National Contemporary Art Award 2023: Tauranga artist Tawhai Rickard wins $20k prize

Tauranga-based artist Tawhai Rickard (Ngaati Uepohatu, Ngaati Porou) won the National Contemporary Art Award 2023 for his work titled Scenes from a Victorian Restaurant. Photo / Ruth Gilmour

Tauranga artist Tawhai Rickard (Ngaati Uepohatu, Ngaati Porou) has won this year’s National Contemporary Art Award for his installation Scenes from a Victorian Restaurant.

Arts curator and award judge Melanie Oliver selected the “nuanced and generous” work because it “clearly speaks to the most pressing issues of our time”.

“Rickard’s work ... invites viewers to take a seat at the table, challenging us all to engage in a discussion on the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa. It is a provocation that is nuanced and generous, prompting us to think about the ongoing impacts of colonisation, and our failings in terms of Te Tiriti.”

The annual award was launched in 2000 by the Waikato Society of Arts and has been hosted by the Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga O Waikato since 2006.

Describing the artwork in his own words, Rickard said: “It is a visual ode to the bicultural relationship between Māori and non-Māori.

“The aesthetic integrity of my work aligns with our country’s bicultural foundations through the use of Victorian baroque elements combined with the figurative painting style of my ancestral house Hinetapora, circa 1896.”

National Contemporary Art Award judge 2023 Melanie Oliver, artists Sung Hwan Bobby Park, Sara (Hera) Tautuku Orme, Tawhai Rickard, Hannah Ireland and Waikato Museum director of museum and arts Liz Cotton. Photo / Ruth Gilmour

This year, the National Contemporary Art Award drew an “unprecedented” volume of entries, the museum says, with more than 420 works submitted by artists based in New Zealand and overseas.

Oliver selected the winner from 41 finalists in a blind-judging process during which the artists’ names are concealed.

Waikato Museum director of museum and arts Liz Cotton said: “Oliver has selected a truly extraordinary work from a selection that reveals the talent, depth, creativity and bravery of our contemporary arts sector.”

Rickard won the $20,000 award and Auckland artist Sung Hwan Bobby Park was runner-up, winning $7500 for the digital photograph BTM 조상 초상화 Ancestor Portrait.

The winner of the Friends of Waikato Museum $1000 Merit Award was Auckland artist Hannah Ireland for her work Stained Cheery Wine and the winner of the Random Art Group $1000 Merit Award was Sara (Hera) Tautuku Orme, of Auckland, for her photo Darling, Tēnei Au.

The winner of the Campbell Smith Memorial People’s Choice Award, worth $250, will be chosen by the public just before the exhibition closes in November. People visiting the exhibition can vote for their favourite artwork and the one with the most votes wins.

All finalists’ works are on show at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato in Hamilton until November 12. Entry is free. All artworks in the exhibition are available for sale.

National Contemporary Art Award finalists 2023

• Brett a’Court, Northland Te Tai Tokerau, Thomas Kendall’s Affair (oil on prepared woollen blanket on canvas support)
• Rachel Hope Allan, Dunedin Ōtepoti, Tuesday (photograph)
• Colleen Altagracia, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, A kiss (electric cable, embroidery thread, magnet, crocodile clips, air)
• Naomi Azoulay, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Tehlor II (oil on stretched canvas)
• Debbie Barber, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, When I rub the rocks on my jeans they polish differently. (clay, denim)
• Jordan Barnes, New Plymouth Ngāmotu, Adam (after Michelangelo) (graphite on paper)
• Tori Beeche, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, The Daily Cosmic Order (oil on linen)
• Deborah Body, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, The remains of the day. (acrylic and oil on unstretched canvas)
• Emily Brown, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Final Fantasy (toner print on silk)
• D. Milton Browne, Dunedin Ōtepoti, Recycle Day (photograph - archival giclée inkjet print)
• Esther Bunning, Greytown Te Hupenui, The gilded shift (photograph)
• Cathy Carter, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Liquid Gold (Fujiflex Crystal Archive C-type silver halide photographic print)
• Cathy Carter, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Plunge, Klein Blue (giclée print on Hahnemühle Ultra Smooth paper)
• Katherine Claypole, Whanganui, Tears of Gabrielle (hand-stitched metallic thread on painted stretched canvas)
• Antony Densham, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, C15.2023 (acrylic on canvas)
• Kim Fifield, Tauranga, The Wrack Line (algae-based bioplastic, shell, macro-seaweed, barnacles, driftwood, plastic, leaves, feathers, sand, aluminium panel)
• Alastair Floyd, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Heavy Industries (acrylic paint, pigment ink, acrylic ink on Fabriano Artistico acid-free cotton rag)
• Hannah Ireland, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Stained Cheery Wine (watercolour, ink and acrylic on found window) Merit Award winner
• Bena Jackson, Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Flipping skateboards (pale) (mosaic — ceramic tiles, cement board, adhesive, grout, steel)
• Reece King, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Se’i ou va’ai (oil and enamel on canvas)
• Cecelia Kumeroa, Whanganui, Manu Tioriori (digital media)
• Theo Macdonald, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Light of the Pacific (digitised 16mm film)
• Leanne Morrison, Hastings Heretaunga, 11 (acrylic and enamel on canvas, stretcher, wooden sticks)
• Ella Grace Nicol, Hamilton Kirikiriroa, Tears of Ranginui (Dew on the Emerald Dagger Moss) (glass beads, sterling silver, palladium, pewter, nylon thread)
• Shannon Novak, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Two Lovers in Fiordland (digital print on paper)
• Mark O’Donnell & Cameron Rey, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Cheese and Onion (yellow plastic, black foam, clear adhesives, pins, paint, varnish)
• Sara (Hera) Tautuku Orme, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Darling, Tēnei Au (photograph)
• Maria O’Toole, Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Poems to Oceania: Vanuatu, April 2023 (crayon on Fabriano paper)
• Sung Hwan Bobby Park, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, BTM 조상 초상화 Ancestor Portrait (digital photograph)
• Marilyn Rea-Menzies, Westport Kawatiri, Lichen 2 (handwoven tapestry)
• Tawhai Rickard, Tauranga, Scenes from a Victorian Restaurant (reclaimed wood, enamel/acrylic paint)
• Naomi Roche, Hamilton Kirikiriroa, Cold Comfort for the Contemporary Human (textile)
• Warisara Thomson, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, I think I’m homesick (single channel, moving image)
• Jenny Tomlin, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, All my ghosts (photograph)
• Hannah Valentine, Tauranga, New Routine (If there’s pleasure in action, there’s peace in stillness) (cast bronze and cord)
• Anja Vallis, Taupo, Granny’s trippin’ (wool and acrylic yarn mix, black calico)
• Rīhari Warnock, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Moemoea (ink on Arches cold press, 600gsm paper)
• Amanda Watson, Raglan Whāingaroa, In the sun near the kohekohe (ink, pigment, and glue size on canvas)
• Siniva Williams, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Nanna’s wairua (digital photograph, digitally painted on Hahnemühle German Etching 310gsm Textured Matte paper)
• Benjamin Work, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, I look above to where my help comes from (acrylic on canvas)
• Cora-Allan, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Kai Paraoa (whenua (pukepoto and karangahape blush) on hiapo)