Auckland-based conceptual artist Eddie Clemens has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award. Chosen from 130 applicants throughout NZ for the coveted award, Clemens receives financial remuneration of $30,000 and use of a studio apartment at The Arts Centre of Christchurch from which to live and work for one year. "I have always aspired to this award" says Clemens. "I applied the year I left art school and then reapplied and won."Auckland-based conceptual artist Eddie Clemens has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award. Chosen from 130 applicants throughout NZ for the coveted award, Clemens receives financial remuneration of $30,000 and use of a studio apartment at The Arts Centre of Christchurch from which to live and work for one year. "I have always aspired to this award" says Clemens. "I applied the year I left art school and then reapplied and won."Clemens has been living in Auckland developing his practice after graduating from the Elam School of Fine Art, University of Auckland in 2004 with a Master of Fine Art (Hons) in Sculpture. His aesthetic references mass-produced items and custom-designed manufacturing. His installations have used obscure as well as everyday objects with a finish and presentation suggestive of consumer goods and packaging items, made anew into large-scale art works.

Clemens is currently completing a major lighting sculpture for the Auckland City Library funded by the Auckland City Council and the Chartwell Trust.

This year marks the 21st recipient of the Award which has a reputation as one of the most esteemed and valuable art sponsorships available in New Zealand for emerging artists.

Members of this year's selection panel included: Cathryn Shine, Senior Lecturer, School of Fine Arts University of Canterbury; Hannah Beehre, recipient of the award in 2004 and practising artist Maddie Leech.

Olivia Spencer Bower was a significant figure in the Canterbury art world until her death in 1982. She set up the Foundation to give financial assistance to artists and sculptors showing promise, with particular emphasis on future artistic potential rather than financial need. It was her intention to provide talented artists an opportunity to work for one year pursuing their own direction as a painter or sculptor, freed from the necessity to seek outside employment. Under her will, Olivia Spencer Bower left all her artworks to the Foundation, and these have been gradually realised by the Trustees to form a capital base, allowing the award to continue in perpetuity.

29/10/07