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Home > Faculty of Creative Arts > School of Art and Design > Long Gallery > 2009 Yang Sheng An Memorial Ar...

Winner: Yang Sheng-An
Memorial Art Prize

The winner of the 2009 Yang Sheng-An Memorial Art prize was announced at a reception in the Faculty of Creative Arts Long Gallery, on Thursday 21 May 2009. The event was opened by Professor Diana Wood Conroy and the winning entry was announced by Associate Professor Brogan Bunt, Head, School of Art & Design.

Second year Visual Arts student, Nadia Balatti received the prize for her work titled ‘Awakening’.

Of the winning entry the judges commented, “This is a stand out work – a fresh, confident and sophisticated treatment.”

The Yang Sheng-An Memorial Art prize is open to current students of the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong and the annual prize of $1,000 is awarded for a painting in oils, acrylics or watercolour that explores the theme of “Spirit and Nature”.

“I'm extremely pleased to have won this award. It provides students with an opportunity to gain feedback from teachers, industry and the general public, and as I haven't really exhibited in the past, I found this aspect particularly insightful and encouraging.” said Nadia.

The annual prize honours the memory of UOW Creative Arts doctoral student, Yang Sheng-An, who died in December 2002.

Yang Sheng-An was known to his Australian family and friends as Victor and was a talented young artist from Taiwan who had just begun his doctoral degree with the Faculty of Creative Arts when tragically he drowned at East Corrimal beach.

The memorial art scholarship was instigated in 2003 by the University of Wollongong Postgraduate Association (WUPA) and supported by the University’s Office of Community and Partnerships. It was originally intended to be held for two years, but in August 2004 Victor’s family travelled to the University again and generously donated $10,000, extending the award in Victor’s memory.

During his visit in 2004, Victor’s father, Yang Chyi Lin, spoke of his family’s cherished memories of a young man full of joy. Victor achieved more for painting in his 26 years than many people do in much longer lives, and he is remembered with affection by his colleagues and teachers at the University of Wollongong.

Judging took place on Tuesday 19 May when entries from the field of outstanding paintings were examined by Professor Amanda Lawson, Dean, Faculty of Creative Arts and Louise Brand, of the Wollongong City Gallery.

Artist Statement – Nadia Balatti

‘Awakening’ is a celebration of the fluidity in wilderness as inherent in both human soul and in nature, rejecting the concept of dichotomy between the two.

In the representation of Belmore Basin, these sentiments are adopted through the concept of negative icons; charged particles in the air that are formed in nature in different ways, generated invisibly by cosmic rays, radioactive elements in the soil, ultraviolet radiation, water, winds the friction of blowing sand or dust. Every time we draw breath they fill our lungs and are carried by the blood to our body cells, producing an exhilarating freshness – the feel good properties of place that people like to be after having visited them.

Aesthetically, this positive effect is captured in a spontaneous, exhilarating, textural approach; capturing the emotional essence of place as opposed to a strictly pictorial representation. This expression is translated through various methods and materials including acrylic paint, gel medium, paper toweling, cling wrap, soft pastel, washes, grated elements, etc.

Executed within my undergraduate degree, this research provided personally, a more fundamental way of thinking and seeing and in ‘Awakening’, a more intuitive approach; gaining ultimately an affinity with those characteristics of the earth inherent within ourselves.

The exhibition of entries was on display from 18-29 May 2009
Long Gallery
Faculty of Creative Arts
Building 25
University of Wollongong

Inquiries: aand_info@uow.edu.au