A FAST-RISING young artist, Christine Atkins, was named last night at Canberra Glassworks as winner of the Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society 2015 Young Arts Award.
Christine Atkins
The award provides a young artist with $1000 to support the development of their practice through the Artist Access program and/or Education Program at Canberra Glassworks, and previous winners include glass notables, Laura Sandoval, Annette Blair and Melinda Willis.
Marcel Dimo from ADFAS Canberra said last night, “The ADFAS Young Arts Award will support Christine’s use of the Canberra Glassworks’ world-class facilities as she develops her practice as a glass artist and prepares for the next stages in her professional development”.
Atkins aims to make a new body of work for a solo exhibition she has coming up at Pod in The Hamlet for Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre, consisting of over 200 pieces that will be displayed as an installation that will range over the walls and floor in a flowing mass of colour, movement and light.
She says of her plans, “‘Lit from within’ will feature numerous glass spheres, displayed as an installation that will range over the walls and floor in a flowing mass of colour, movement and light. Each piece will be individual in both form and the light patterns on its surface. The spheres will range from perfect balls to river pebble and boulder-esque shapes. The colour palette of muted creams, greys, blues and greens, will slide back and forth as the pieces progress around the room, adding to the sense of movement. Each work will have a hot sculpted piece inside with an LED imbedded within, that will by nature of the process be completely unique, producing light images that vary from honeycomb to sweeps of light that traverse the surface.”
Atkins is no stranger to success. On graduating with Honours from the Australian National University in 2011, she was awarded EASS awards from M16 Artspace and Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre , and was given Highly Commended at the National Student Art Glass Prize in 2012. Since her solo exhibition at M16 Artspace in 2012 Atkins has undertaken the Talking Water artists-in-residence with Craft ACT and the Graduates-in-Residence program at the Glassworks. In November 2013 Atkins was awarded the Australian Craft Award in both the Lighting and Best in Glass categories. Atkins had her second solo exhibition at Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre in March 2014 and in 2015 Christine undertook the Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence in Kökar, Finland.
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