Artist still draws on prize controversy
In the three years since he controversially won the Parkin Drawing Prize, artist Douglas Stichbury has fitted a lot in.
The artist, originally from Palmerston North and who studied at Massey University in Wellington, is now based in New York City.
His piece Observer won the 2014 Parkin Drawing Prize, a national competition launched five years ago by hotelier and art collector Chris Parkin.
There was some controversy surrounding his winning piece, which Stichbury says was based on several images from a newspaper archive. It looked similar to a renowned 1930s photograph by Margaret BourkeWhite of astronomer Edwin Hubble, whose name was given to the Hubble space telescope.
He has since held artists’ residencies in Switzerland, Germany and Hong Kong.
He believes the controversy helped his career, leading to more conversation around his works and greater name recognition.
‘‘We did get a lot more people come into the gallery who were familiar with my work ... I think it was really beneficial.’’
He works mainly in monochrome, using mostly black and in a style that is very realistic, he says. ‘‘But at the same time, a lot of my subject matter is really surreal, strange.’’
He says winning the Parkin prize created lots of publicity and helped elevate his career.
‘‘I guess the case with any national award is there’s a lot of attention drawn to it and the contestants get a lot of recognition.
‘‘It’s a good award. There’s lots of publicity around it and then, of course, there’s the prize itself, which I’m sure would be really helpful for the artist as well. I wholeheartedly recommend it.’’
The competition promotes excellence and innovation in drawing in all its forms and aims to play an important role in fostering New Zealand drawing practice.
Anyone living permanently here can enter. The award has a major prize of $20,000 and 10 highly commended prizes of $500.
Entries close on June 16 at 4pm. Forms and full details are available at parkinprize.nz.
Stichbury was in Wellington last week to open Cosmic Visitation, his latest exhibition at Suite Art Gallery on Cuba St. The show – inspired by Roadside Picnic, a short science fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in 1971 – runs until June 3.