Geoff Dyer – Winner 2012 King’s School Art Prize

piermarq

Congratulations to Geoff Dyer, announced this past weekend as the winner of this year’s King’s School Art Prize with his majestic seascape, Ocean Beach (2011). The King’s School Art Prize was established in 1994 and has become one of the most prestigious art prizes offered in Australia.  It is awarded to ‘the painting judged the best contemporary representational painting by an artist of merit and resident in Australia, represented by a leading commercial gallery supporting both the artists and the fine arts industry.

Previous winners of the prize include outstanding Australian talents: Aida Tomescu, John Olsen, Jason Benjamin, Peter Churcher, Nicholas Harding, Martine Emdur, Ben Quilty, Aida Tomescu,Gloria Petyarre, and Euan Macleod in 2011.

Deanna Brown is the curator of the Art Prize, selecting works for inclusion, whilst Tim Olsen & Sue Hewitt assist on the Art Prize panel. Each year, the prize is awarded by an appointed guest judge and selection committee. This year’s guest judge was Felicity Fenner, Senior Curator and Gallery Director, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.

To top off an amazing weekend for the artist, Dyer also saw an auction record achieved in Melbourne with the resale of his work Untitled (Bushfire Series) 2. The $14,400 achieved is a record at auction for a Dyer work of 150x150cm or smaller – a sound result for an artist who is still in the early stages of building his secondary market profile. In our view, the work was not one of Dyer’s best examples, but proves that his star is on the rise toward the next 5 to 10 years. Added to his recent success in multiple Australian prizes, and being heavily collected by the very pinnacle of corporate and private collections, this news over the weekend further supports Piermarq’s view that Geoff Dyer is one of the key artists to acquire. He continues to set new benchmarks.