New Zealand Academy of Fine ArtsInvited guest artist, Danny Forrest, won the people’s choice award in our “Fantastic Beasts – fins, fangs, feathers and fur” exhibition with her polymer clay on plywood work, “Our Friendly Neighbour”.
Danny is a self-taught artist who has developed her own sculpting technique to create unique, detailed art pieces out of polymer clay. By hand mixing the coloured polymer clay and by adding texture she creates life-like, vibrant representations of nature. Once each piece has been carefully hand sculpted, it is baked to harden, then affixed to a wooden surface for hanging.
She receives a copy of “ANIMAL – Exploring The Zoological World” generously donated by Gordon Harris – The Art and Graphic Store. This sumptuous book explores the beauty and diversity of the animal world through over 300 images that span millennia from ancient cave paintings to contemporary animation and include works by Audubon, Gesner, Warhol, Dürer, Darwin, van Gogh, Koons, Tolstoy and Landseer.
In all, 145 votes were cast and 49 works in the exhibition received at least one vote. Worthy runners-up to Danny were Raciel Cruz Pena for “Kea in Flight”, Brendan Martin for “The Minotaur”, Jo Mells for “We are such fur as dreams are made on”, Kyle Somerville for “Our Precious Creatures”, Sarah Brock for “Fantastical Mr Cat” and Ursula Grobler for “The King’s Successor”.
Congratulations to our winner and all our artists, and thank you to Gordon Harris Ltd for donating this wonderful prize.
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