2018 Mandorla Art Award Launched

12 Apr 2017

By The Record

Megan Robert was awarded the acquisitive St John of God Health Care Prize at last year’s Mandorla Art Award. She is pictured with her work titled The Bread Basket at Emmaus – the Flesh returned to Word. Photo: Marco Ceccarelli

The 2018 Mandorla Art Award was last month launched at Wesley Church in conjunction with the Bible Society of Australia celebrating their 200th anniversary and showcased an exhibition from 12 finalists from last year.

The Mandorla Art Award for contemporary religious art is Australia’s most significant thematic religious art prize, attracting some of the country’s finest artists since its inception in 1985.
With themes defined by a quotation from the Bible, all participating artists are invited to interpret this in their own way.

The privilege to co-celebrate with the Bible Society was important as the aim of both organisations are bound by the same values.
The theme for the 2018 Mandorla Art Award is taken from Revelations 21:1-2 and provides artists with an opportunity to reflect on what that will mean for us and offer the rest of us a way in which to imagine what is to come.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev 21:1-2

Exquisite artwork on display at last year’s Mandorla Art Award. Photo: Supplied

In launching the 2018 awards, Rev Professor Bill Loader from the Uniting Church encouraged arts, saying “Dare to hope! Dare to dream! Dare to imagine! Dare to depict and portray!”
The prize money for the main award’s overall winning entry is $25,000, sponsored by St John of God Healthcare, with the two highly commended awards being $5,000 each.

The People’s Choice award prize is $2,000 and is sponsored by the New Norcia Benedictine Community.

The main award’s overall winning artwork is acquisitive and all other artworks are for sale.
All submissions must clearly demonstrate a direct relationship to the theme – Revelation 21:1-2.

For more information on the theme, application process and the opening exhibition visit, www.mandorlaart.com.