Flinders Creative Arts graduate Kate Bohunnis (BCreatArts(Hons) ’18), has won the $100,000 Ramsay Art Prize 2021, the nation’s most generous prize for Australian artists aged under 40, with the work edges of excess.
The winning work is a kinetic sculpture, including a pendulum made from metal and fabricated by the artist herself, which swings over a slumped fleshy form made from silicone. The sculpture references divination tools used in spiritual healing introduced to the artist as a child.
This year, 24 finalists were selected by a judging panel of contemporary art specialists comprised of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens, Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Director of Programs at Carriageworks and Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design at AGSA.
The judges were unanimous in their appreciation of Kate’s work and describe it as conceptually rigorous and technically resolved with an inventive approach to materials, that speaks to the precarity of our times.
The prize winning entry now becomes part of Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection.
The works of all finalists are on display at Art Gallery of South Australia until Sunday 22 August. You can have your say in the People’s Choice Prize, a non-acquisitive cash prize of $15,000 supported by Lipman Karas.