New curator for Mandorla Art Award

Lyn DiCiero has been announced as the new curator of the Mandorla Art Award. Among the many shows she has curated since the 1990s is Castaways Sculpture Awards for the City of Rockingham, which focuses on environmental awareness through sculpture created from recycled materials. She also curates the annual Soroptimist International of Fremantle Help the Homeless Art Auction, which raises funds for critical services for homeless and at-risk homeless in the community. She is a former visual arts writer for The West Australian, and publisher of the Artist’s Chronicle, which celebrates its 30^th year of publishing in March 2021. She has explored filmmaking as another form of storytelling in the visual arts, with her filmography including commissions from the Art Gallery of WA and St John of God Health Care.

Angela McCarthy, Chair of the Mandorla Art Award, says she is delighted to welcome Lyn with her breadth of experience and marketing expertise. “She will bring much needed skills and value to our hard-working team.”

Lyn DiCiero says she is enthused about the future of the Award, and looks forward to working with the committee, artists and stakeholders to bring the 2021 Mandorla Art Award to fruition. “I am somewhat of a history addict, so I find the fact the earliest surviving Christian art dates back to the second century endlessly fascinating. Art provided a means to relate stories during centuries of illiteracy, and in a contemporary sense provides a visual language which words cannot describe.”

Mandorla Art Award for contemporary religious art is Australia’s most significant thematic Christian art prize, attracting some of the nation’s finest artists since its inception in 1985. The $42,000 biennial award, which includes a $25,000 acquisitive prize, was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now rescheduled for 19 March until 10 April 2021 at Stala Contemporary, 12 Cleaver St, West Perth.

The theme for the 2021 Mandorla Art Award is a reflection on Micah, chapter 6, verse 8: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

Finalists in the 2021 Award are:

Riste Andrievski (NSW)

Godfrey Blow (WA)

Christophe Canato (WA)

Olga Cironis (WA)

Rebecca Corps (WA)

Emilio Cresciani (NSW)

Joanne Duffy (WA)

Fiona Evans (WA)

Silvana Ferrario (WA)

Desire Ferreira (WA)

Anna Glynn (NSW)

Athena Harris Ingall (NSW)

Tevita Havea (Qld)

Beric Henderson (NSW)

Franci Hepburn (WA)

Leni Kae (NSW)

Vania Lawson (WA)

Glenn Loughrey (Vic)

Camilla Loveridge (WA)

Laszlo Lukacs (WA)

Elisa Markes-Young (WA)

Lucille Martin (WA)

Britt Mikkelsen (WA)

Perrin Millard (Qld)

Michael Vincent Murphy (WA)

Sonia Payes (Vic)

Denise Pepper (WA)

Julian Poon (WA)

Sion Prior (WA)

Kathleen Nanima Rambler (NT)

Deborah Ralph-Kafarela (WA)

Darryl Rogers (Tas)

Harrison See (WA)

Alexandra Spargo (WA)

John Teschendorff (WA)

For further information, please contact the curator, Lyn DiCiero on 08 9336 1861 or email curator@mandorlaart.com or Chair of the Mandorla Art Award Angela McCarthy on 0407 089 224 or email angela@mandorlaart.com