John Stringer Prize winner announced

Jarrad Martyn has been named the fourth winner of the $12,500 John Stringer Prize announced last night at John Curtin Gallery. Born in 1991 in Aberdeen, Scotland, Martyn grew up in Perth and is a recent Honours graduate of Fine Arts from Curtin University. Since his degree in 2013, Martyn has held four solo exhibitions in Western Australia, taken part in numerous group shows in Perth and interstate, as well as completing various public murals.

Martyn’s work Range hangs alongside five fellow finalists: Olga Cironis, Clive Collender, Sharyn Egan, Tom Freeman and Lydia Tretheway. Each artist was selected for inclusion in the Prize earlier this year by a panel comprising curator and 2017 John Stringer Prize recipient Erin Coates, John Curtin Gallery Director Chris Malcolm and Chief Cultural Officer at the University of WA’s Cultural Precinct, Ted Snell.

Martyn’s work delves from realism to expressionism, a contrast fixing viewers’ attention and inciting participation in the potential unfolding narratives depicted in his work. In 2017 he won the Overall Acquisitive Award at the Joondalup Community Invitation Award; Emerge: Nedlands Youth Art Award and the Fine Art at Hale 25th Anniversary Prize.

The John Stringer Prize honours the extraordinary curator who died suddenly in 2007, his enthusiasm and vast knowledge honed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Rockefeller Foundation and other institutions before arriving in Perth in 1988 as curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of WA, and finally as curator of the Kerry Stokes Collection. The Collectors Club established the Prize in 2015 as an annual accolade celebrating contemporary Western Australian art practitioners. Each year, six local artists are nominated by a panel of three industry professionals and invited to produce new artworks for inclusion in a survey of finalists’ work.

All finalists works are on show in the Atrium space at John Curtin Gallery until 9 October. All are welcome to a free Artist Talk with all the finalists Wed 3 October 12.30pm – 1.30pm. Register your interest in attending at johnstringerprize@gmail.com