Overview

Artspace and Arts NSW congratulate Consuelo Cavaniglia, recipient of the 2016 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging).

Consuelo Cavaniglia has been awarded the prestigious $30,000 Fellowship for an installation of her works Untitled and Untitled (simultaneous spaces), 2016.

Arts NSW Executive Director Michael Brealey who presented the Fellowship at the exhibition’s launch this evening, described how Cavaniglia will study specific collections overseas including Dia:Beacon and the Dan Flavin Art Institute in New York and the Lucio Fontana Foundation in Milan. In Berlin she will collaborate with experimental musician Robin Hayward on new ways to interpret light, colour and sound, before returning to Sydney to produce new work with FX Plastics.

‘Arts NSW is proud to offer this Fellowship as part of the NSW Government’s support for the professional development of our artists’, said Mr Brealey. ‘This fantastic exhibition is alive with energy and invention and an absorbing use of performance, video and new media, sculpture and installation by emerging artists from a diverse range of backgrounds, which touches on so many topical concerns and personal experiences. I would encourage everyone to visit Artspace and experience these perspectives and the talent displayed here by our State’s best emerging artists.’

Cavaniglia is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on how we see and understand space. Her practice often employs technically simple visual effects to distort perception and unsettle the relationship between viewer and space. For the 2016 Fellowship, Cavaniglia has created an encounter between two works — a site-specific wall-painting and a sculpture — that changes depending on where they are viewed from, enacting a mild deception so that it becomes unclear where one is standing or the exact nature of the space.

An independent selection committee of artists and industry professionals is convened by Arts NSW to determine both the Fellowship finalists and recipient from a highly competitive pool of NSW-based applicants. This year’s committee is Kezia Geddes, Curator, Lismore Regional Gallery; ClareHolland, Managing Director, FBi Radio; Anne Loxley, Senior Curator, C3West, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Jason Wing, artist and finalist, 2015 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging); and Ramesh Nithiyendran, artist and recipient, 2015 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging).

The 2016 Fellowship exhibition — which also includes Tully Arnot, Cigdem Aydemir, FrancesBarrett, Tim Bruniges, Julian Day, James, Giselle Stanborough, Angela Tiatia and Adri ValeryWens — has been co-curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, Talia Linz and Lola Pinder, who have developed the exhibition over a period of three months in close consultation with the ten artists.

Of the exhibition, Artspace Executive Director Alexie Glass-Kantor says, ‘This year’s finalists represent a breadth of ambitious methodologies. My co-curators and I didn’t envy the selection committee their task and amidst a competitive field Artspace offers our heartfelt congratulations to Consuelo. From the outset of the development process Consuelo was generous and open, proposing a thoughtful and conceptually rigorous installation for the exhibition. We wish her well and will watch the development of her practice with enthusiasm.’

She continues, ‘I’d like to acknowledge the collaborative efforts of our peers at Arts NSW and the Artspace team who have worked tirelessly to realise this project. We also thank the esteemed members of the selection committee who embraced their task with great diligence and consideration. Artspace is committed to supporting generations of leading NSW artists, indeed, we look forward to the evolution of this significant award and anticipate exciting futures for all of this year’s finalists.’