SALA Festival Announces Award Winners For 2021

The SALA Festival is over for another year and finished with a record number of 9,167 artists participating in over 600 exhibitions across South Australia.

Throughout August venues across the state showcased the incredible creativity of artists and their work produced in the last twelve months. Artists expressed their personal stories, shared their unique ideas and experiences through a variety of mediums in group shows, community collaborations and individual exhibitions.

2021 saw some innovative and inspired exhibitions which were reflected in this year's list of award winners and finalists.

Yoko Kajio won the City of Adelaide Incubator Award for her work as part of SA LA LA LAND group show at ARTHUR. This award recognises an artist whose work explores and / or celebrates the experience of the City. This award is given to an artist at any stage of their career, working in any medium whose work reflects Adelaide's Dynamic City Culture. Yoko was awarded $7,000 and will participate in a public program at the City Library before SALA Festival 2022, sharing her creative practice with the community.

The Unitcare Services Digital Media Award seeks to encourage experimentation in new media and is for artists working in digital art. Maddie Grammatopoulos won the award and cash prize of $5,000 for her work 'Which Made This Place Home' which was part of the 'Refractions' exhibition at Carclew. Maddie's work merged moving image and installation, with a film projected on the wall and settings from the film meticulously recreated in the room itself.

Jianzhen Wu was awarded The City Rural Emerging Artist Award and a cash prize of $2,500 for her work as part of the group exhibition 'Space Within' at Harcourts Wine Coast in Aldinga. This award is for artists in the early stages of their career, with under five years professional experience.

The City of Unley Active Aging Award is for artists over the age of 60, celebrating the City of Unley's involvement with SALA and its commitment to promoting and supporting an active ageing approach. This year's award went to Rosie Field for her exhibition 'Gardenscape' that was set in a curated garden, 'Bimbimbie Garden' in Coromandel East. Rosie won a cash prize of $2,000 and an exhibition space in Unley for SALA Festival in 2022.

The Advertiser's Tertiary Art Student Award is for tertiary students who are studying a degree (or elective) in visual art or design. Sam Burke won a cash prize of $1,500 for her experimental performance work 'movement score' at The Lab and utilised digital technology that responded to how her body moved through space.

The Don Dunstan Foundation Award is for artists whose work explores social justice themes which align with the objectives and priorities of the Don Dunstan Foundation including homelessness; mental health; migration (including cultural and ethnic diversity); economic equality and justice; Aboriginal economic empowerment and reconciliation; human rights; or Don Dunstan himself. Tom Phillips won the award and cash prize of $1,000 for his exhibition 'Another day, another lonely night' which focussed on the fear of loneliness, isolation and human struggles.

The City of Onkaparinga Contemporary Curator Award is for contemporary curators to foster and support curatorial practice within the City of Onkaparinga. Christina Lauren won the award for the 'Refractions' exhibition at Carclew and a cash prize of $1,000 and a supported opportunity to curate a [GRAFTd] exhibition at Sauerbier House during SALA 2022

The Hither & Yon Venue Award and Credit Union SA School Awards will be announced later in September with award winners detailed on the SALA website and via social media.

SALA Festival is excited to announce that Mark Valenzuela has been named SALA Featured Artist for 2022.

Valenzuela is a leading mid-career artist, based in Adelaide, whose practice addresses the socio-political contexts of his home country of the Philippines and adopted residence of Australia. Valenzuela is recognised for his multifarious installations that push the traditions of ceramics, featuring hybridised drawing, painting, video and sculpture techniques. The conceptual strength and material command of his work is evident across two decades of exhibiting internationally, interstate and locally, including his most recent inclusion in the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. His works have featured in the 15th Australian Ceramics Triennale and the 3rd Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale. As SALA's featured artist Mark's work will appear on the cover of the 2022 SALA Festival program and poster and he will be commemorated in the official 2022 South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Publication, funded by Arts South Australia to be published by Wakefield Press and penned by Belinda Howden and Anna O'Loughlin

SALA Festival CEO Kate Moskwa said "Our awards reflect the diverse artists in our community, artists of various ages and level of experience, working across different media. We had a really high standard of entries this year and congratulate all artists involved.

We were so fortunate to have been able to present SALA for the full month of August and have had some tremendous feedback about attendances across the state. We continue to support our SALA artists with some exhibitions running into September, as some artists and venues decided to delay their installation due to SA's short lockdown. People just need to look out for the SALA venue stickers and check the online program for exhibitions that remain open. We want to thank South Australian's for getting out and supporting our artists, there's been an incredibly heart- warming response to this year's Festival!"

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