I am very pleased to announce that I have just won the Ballarat Arts Foundation 2014 Eureka Art Prize for the artwork called “Balancing Act’. The work is a photographic portrait of my Polish friend Magda Kazmierczak.

This year the judges were Melissa Griffin (BAF), Gordon Williamson (BAF) and Mark Guirguis (Ballarat surgeon, founder of GNAP prize).

You can view more of my large format works in an ongoing photographic exhibition My Australia, My Journey at The Forge Pizzeria 12 Armstrong St Ballarat and also at my studio BIG SPACE 119a Sturt St (By Appointment)

Exhibition Dates:  6th November – 6 December 2014 10-5pm
Thank you to everyone who was there on the night, took photos and to all who supported me in creation of this work.

ARTIST STATEMENT

‘’Balancing Act’ is an attempted self portrait, employing not myself as subject but a model, designed to act as a vehicle to explore my personal experiences across cultures. I was born beneath a red flag in Poland, but I grew up steeped in the proud traditions of our once great and free nation.

I’m deeply nostalgic for the distant and faded music of my old red accordion, the one I learned to play as a child. I shared some of my happiest times with that instrument and with a friend who did not survive our youth. The image, while touching on memories which point to the past, is also a contemporary one. It speaks much of my life now in a new country, the possibilities of new birth and renewal in my current life in Australia as I attempt to balance all the aspects of myself, my life past and present.”