Fragile and harsh inspire Wallace Art Award winner

In winning the 2000 Wallace Art Awards on Friday, Gregor Kregar, a 28-year-old expatriate sculptor from Slovenia, joins an illustrious list of previous winners, including Bill Hammond and Susan Jowsey.

Kregar's large work Prstan, means ring in his native language and that's the form it mimics. But the materials, recycled glass melted into curving sheets set within a frame constructed from welded junkyard metal debris, call to mind many interpretations.

This is what Kregar intends. "The name is unimportant to me. That's why I used Slovenian, because few New Zealanders would know what it meant. I wanted people to focus on the work and make up their own minds [about] what they are seeing."

For him, the tension between the fragile glass and harsh, torn metal "ligaments" provides a satisfying quality of its own, one that he has employed in earlier works, including Eyeball at the recent Crystal Chain Gang exhibition at the New Gallery.

The translucent glass sheets, made from thousands of broken bottles, had to be fired in a kiln, a complex and delicate process. The metal outer skeleton has been in an acid bath to create a uniformity of texture and colour.

It's easy but wrong to add the epithet wartorn to the part of the world he was raised in. Slovenia, and the capital Ljubljana where Kregar grew up, have not been a focal point for the bitter conflicts policed by UN and New Zealand peacekeepers. The first of the former Yugoslavia's territories to break away in 1990, Slovenia, after a brief conflict has largely carried on as usual, says Kregar, who has been back to visit friends and family in the three and a half years he has been in Auckland. The city is a cultural capital, home of significant festivals for the visual and performing arts.

After completing a degree in fine arts there, Kregar sought to extend his personal and artistic experience in another country. He chose New Zealand because, to his mind's eye, it embodied a "tropical paradise." A keen windsurfer and swimmer and no fan of Slovenian winters, Kregar chose Elam at Auckland University to complete his masters in fine arts. The reality has proved a little different, but Kregar has come to love this country, has residency and a New Zealand girlfriend.

The prize, which includes a cheque for $15,000 plus $5000 air travel, will allow Kregar to visit home again, though he plans to journey to India and London on the way.

"It's great and to me, is an important step to realising a career as a sculptor."

Whether that is in New Zealand or overseas is too early to say, but Kregar, assured and diplomatic, says he now regards New Zealand as much a home as Slovenia.

*Runners-up were Richard Thompson and Graham Fletcher. The winning work and other entries are at the New Gallery in Auckland until October 22. Gilbert Wong