Former Birchip P-12 student, Naomi McKenzie (Ferrier) has won the Emerging Artist award at this year’s prestigious Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA).
Naomi’s winning artwork titled “Where We Meet” was a silver gelatin photographic piece, hand processed on metallic paper.
Naomi was delighted with the award, noting there were more than 350 entrants, which were whittled down to just four finalists.
“The prize-winning artwork explores perspective from a psychological viewpoint,” she said.
“It tussles with the different personas often harboured within us. In my case, it’s the mother verses the artist. We experience the world from totally different perspectives yet there is a sweet point, and calculated consolidation where those identities create something extraordinary.”
QRAA 2023 judge, Dr. Fiona Foley, said, “This is a complex work that engages from the outset. An interplay of actual and reflective, dark and light, detritus and innocence”.
Prizes
The winning work earned Naomi a non-acquisitive cash prize of $5,000 thanks to Consolidated Properties Group. In addition, Naomi received an in-kind online exhibition with state, national and international reach, valued at $5,000 thanks to Onespace and an in-kind one-week studio residency including art materials, mentoring and networking opportunities valued at $5,000 thanks to FireWorks Gallery.
Mentorship
Prior to winning the award, Naomi had exhibited her work at “The Condensery”, the Somerset Regional Art Gallery, and received support from Somerset Regional Council’s Regional Arts Development Fund to undertake a mentorship with artist Kellie O’Dempsey.
As well as continuing to follow her passion using film and developing and enlarging her own work in both colour and black and white in a studio she has created at her home, Naomi runs her own coffee shop business in Toogoolawah where she lives with her husband Jim and their two boys, Eddie 7 and Frankie 5.
Naomi’s parents Robyn and John Ferrier, of Birchip, are thrilled with Naomi’s success and were fortunate to be present at Naomi’s first exhibition in August.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 12 December 2023.
