News

Entries open for the 2021 IHC Art Awards on Saturday 1 May 2021.

We are also thrilled to announce this year's judges.

We welcome, for the first time, artists Paul Hartigan and Judy Darragh ONZM, who will join returning judge and artist, Otis Frizzell (photos above, left to right).

Paul Hartigan is a well-known entity within contemporary New Zealand art whose successful career spans five decades. Paul is the painter of the original Phantom, and he is best known for his large-scale public neon installations in Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch. His acclaimed monochrome neon Colony (2004), won the Metro Award for Best Public Sculpture in 2006. In Christchurch, Nebula Orion (2001), is a giant Hartigan neon work that survived the earthquake of 2011 and continues to operate today. Most recently, he was acknowledged with a 40-year retrospective at the Gus Fisher Gallery and is the subject of Don Abbott's monograph Vivid: The Paul Hartigan Story.

Judy Darragh ONZM is renowned for her brightly coloured sculptural assemblages, collage, video, photography, and poster art who came to prominence in the 1980s. Judy lives and works in Auckland, where she has played a significant role in the development of ARTSPACE Aotearoa, artist-run spaces in Auckland such as Teststrip, and Cuckoo, has taught widely at both secondary and tertiary level, and has taken on mentorship roles for wide range of artists. She is currently a co-editor of Femisphere, a publication supporting women’s art practices in Aotearoa.

Returning judge Otis Frizzell is an artist with a diverse, irrepressible talent and colourful personality. He has maintained a high profile for nearly twenty years, bringing the same appealing combination of energy, humour and raw talent to all his work regardless of the medium. Some places you’ll find Otis’ art are; ARTIS Gallery in Parnell, Saatchi and Saatchi offices, IE Music in London, KFC packaging, Breast Cancer t-shirts, Grand Prix racing cars, Playstation advertisements, TV2 advertisements and on the record sleeves of music artists such as Che Fu, Tiki Taane and Fat Freddy’s Drop.

Last year, Paul, Judy and Otis donated artworks to raise money for the IHC Art Awards at an event run by Dame Denise L'Estrange-Corbet – IHC Art Awards Ambassador and co-founder of the internationally acclaimed fashion house WORLD. Dame Denise has been involved with the IHC Art Awards since 2009 and became an Ambassador in 2016.

The IHC Art Awards remains an annual highlight as a showcase for the talent and achievements of people with intellectual disabilities. Entries are open to New Zealanders aged 13 or over with an intellectual disability regardless of whether they use IHC, IDEA Services or Choices NZ services.

Further information on the IHC Art Awards, including entry criteria and how to enter your artwork, is available on the IHC Art Awards website.

About the IHC Art Awards

The IHC Art Awards provides artists with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to have their talent recognised, their voices heard and to sell their work.

The Art Awards showcase the strongest examples of work from a field comprising hundreds of artists.

The Art Awards started in 2004 and the first national exhibition of finalists was held at the Britomart Centre in Auckland from a pool of nearly 300 entries. In 2005 there were 14,000 visitors to the national exhibition at The Dowse in Lower Hutt. By 2006 the number of entries had doubled to more than 600 and by 2007 there were more than 700 – still the highest number so far.

With each Art Awards event, community recognition of the artists has increased. Some of the artists have developed a following among buyers and a number have exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.

The IHC Art Awards is open to all New Zealanders with an intellectual disability, age 13 or over, regardless of whether they use IHC, IDEA Services or Choices NZ services. The artworks traditionally cover everything from sculptures, installations and textile art, to painting and drawing.

The major sponsor of the IHC Art Awards is the Holdsworth Charitable Trust.