Urban Forms

22 March – 28 April 2024

Cityscapes and city life 

The urban landscape has fascinated and inspired artists for centuries. We invited artists to submit works in response to this theme.

Selected original works completed in the last 12 months were eligible for a President’s Prize of $1500 and Curator’s Prize of $1500 and five Merit Awards of $200. These were awarded at the opening event on Thursday 21st March 2024. 

The Academy wishes to acknowledge the generous donation by Joe Zhou, winner of the President’s Prize at our Water World exhibition with ‘Wellington Harbour’, who has returned a part of his prize to provide the Merit Award prizes this evening. Thank you, Joe.

Merit Awards have been awarded to:

Karen Wong She for ‘Light of the Caffeine District’,

Penny Johnson for ‘Urban Pulse’,

Kit Ong for ‘Lambton Quay’,

Hamish Macaulay for ‘Built Environment’, and

Diane Atkinson for ‘Night Scene, Cuba Street’.

Congratulations to them all.

The Curator’s Prize has been awarded to Anah Dunsheath for ‘Scoping’, which creates a pictorial narrative through an intriguing blending of architectural forms and almost anecdotal representative elements. 

The President’s Prize has been awarded to Daniel McLaren for ‘Colonial Mutual Life Building, 1935, Lost Wellington Skyline’, a representation of the the former CML Building which sat on the corner of Customhouse Quay and Willeston Street and would today be the most important art deco building in New Zealand had it survived the often pointless demolitions of the early 1980s.

Once again, our congratulations go to every selected artist and to each of our award winners in this exhibition.