2011

GLOVER PRIZE WINNER

Josh Foley
Gee’s Lookout

oil & pumice on canvas
75 x 110cm

Foley is the first Launceston based artist to win the Glover Prize. He has been exhibiting since 2004 when he completed his Bachelor of Contemporary Arts, (Hons) Major – Painting, from the University of Tasmania. Foley has participated in group exhibitions across Australia and his work is represented by, 19 Karen Contemporary Art Space, Qld.

Speaking about his work, artist Josh Foley said that the view from Gee's Lookout affords one a wonderful view of the dichotomy between two ways of seeing Tasmania. "On the one hand old and mysterious on the other new" said Foley.
He is keen to find who Gee was and, what was he looking at. What he looked at in the past and what Foley looks at now. "There is this sense of looking forward and looking backwards at the same time. The layering builds up a history on the surface as debris left in the area depicted has been built up by histories. The image you see in the windows is actually a reflection of glass. So the reflected view in the windows is what is being seen and the part around it is the sentiment?" said Foley.

2011 Glover judges, Anthony Bond OAM, Head Curator of Western art, Gallery of NSW, along with Professor Marie Sierra, Head of UTAS School of Visual and Performing Arts, Inveresk, and Francis Parker, Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art, commented on Foley's work by saying, Josh Foley’s work stands out as being unlike any of the other works in this year’s prize. It investigates how paint behaves and how the viewer reads it. Gee’s Lookout is an internalised interpretation of a real urban site. Foley has depicted tangled masses of brush marks that appear to be three-dimensional, occasionally breaking into thick texture and thereby combining illusion with reality. His carefully simulated brush strokes represent the landscape but also parody the application of paint. The work questions the acts of looking out and looking in, with a view that imagines a dissolved boundary between the viewing body and the landscape as subject.

Eight years ago The John Glover Society saw an opportunity to celebrate Glover's contribution to our history, while simultaneously showcasing the best of contemporary landscape painting and placing the small village of Evandale firmly on the map, and we thank our panel of judges for the considerable time, thought and expertise they have given to the daunting tasks of selecting both the works for exhibition and the winner. This year's winner, Josh Foley, is a young emerging artist who has developed his own visual language. He lives and works in Launceston, and his addition the Glover collection continues to expand the boundless ways of interpreting our landscape, said Rose Falkiner, Chair, The John Glover Society.