February 27, 2020
Perth artist April Pine receives Alcoa Aluminium Sculpture Award ahead of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2020
Sculpture by the Sea and Alcoa Australia are delighted to announce young Perth sculptor April Pine as this year’s recipient of the Alcoa Aluminium Sculpture Award of $10,000.
The award highlights Alcoa’s 16 years of continued commitment to supporting artists in Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe that use aluminium in striking and unique ways. It was presented to Pine for the creation of a sculpture substantially comprised of aluminium for the upcoming Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2020 exhibition.
A relative newcomer on the art scene, Pine’s works depicting figures looking out to the coastline have been adored by the public in recent Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions in both Cottesloe and Bondi.
In 2020, Pine will exhibit a work titled ‘Flutter,’ which comprises of two 3.5m high organic figures made from aluminium sheet stood side by side, their reductive forms working in unison, creating a delicate structural balancing act as though caught in motion.
Said April Pine: “It is a huge honour to be the 2020 recipient of the Alcoa Aluminium Sculpture Award this year and I’m humbled by the support of this generous prize. Out of the last six Sculpture by the Sea shows, this will be my fourth time using aluminium, so it absolutely has a strong presence in my material suite. The prize this year has supported my ability to go even larger in scale as the lightness of aluminium enables me to produce a big work on a fine and delicate structure. I’m very much looking forward to pushing my skills with this material and celebrating the clean and pure qualities of aluminium in a light and beautiful way.
"The award is part of Alcoa’s long-running support for Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe. The integrated bauxite miner and alumina and aluminium producer is a founding and major sponsor of the exhibition. As well as the aluminium award, Alcoa supports Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe’s Schools Program, which each year provides approximately 2,000 students with a backstage pass to the exhibition and artistic process.
Alcoa Australia President Michael Gollschewski said the company was proud to play a part in helping makes the arts accessible to everyone through its 16-year involvement with the iconic beach-side event.
Mr Gollschewski said through both the aluminium award and associated artist subsidies, Alcoa was also proud to have supported numerous emerging artists and to help them bring their stunning works to life for all to see and enjoy. Pine is included in the long list of past subsidy recipients, collecting the support three years ago when her career was just starting to take off.
“We are delighted to be able to support artists like April to use our flagship product – aluminium. Strong yet light, durable and malleable, aluminium is a perfect material for sculpture and this is a perfect exhibition to showcase it,” he said. “This year, at least five artists have chosen to work predominately with aluminium including April, who is a worthy recipient of our award and I can’t wait to see her stunning piece light up Cottesloe Beach.”
Sculpture by the Sea Founding Director David Handley AM said, “It is tremendous to provide this support to April thanks to Alcoa. She is thoroughly deserving and an artist with a great future. Each artist spends many thousands of dollars on their artwork for Sculpture by the Sea, so we were delighted when Alcoa wanted to establish a major award for artists who use aluminum. We would like to encourage other major corporations to follow Alcoa’s example.”
Pine was born and educated in North Yorkshire, England before moving to Australia in 2000 to attend Curtin University and complete her Masters in Architecture. She interplays elements of both architecture and sculpture within spaces, considering how sculpture and installation works can react, exaggerate and celebrate their context. Her work considers how people navigate in and around threshold spaces and how art can engage with this.
Her work is featured in the Cottesloe, Melville and Geraldton Public Art Collections as well as the national Canberra Public Art Collection. Additionally, Pine has attracted the attention of some of Australia’s biggest art collectors, more recently her works have travelled internationally to find homes in Europe and New Zealand.
This marks the 16th anniversary of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, which is Perth’s largest free to the public event attracting an estimated 220,000 visitors to explore the art and creating Perth’s own version of the Italian passeggiata with thousands of people wandering among the sculptures on Cottesloe Beach at sunset each evening.
Since the inaugural 2005 exhibition, more than 500 different sculptors have exhibited at Cottesloe, including some of the most famous sculptors in the world: Sir Anthony Caro OM and Sir Tony Cragg from England; Zadok Ben-David from Israel; Zhan Wang, Chen Wenling, Li Wei, Sui Jianguo and Wang Shugang from China; Keizo Ushio and Kozo Nishino from Japan; David Černỳ from the Czech Republic; Phil Price from New Zealand; Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir from Iceland; Jörg Plickat from Germany; and Fletcher Benton and Peter Lundberg from the USA.
Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe will run from 6 – 23 March 2020.
For more information about Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe please contact:
Tel: +61 2 8399 0626 | Email: info@nixco.com.au
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