Bear hugs top award at beach art festival

A TWISTED teddy bear that reflects on a world of electronic devices where hugs are given via an emoji has won top prize at this year’s SWELL Sculpture awards.

Dion Parker and Andrew Cullen’s Prickles the Unhuggable Bear (above), a teddy bear made of steel, reo bar, wire and barbed wire, was named winner of the $15,000 award at last night’s festival launch at Dust Temple, at Currumbin.

South Australian artist Karl Meyer’s Foci – a visually engaging piece that uses corrugated steel – won the $1000 artist peer award.

The $1500 emerging artist award went to Greg Quinton’s Jump – a 3m high-swing frozen at the height of its arc and designed to prompt viewers to think about their childhood – while Antone Bruinsma was named winner of the $3000 environmental awareness award for The Three Graces.

The artworks will be displayed at Currumbin from today until September 23.