AC Emeritus award and medal winners

"Rapture" by Ken Unsworth  

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: AUSTRALIA COUNCIL

Australia Council has celebrated the careers of renowned sculptor and passionate arts advocate through an award and medal.

Prolific sculptor Ken Unsworth AM and distinguished arts advocate Ann Lewis AO will this afternoon be honoured for their longstanding commitment to Australian visual arts and culture, receiving the Australia Council Visual Arts Emeritus Award and Medal respectively.

Professor Ted Snell AM, Chair of the Australia Council Visual Arts Board, will present the awards at a ceremony in Sydney.

Ken Unsworth AM will receive the $40,000 Emeritus Award for his exceptional contribution to Australian sculpture and for his achievements in the development of Australian visual arts both at home and abroad.

Ann Lewis AO will receive the $10,000 Emeritus Medal for her role as a respected ambassador for Australian art within Australia and overseas and for her generous philanthropic contributions to galleries, further advancing the reputation of the Australian artistic sector.

"To honour Ken and Ann through these prestigious awards is not only a way of thanking them for their contribution to Australian art, but also to communicate to the rest of the world the pride and pleasure we take collectively as Australians for their personal achievements,’ said Professor Snell. ‘We are lucky to have them."

A painter-turned-sculptor, Ken’s career spans over thirty years working through some seven different practices that have evolved simultaneously: site-specific land-based art, performance, motorised relief works, work with river stones (his Suspended stone circle II in the Art Gallery of NSW is one of Australia’s most popular public works), large bitumen drawings, maquettes, and room-sized installations.

Last year, Ken exhibited four major installation works in an extensive site-specific exhibition space in the Turbine Hall on Cockatoo Island. Entitled A Ringing Glass (Rilke), the work was in honour of his wife Elizabeth who sadly passed away in October 2008.

Ken has exhibited widely, from the Paris Biennale, 1985; The Magiciens de la Terre, Paris, 1989; the Biennale of Istanbul, 1995 and represented Australia at the prestigious Venice Biennale in 1978. He has received numerous awards including the Bi-centenary Sculpture Competition Award in 1970 and the DAAD Scholarship, Berlin in 1987. In 1989, Ken was the first visual artist to be awarded an Australian Creative Fellowship and was made a Member of The Order of Australia for services to sculpture.

"Ken’s work is synonymous with contemporary Australian art," said Professor Snell. "His inclusion in gallery collections and exhibitions across Australia, such as the recent John Kaldor exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, together with the public display of his sculptures, has helped raise the visibility and appeal of Australian art."

Ann Lewis AO is one of Australia’s most important private collectors and benefactors of art, with a long list of achievements through a career spanning over 50 years.

Ann was the Director of Sydney’s leading and sometime controversial Gallery A in Paddington from 1964 until 1983, where she was one of the first advocates of Australia’s Indigenous art. The success of Gallery A was celebrated in a survey exhibition presented by Campbelltown Arts Centre and Newcastle Region Art Gallery in 2009.

Ann has been a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York for almost four decades and she was Commissioner for the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1995. She was also a foundation member of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, President of the Art Gallery Society in the Art Gallery of NSW and a member of the Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Company.

More recently, Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) has been fortunate to have benefited from Ann’s support who donated $500,000 and more than 150 works of Australian contemporary art. Almanac: The Gift of Ann Lewis AO is currently showing at the MCA which also includes works from Ann’s gifts to Newcastle Region Art Gallery and Moree Plains Gallery.

The medal recognises Ann’s philanthropic and ambassadorial roles as well as her tireless commitment to arts organisations and artists through all stages of their careers.

"Ann has generously given mentoring and support to so many young artists and curators, as well as brokering international connections that have helped build the international profiles of countless arts professionals," Professor Snell said.

Award recipients Ken Unsworth and Ann Lewis and the Australia Council Visual Arts Board Chair Ted Snell are available for interview.