ArtRage 2012 Selection

The Plimsoll Gallery, Tasmanian College of the Arts, Hunter Street, University of Tasmania, is delighted to be hosting ArtRage: 2012 Selection, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s vibrant exhibition of secondary school artwork. Showcasing the talent of many of Tasmania's future arts professionals, this exhibition can be viewed in the Plimsoll Gallery from Saturday April 27 until Sunday May 19.

Background

ArtRage is an annual initiative of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG). The ArtRage exhibition program was first instigated in 1994 and is now in its 18th year.

The exhibition showcases the work of young artists in years 11 and 12 from senior secondary schools across Tasmania. These students are studying Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE) Art Production or Art Studio Practice courses.

The curator of ArtRage travels around the state to view all art portfolios being presented for these examinations. This currently represents approximately 850 students.

ArtRage is a highlight of the Plimsoll Gallery, exhibition calendar, as it is for those Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE) students selected to participate. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to view an ambitious and multi-disciplinary exhibition of work by young artists with a huge range of materials and media employed. Across Tasmania, art educators also regard ArtRage as an exceptional teaching resource for cohorts of art students in the following year.

Highlights

Forty eight (48) students have been selected to participate, representing 18 schools and colleges state-wide.

The current exhibition is diverse in the range of media represented. These include traditional media such as drawing, painting, graphic design and illustration, sculpture, installations, ceramics, textiles, woodcut printing, and lino-printing as well as digital photography, photo-manipulated imagery and film.

Examiners’ Choice

Each year, the teams of examiners who mark the students’ artworks are asked to contribute to ArtRage by selecting one student from each course whose work they consider to be exemplary in terms of skill development, conceptual focus and originality. The displays, portfolios and visual diaries of these two students are presented in their entirety in the exhibition. These represent over 150 hours of study and provide fascinating insights into the concepts, research, experimentation and that have been explored and developed by the artists.

These materials enable visitors to gain insights into the creative thoughts, experimentation, technical processes and sheer hard work of these young artists.

The Examiners’ Choice for Art Production in 2012 is Georgie Morrison, a year 11 student from Launceston Church Grammar School.

Georgie’s work comprises a series of large-scale colour photographs which evoke the style and look of young women in the 1950s. ‘A folio should represent a depth of understanding of both technique and conceptual issues. These are balanced in a fusion of ideas and acknowledgment of contemporary artists’ mechanisms and methods. Clearly, this candidate was operating at an exceptionally high level of understanding to be able to both reference her sources and provide evidence of her own ‘finger-print’ as an art practitioner. (Examination team, Art Production).

The Examiners’ Choice for Art Studio Practice in 2012 is Peter Graver, a year 12 student from Hutchins School, Hobart.

Peter presented eight very large pencil drawings which he enlarged from photographs which he has taken, scaling them up using a grid system. The examiners commented that his ‘folio explores photo- realistic observational drawing to create a series of personal and seductive imagery. This folio represents one of several outstanding exemplars across the state in both Independent and State schools and colleges to successfully meet the examiners' criteria for excellence in the development of conceptual and technical resolution.’ (Examination team, Art Studio Practice)

Web Listing and Education Resource

The QVMAG web listing is updated to reflect the travelling venues. The ArtRage: 2012 Selection catalogue is available to download, as is the order form for ordering copies of the DVD.

^{Elissa DAVIES "Untitled 1" Acrylic paint on wooden board, 545mm x 510mm, Hellyer College}