengthen their understanding of the academic, experimental, collaborative and reflective nature of contemporary visual art and gain an appreciation for the breadth of opportunities in the creative industries. Throughout the three days, students will engage with exhibitions at QAGOMA, artists and tertiary partners as they participate in creative making and responding workshops. This is a great achievement and one which will allow James to further develop his Visual Art knowledge and skills prior to commencing his senior studies in Visual Art in 2022.

In Week 3, Year 9 students enjoyed a workshop by visiting guest artist and photographer, Dr Joachim Froese. As part of their unit “The Captured Image”, which focuses on Photography, students developed a series of photographs of Still Life compositions. Using DSLR cameras, they learnt about lighting and composition and how to set up a space to achieve the most successful images when taking Still Life photographs. Students will develop their most successful photograph into a realistic painting in the coming weeks.

The Senior Graduate Arts exhibition and awards night which took place in Week 3, was a great success and saw Visual Art, Drama and FTV departments team up to celebrate the Arts and the achievements of our senior “Arts” students. The night culminated with the announcement of the People’s Choice Award, selected by the audience and we congratulate Visual Arts in Practice student, Matt Zambelli for his mixed-media sculpture which was inspired by Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda.