Prizes awarded at annual Spring Visual Arts Competition

Prizes were awarded at this year’s Spring Visual Arts Competition with overall winner Hannah Cavilla Latin selected from a total 90 entries by 50 artists.

International artist Javier Plata judged in the painting, sculpture, photographic and video categories and the Minister for Culture Christian Santos presented the awards at a prize giving ceremony held at the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery.

Mr Plata described how it was tough to judge the competition due to the high standard of entries.

Hannah Cavilla Latin won two prizes, the Ministry of Culture Award for overall award and the video award. She won for her painting 005 a primitive piece and her video entry How To Sit In A Gallery Space: A Short Guide.

Valerie Cisarego Gaduzo won the painting, drawing, prints and digital painting award with her piece The Warmth Within Winter.

The sculpture award was presented to Tyrone Anthony Vera for Echos Of Silence, and Joanne Bossano won the photography award for her piece Time Capsule.

Karl Ullger won the Kishin Alwani Foundation Award for best Girbaltar theme for his piece El Tendedero and the Gibraltar Cultural Services Award for best young artist was presented to Jack Hernandez for his piece The Swimming Pool.

Highly commended certificates were awarded to Michele Stagnetto with Landscape I, Tiana Langdon with Pale Blue Shirt, Jane Langdon with Pink Cloud Blue Pine, Stephen Hermida with Lopit Hunters, Christina Wilton with Gunslinger No 1, Shane Dalmedo with 2 Cuarto Y Cocina, Alex Menez with Fieldnotes On The Afterlife.

The exhibition is open to the public until Friday, May 29. Opening hours are weekdays from 10.30am to 6.30pm and Saturdays from 10.30am to 1.30pm.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – OVERALL WINNER: Hannah Cavilla Latin with 005. ‘This is a very primitive piece is the essence that it has been presented. There’s technique and different materials combines with charcoal, paint and markers. It’s has a modern vision of a very primitive abstract painting, and I love that about this piece.’

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – PAINTING AWARD: Valerie Cisarego Gaduzo with The Warmth Within Winter. ‘Little by little, I have been captivated by the painting. The colour that it has seems beautiful, all that range of colours that it has, all these reflections that it has. That serene view outside.’

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – SCULPTURE AWARD: Tyrone Anthony Vera with Echos Of Silence. ‘What I like about this piece is especially the fragility. It looks like an almost ephemeral piece. It's not even a piece that can be collected, because it's so fine and delicate. In fact, it has a part that is showing how it would crack. And then that ephemeral and fragile point is what has captivated me about this piece.’

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD: Joanne Bossano with Time Capsule. ‘This image, I think it fulfils a bit of everything. On a conceptual level it's talking about what's going on inside and what's outside. Then the colour change, I loved it. And the presentation, I think it's spectacular. There are other photos that are technically very good, but they are images that don't have as much as this one. This one has a lot more. It's a very powerful image.’

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – VIDEO AWARD: Hannah Cavilla Latin with How To Sit In A Gallery Space: A Short Guide. ‘It's about how to look at a work of art, how it should be appreciated. The video is inside a museum and a person who is sitting on a bench looking at that painting, and a voice in the background explains how to look at a painting. But coincidentally, the person who is looking at the painting is moving with the bench, dancing, not being very attentive. So, that counter position of documents and a little preformistic, was what I thought deserved to win the prize.’

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – BEST GIBRALTAR THEME: Karl James Ullger with El Tendedero. ‘When I saw it, I had no doubts either. It was one of the ones I liked the most. You see maturity, you see a lot of quality, you see that he continuously experiments with the painting, that he is looking for new languages, that the artist has his own voice. So, this painting has, I think, all the ingredients to be a prized work.’

JUDGES’ COMMENTS – BEST YOUNG ARTIST: Jack Hernandez with The Swimming Pool. ‘You can see there is a great sensitivity there. I was very surprised by the technique. I don't know exactly what it is, but it seems to me that this painting is very much in the middle of colours, lights, and very beautiful compositions.’