NARELLE Kliendanze, Visual Art and Photography teacher at Macintyre High School, Inverell has been selected from over 1200 entries to be one of the 70 finalists in the Blake Art Prize. The Blake Prize for Religious Art is one of the more prestigious art prizes in Australia. This is the 57th year that it has been awarding a prize for works of art that explore the subject of religion and spirituality. Named after William Blake the English poet and artist, the Blake Prize invites a contemporary approach to religious art. For this reason it often attracts criticism and outrage from audience, public and critics alike.
This is the first time Narelle has entered one of her artworks for consideration in The Blake Prize, and she said joining 70 other artists in the short list was a huge achievement.
“With a competition the size of The Blake, getting short listed is success enough, it certainly isn’t about winning, and to be named is such an honour in itself.”
Narelle’s career as an artist started at the age of seven when her picture of her dad won a Father’s Day art competition in Tamworth. Since then she has participated in and won numerous art competitions, exhibited in solo shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane as well as many group exhibitions. She was a successful finalist in the 2005 “Art on the Rocks” exhibition at Circular Quay in Sydney where she exhibited with well-known artists such as Angus Nivison, Jasper King and Tom Carment. Last year in September Narelle won a two-week scholarship to the Museum of Contemporary Art at The Rocks in Sydney.
In the past Narelle has worked as a commercial artist, photographer and in desktop publishing. This graphic background shows through in the illustrative nature of her work and her innate sense of design. She studied Visual Arts at Southern Cross University, majoring in printmaking and the print medium is still very evident in her work. Her paintings are made up of layering of images and glazes and usually contain one, if not several, examples of prints.
The selected work The Garden of Heavenly Delights is a large acrylic painting and will be exhibited in the National Art School Gallery in Darlinghhurst from 5th September to 5th October, 2008. The prize of $20,000 to the winner will be announced on 4th September.
You can see some of Narelle’s work in the upcoming exhibition “Crossing New England III” at the Armidale Gallery situated in the Armidale Mall near the Post Office from 4th Oct-15 Nov and her next solo exhibition will be at the Andrea Bruno Gallery in Tamworth from the 5th December.
For further information on the Blake Prize, its history, as well as opportunities to support the Blake Society see the website (www.blakeprize.com).
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