Visual Art News

The last few weeks of Term 2, have provided a rich array of “Arts” experiences for students across all year levels.

In Week 7, Creative Industries Week saw the Visual Art, Music, Drama and Film, Television and New Media Departments facilitate numerous activities, events, workshops, film viewings and performances throughout both breaks each day. In Visual Art, our senior Visual Arts in Practice students were fortunate to have participated in a workshop with Australian graffiti artist, Russell Fenn, (SOFLES), who has been developing his skills for over 20 years, in the mediums of aerosol and spray paint, acrylic, drawing as well as digital and illustration works. Sofles’ large-scale murals can be seen all around the world in cities such as Melbourne, Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Las Vegas, and LA and his past clients have included Amazon Prime, Culture Kings, ESPN, Ironlak, Marvel Stadium, Quicksilver, Red Bull, Tennis Australia, Uber, Commonwealth Games and Westfield. We feel very privileged to have had such a high-profile artist come to our college to share his knowledge in what is a progressive and popular area of the contemporary art world. For our live paint session this year, we managed to secure another big name in the urban and street art industry, Jordache. For the duration of first break on the Friday in the main yard, Jordache added colour, shapes and patterns to two large canvases which will be installed in the Visual Art Department in the coming weeks.

The final event in Creative Industries Week was the Tower Art Show which allowed Visual Art students to exhibit their work alongside professional and emerging artists from our local community. Congratulations to Elijah Smith in Year 11 for being awarded the People’s Choice Student Award, for his painting which depicts the concept of place. It represents the numerous bike rides he has tracked and the collection of memories linked to the various locations he has visited in and around Brisbane.  

The annual photography competition, ASHCam, is open to all in the Marist College community and provides opportunities for students, parents, relatives, Old Boys and staff to engage in the medium of photography and be recognised for outstanding abilities. Judged by world-renowned photographer and lecturer, Dr Joachim Froese, winners were announced at the opening of the Tower Art Show, with recipients also acknowledged on assembly last week. Congratulations to the 2022 ASHCam award winners.

Primary Section : (Year 5-6) – 1st Zach Lympaney; 2nd Charlie Brown

Middle Years Section: (Year 7-10) – 1st James Allpass; 2nd  Elliot Broadfoot; Highly Commended – George Bishop & Tom Duffy

Senior Years Section: (Year 11-12) – 1st – Tomas Ruiz; 2nd – Sebastian Harman; Highly Commended – Harry Grellman

Open Section: (Old Boys, Parents, Staff, Marist School Community) - 1st – Andrew Brown; 2nd Sandra Minck

In Week 8, a group of 20 Indigenous Boarders visited the Birrunga Gallery, Australia’s only Indigenous-owned Indigenous Art Gallery. Students travelled to the gallery after school and spent an enjoyable time viewing the artworks and listening to artist Kane Brunjes, discuss the stories, traditions and symbolism in his own work and the work of other artists in the current exhibition, as well as sharing knowledge about some of the techniques and processes used in producing the works.