Local carver wins prestigious national art award
Mica's winning sculpture. Photo: Supplied.
Local artist Mica, well known for his photography and carvings, has won this year’s Contemporary Stone sculpture award at the prestigious 12th Biannual Pounamu/Jade and Hard Stone exhibition and awards, held at the Left Bank Art Gallery, Greymouth.
Mica received the award for an intricate, interconnecting piece titled A River Of Life Flows Through Time And Space, considered by the competition’s judge, highly respected artist John Edgar, as “a careful and sensual fitting together of five distinctive elements that rewards viewer’s interaction with a very satisfying visual, special and tactile response”.
Mica, who recently moved to Nelson to study towards a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Diploma in Digital Multimedia at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, said he was “totally blown away” by the award.
Though drawing his creative ideas from a number of avenues, Mica said the major source of inspiration for this sculpture had been the work of prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi.
“With these influences in mind I endeavour to communicate through selective visual explorations, such as deep or playful narratives, mysterious abstractions, or simply the beauty I find in the world around me.”
Mica says the creation of the award-winning work took him a month to complete. “It involved research and brainstorming to create the design idea before collecting rocks from the beach to make a model and test the design for specific difficulties. Finally, special devices were created to carve the sculpture with the necessary precision in hard stone. Five elements and four different stones had to be fitted together in colour and shape.”
Mica has been working as an artist for over 20 years and the award has given him artistic recognition. “During my career I have created carved objects, jewellery, sculpture, installations, large-scale photography, multimedia pieces and paintings. But for this competition I wanted to create something different, and I think that is what won it for me. I was breaking the mould of traditional carving concepts by coming up with an original idea.”
Graeme Cornwell, NMIT’s programme leader for Visual Arts and Design, says the award was fantastic for Mica and for NMIT.
“Having students like Mica gaining recognition for their work is very encouraging for aspiring artists, and his knowledge will enhance the general culture of the class. We have a large proportion of artists, artisans and designers graduating from our programme. Students like Mica want to solidify their experience by updating and learning new skills and techniques, while adding a qualification to their already impressive repertoires.”
Ina Holst
