3rd Prize Winner: Susannah Montague
3rd Prize Winner
Susannah Montague
“The Golden Fleece”, Ceramic, glaze, 22k gold luster, 23 x 13 x 14″
Susannah Montague’s highly symbolic and eerily beautiful sculptures at once draw you in, and repel you. In each the surreal porcelain works, there is a narrative to be discovered. Using a combination of hand building, press molds, and slip casting to build her sculptures, she also references traditions from ceramic fine-craft and art history. Montague uses symbols such as fading flowers, bubbles, skulls, and insects to represent death and the transient nature of life. These symbols, interspersed with casts of toys including dolls, helicopters, and bunnies, take on a slightly sinister feeling in their modern compositions. Montague’s work examines the cycles in our lives and asks us to revel in the beauty of the absurd. Susannah Montague is a British born ceramic sculptor, based on Bowen Island, BC. She received her BFA from Emily Carr University and OCAD University.
“The Golden Fleece”: This is my Golden Fleece, taken from Greek Mythology, the god of war.
2nd Prize Winner: Richard Stipl
2nd Prize Winner
Richard Stipl
“Dream of the Prophet”, Wood, gesso and graphite, 104 x 64 x 73cm
Richard Stipl is a Czech born, Canadian schooled in the 1990s in a post modern environment where content took precedent over form. His work became know in early 2000 for hyperrealistic sculptures exhibiting mostly in North American galleries and at international art fairs. Since then Richard’s work has moved towards the psychological questioning of the human experience. Recently he has incorporated in to his work an obsession with collecting objects and items that embody memories or records of the past and are transformed once fused into new contexts.
“Dream of the Prophet”: The barren mountain landscape inside a mind of the sitter serves as an environment for a small meditating figure in the foreground. The kneeling figure is a found object that inspired the larger sculpture as a metaphor for an idea or an obsession that can occupy and take over a personality.
1st Prize Winner: Kristine and Colin Poole
1st Prize Winner
Kristine and Colin Poole
“Spinner of Dreams”, Fired clay, caseins, sterling silver, brass, 16 x 13 x 10″
A dynamic husband-wife collaborative artistic team, Colin and Kristine Poole are known for their classically inspired contemporary realism. While they both maintain individual bodies of work, their collaborative clay and bronze sculptures have featured prominently in international exhibits and publications including The Wall Street Journal, Beautiful Bizarre, Spectrum, IBA, The ARC International Salon, Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics Ireland, among others. Collectively, they have been commissioned to create works for National Geographic, National Audubon, Spectrum, Denver Comic Con, Daimler-Benz, Lourdes Cathedral – France as well as numerous Fortune 500 companies. Their work spans small to life-size as well as monumental bronze public art works, most recently for the Carnegie Library in Michigan. They currently live and create in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains overlooking Santa Fe, surrounded by their menagerie of birds and beasts.
“Spinner of Dreams”: A young woman spins a delicate object. A bassarisk sits on her lap, its body curving around her hip. Its tail wraps into her side and, along with other creatures, emerges from and blends into her body. Encompassed by the nighttime sky, the animals, and she herself, are being spun into dreams.
Thank you & Acknowledgements
Congratulations to the 2020 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award Winners, Kristine and Colin Poole, Richard Stipl and Susannah Montague!
I would like to take a moment to thank all of the artists that entered, sharing their work and their artistic passion with us. It was such a pleasure to immerse myself in the work of so many creatives from all corners of the globe and read their inspirational stories. Thank you also to all the artists that entered in previous years, and again this year – one of which is Kristine & Colin Poole, who as above, have won this year’s Sculpture Award!
As Beautiful Bizarre Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief I have the pleasure and honour of curating each issue of the magazine and curating our yearly exhibitions! The many wonderful and talented Art Prize entries we received have given me a plethora of new ideas and choices to pursue in future. I will also be taking the opportunity to share many of the amazing entries submitted over the coming months on our social media platforms, as I truly believe that all of these artists deserve more recognition and promotion of their work. So thank you again for your interest in the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, I very much hope to see how your work has grown and developed in next year’s Prize.
I would also like to sincerely thank the 2020 Jury Panel, particularly the Sculpture Category Judge Kate MacDowell, who gave her time and expertise to the panel, the other Category Judges: Rafael Grassetti [Digital Art], Hannah Yata [Traditional Art], Ellen Rogers [Photography]; Museum Gallery Director Rachael Parsons of New England Regional Art Museum; representatives from our amazing sponsors INPRNT, ZBrush, iCanvas and Yasha Young Projects, Directors of Modern Eden Gallery Kim Larson and Bradley Platz, and of course to my partner, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine‘s Co-Founder Richard Purssey. The judging process was extremely difficult this year with so many exceptional entries, so thank you again!
Finally I would like to once again extend my thanks to this year’s Sculpture Award sponsors listed below. It is through your generosity that the Sculpture Award Winners will be able to enrich their practice.
Danijela Krha Purssey, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.
Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award
The Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award 1st prize winner will receive:
- US$3,000 cash, generously donated by Yasha Young Projects, arts philanthropist and Executive Curatorial Director for the FOR_M a new institution currently being developed in New York city.
- A beautiful specially commissioned art glass trophy.
- The opportunity to exhibit in the prestigious Beautiful Bizarre Magazine exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery [San Francisco] alongside 80+ of the world’s best contemporary representational artists
- Exposure to a successful commercial gallery’s collector base with the opportunity to sell their work
- US$100 voucher from Mayco, who produce ceramic glazes and other amazing products for clay sculptors
- 1 year unlimited subscription to the Stan Winston School, including unlimited access to the Course Library by the Masters of FX. Also includes exclusive access to Stan Winston Studio Behind-the-Scenes Documentary stream.
- 3 month social media advertising package (Beautiful Bizarre Magazine: 1 Million + followers across all socials platforms)
- Exclusive in-depth interview published on the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and Beautiful Bizarre Magazine websites + shared on social media
- A year’s worth of inspiration – a print subscription to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
2nd and 3rd prize winners will receive:
- The opportunity to exhibit in the prestigious Beautiful Bizarre Magazine exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery [San Francisco] alongside 80+ of the world’s best contemporary representational artists
- Exposure to a successful commercial gallery’s collector base with the opportunity to sell their work
- A year’s worth of inspiration – a print subscription to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
- An exclusive in-depth interview published on the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and Beautiful Bizarre Magazine websites.
Timeline
- 1st week of September: Winners announced
- 1 Sept: Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award Winners announced
- 2 Sept: iCanvas Photography Award Winners announced
- 3 Sept: ZBrush Digital Art Award Winners announced
- 4 Sept: INPRNT Traditional Art Award Winners announced
- 5 Sept: Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 1st Prize Winner, Honourable Mentions & People’s Choice Winner announced
- 24 October – 13 November 2020: Beautiful Bizarre curated exhibition ‘Midnight Garden’ at Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco.
