Ranamok Prize finalists show range of work in glass from Australia and New Zealand

The 2009 Ranamok Prize winning work: Lisa Walsh, Across the Lines, 2009. Hot-molded glass, paint, wire. H 35 1/2, W 67, D 2 in.

The richest award for work in glass Down Under (AU$ 7,500/ US $6,600) is the Ranamok Prize. Celebrating its 14th year, this annual competition started by gallerist Maureen Cahill and collector Andy Plummer has just announced the finalists for the 2009 Ranamok Prize, as well as the overall winner. The 33 artists who made the cut take a wide variety of approaches to the material — from the layers of photographic printing of Perran Costi’s Skyboxes 09 to the kiln-cast glass figurative vessels of Ede Horton’s Chinese Whispers. Across the board, however, one quickly notices the preference for monochrome or restrained palette, essential forms, intensely worked surfaces, and spare composition that defines the distinctly Australian (and to some extent New Zealand) approach to the material. The prize-winning work for 2009 was Lisa Walsh’s Across the Lines, which employs hot-molded glass, paint, and wire to create a rich visual tableaux that is equal parts Impressionist landscape and visual tapestry of color and texture.

Ede Horton, Chinese Whispers, 2009. Kiln cast glass. H 4, W 4 3/4, 6 1/4 in.

The full list of finalists is: Kate Baker, Emma Borland, Dominic Burrell, Perran Costi, Matthew Curtis, Dorde (George) Drobac, Benjamin Edols and Kathy Elliott, Mandy Eilbeck, Mark Eliott, Judi Elliott, Wendy Fairclough, Vicki Fanning, Brenden Scott French, Keith Grinter, Marc Grunseit, Tevita Havea, Sue Hawker, Ede Horton, Nejat Kavvas, Masaki Kawanabe, Te Rōngō Kirkwood, Richard Morrell, Nick Mount, Kumiko Nakajima, Nudibranch Art Glass, Graham Orridge, Tom Rowney, Fiona Ruttelle, Benjamin Sewell, Suzannah Terauds, Emma Varga, Lisa Walsh, and Maureen Williams. You can see all the finalists’ winning entries online.

Perran Costi, Skyboxes 09, 2009. Sculpture, photography. H 6 1/2, W 6 1/2, D 4 in. (each box)

The four judges are: Jacqueline Clayton, head of creramics studio at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW; Ivana Jirasek, former coordinator at Artsupport Australia; John Odgers, national manager of Creative Industries at Austrade; and Andy Plummer, co-founder of the 15-year-old Ranamok Glass Prize.

You can flip through a virtual version of the 2009 Ranamok Prize catalog online.