History of the National Contemporary Art Award
More than two decades on the cutting edge
Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery has hosted and administered the National Contemporary Art Award since 2006, following its founding by the Waikato Society of Arts (WSA) in 2000. This makes it one of the longest running and most prestigious awards of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Formerly known as the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award and the Bold Horizon National Contemporary Art Award, the award is now known as the National Contemporary Art Award.
Local philanthropic organisation Trust Waikato were generous sponsors until 2009 and the Trust Waikato Collection boasts many works by winners and finalists. 2010 heralded a change and Bold Horizon, a brand development and marketing firm, sponsored the award for two years.
In 2012, the well-known Waikato philanthropist and farmer, Barry Hopkins sponsored the award. Despite being very unwell, he was able to attend the award ceremony and purchased one of the finalist works, Meet me inside #2 by Natalie Guy.
2013 saw the return of the founders of the award as the WSA generously donated the first prize of $15,000.
From 2016 the prize for the award increased to $20,000 thanks to joint sponsors Tompkins Wake and Chow:Hill. Three merit awards of $1,000 each were added to the prize pool.
Tompkins Wake became the principal sponsor from 2023, generously providing the entirety of the $20,000 top prize. In the same year, the Hugo Charitable Trust increased the value of the Runner Up prize to $7,500, bringing to total prize pool to more than $30,000.
An egalitarian approach
The switch to blind judging was made in 2012 and was well received by the arts community. Entrants' identities are concealed throughout the judging process, allowing the works to be assessed on their own merits alongside the anonymous artist statement.
Judges are met with the intrepid task of viewing myriad videos and photographs, and reading artist's statements.
Yet despite this consistent criteria, each judge selects their own finalists and winners with vastly differing rationales for their choices.
Past winners
Year: 2000
Title: The Oval Photograph, 2000
Arist: Gavin Hipkins
Judge: Gregory Burke - Director, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Initiated and administered by Waikato Society of Arts.
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2001
Title: Perfect Pitch (detail) Photographic assemblage 2001
Artist: Daniel Malone
Judge: Mary Barr and Jim Barr - Art writers, critics, and collectors, Wellington, New Zealand.
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Waikato Society of Arts
Exhibition at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato
Year: 2002
Title: Hyperreal Toolbox for the Reinvention of a Transglobal Empire in a Parallel Universe Installation 2002
Artist: Dave Stewart
Judge: Zara Stanhope - Director, Adam Art Gallery 1999 - 2002, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Waikato Society of Arts
Exhibition at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato
Year: 2003
Title: To the Moon and Back Acrylic on canvas 2003
Artist: Rohan Weallans
Judge: Tobias Berger - Director, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Waikato Society of Arts
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2004
Title: Blind Date Photograph installation, 2004
Artist: Geoffrey Heath
Judge: Sophie McIntyre - Director, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Waikato Society of Arts
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2004
Lest We Forget Photographic installation, 2004
Artist: Donna Sarten
Judge: Sophie McIntyre - Director, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Waikato Society of Arts
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2004
Title: Honeycomb Reticulum Scultpural installation 2004
Artist: Joanna Chow
Judge: Sophie McIntyre - Director, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2005
Title: Nightfall DVD 2005
Artist: Sriwhana Spong
Judge: Heather Galbraith - Senior Curator, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2006
Title: A Library to Scale, Part II, Marshland Hill, F.B. Butler Collection, Puke Ariki, New Plymouth Video animation 2006
Artist: Ann Shelton
Judge: Mercedes Vicente - Senior Curator, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2007
Title: Resonance Air-drying clay, acrylic, audio speakers, recording 2007
Artist: Boris Dornbusch
Judge: Leonhard Emmerling - Director St. Paul Street Gallery AUT, Auckland, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2008
Title: Untitled Found Pinex board, 2008
Artist: Patrick Lundberg
Judge: Natasha Conland - Curator of Art, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2009
Title: Collateral In-situ installation by WM Staff by Proxy - discarded freight wrappers and labels, 2009
Artist: Dane Mitchell
Judge: Charlotte Huddleston - Senior Curator of Art, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand
Sponsored by Trust Waikato
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2010
Title: Lozenge of Dawn Paper, acrylic, 2010
Artist: Locust Jones
Judge: Rachel Kent - Senior Curator of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Sydney, Australia
Sponsored by Bold Horizon
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2011
Title: Blue Poles Acrylic el Fresco, 2011
Artist: Andre Hemer
Judge: John Hurrell - Independent curator, artist, critic and Director of EyeContact Site, Auckland, New Zealand
Sponsored by Bold Horizon
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2012
Title: Parallel of Life and Art In-situ installation with ready-made bus stop 2012
Artist: Michael Parr and Blaine Western
Judge: Caterina Riva - Director, Artspace Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Sponsored by Barry Hopkins
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2013
Tile: Morrison Drive, Hobsonville 23 November 2012 Pigment inkjet
Artist: Dieneke Jansen
Judge: Jon Bywater - Senior Lecturer at the Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland, curator, writer on art, music, and theory.
Sponsored by Waikato Society of Arts
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2014
Title: Tell Someone if Something Happens Mixed Media
Artist: Deanna Dowling
Judge: Simon Rees - Director, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Sponsored by Tompkins Wake and Ebbett Audi
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2015
Title: Pioneer City Flag Mixed media installation
Artist: Bronwyn Holloway-Smith
Judge: Aaron Kreisler - Head of School at Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury
Sponsored by Chow:Hill and Tompkins Wake
Administered by Waikato Museum
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2016
Title: Good Kisser 3D printed vases
Artist: Sorawit Songsataya
Judge: Misal Adnan Yildiz - Director, Artspace Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Sponsored by Tompkins Wake and Chow:Hill
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2017
Title: The Meaning of Ethics Mixed media on board
Artist: Kim Pieters
Title: Elizabeth Caldwell - Director at City Gallery Wellington
Sponsored by Tompkins Wake and Chow:Hill
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2018
Title: You and Me. The Weight of History Acrylic paint skins
Artist: Sarah Ziessen
Title: Reuben Friend - Director at Pātaka Art + Museum
Sponsored by Tompkins Wake and Chow:Hill
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2019
Title: Nana’s Birthday (A Big Breath) Acrylic on plywood
Artist: Ayesha Green (Kaai Tahu, Ngaati Kahungunui)
Judge: Fiona Pardington - Internationally-renowned New Zealand artist, MNZM, Doc FA
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Please note: The award was not held in 2020 due to disruption caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Year: 2021
Title: Palmolive
Single channel video
Artist: Caryline Boreham
Judge: Karl Chitham - Director, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, Wellington
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2022
Title: Red Handed
Acrylic paint and charcoal on MDF board with collage
Artist: Emma Hercus
Judge: Reuben Paterson - Internationally renowned New Zealand artist.
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Year: 2023
Title: Scenes from a Victorian Restaurant
Reclaimed wood, enamel/acrylic paint
Artist: Tawhai Rickard
Judge: Melanie Oliver - highly respected arts curator
Administered by Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery
Exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery