Several weeks ago amongst the many activities celebrating Independence, the Royal Papua Yacht Club opened it’s doors to the 8th Luk Save Art Show.
Luk Save has become a true reflection of the activity and quality of our nations artists and this year 60 artists presented over 230 pieces of the very best of fine art in PNG. From the most elegantly balanced pencil drawings by Joseph Bayagau who flew in from Lae, to the classical elegance of Larry Santana’s presentation in acrylic on canvas from Madang, the room encompassed glorious pottery from Frank Eafeara and some charming sculpture work by the young artists Steven Kundun and Paulus Tau.
It was a true celebration of all that is vibrant, healthy, progressive and powerful in the contemporary art scene of PNG.
Deloitte chose, for the second year, to sponsor the event with the all important catalogue and invited their clients to a special preview event to start the day, many of whom went on to buy extensively. Their contribution to the catalogue is critical as this is a very special book that is a permanent record of where the PNG art fraternity is currently and is ordered each year by many Institutions around the world.
The most exciting addition in this 8th year is the addition of the NASFUND Art Award. NASFUND has committed to recognising the pool of talent active in the art community and to encourage excellence in this field. The K5,000 prize to the single best piece at Luk Save goes a long way to enabling artists to make art their central career and is a fabulous incentive to keep quality and excellence first and foremost in the minds of our participating artists.
Judges were drawn from three key areas of the art market; Mr John Gould, is a sculptor himself and lecturer in fine art, currently based in Port Moresby, Mr Giles Peterson is considered a specialist in Pacific Art and lectures at the Whitecliffe College of Art and Design in Auckland while Pierre Peeters as owner of the Pierre Peeters Gallery in Parnell, Auckland brings 20 years experience of promoting and selling contemporary art in an established market to the panel. Their combined experience lends considerable industry and academic weight to the Award.
From a shortlist of eight entrants, Mr Rod Mitchell from NASFUND made the ‘Best in Show’ presentation to Mairi Feeger for his stunning work, ‘Notions of Progress & Development’. (see pic above). Beautifully presented, this stunning piece with it’s strong social comment was applauded by the entire panel for subject, composition, narrative and technical execution. Mairi responded;
The introduction of the Nasfund Award is a great idea and having a panel of internationally recognized people from the art industry judging the award will help raise the level of contemporary artwork produced in PNG and it’s profile on the world stage.’
Luk Save entertained over 250 guests on opening night and saw a steady stream of visitors throughout Sunday, many expressing their delight and surprise at the quality of work presented having only seen PNG art at the markets. In hard core terms their support equates to over K140,000 being paid to artists for their work taking the total investment that Luk Save has made to the art community in the past 8 years to over K1.5million. A worthy, dedicated and virtually unsupported sector of our community.
For more information or to view more of the show and purchase catalogues please visit; www.artstret.com or contact Amanda Adams on amanda@artstret.com.
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