Victoria’s most visible launch pad for young artists has turned 20, and with it ushered in a new generation of emerging talent.
Top Arts, the National Gallery of Victoria exhibition showcasing the best of VCE art students, opened on Thursday, featuring work from 49 graduates, selected from more than 3000 submissions.
Top Arts alumnus and installation artist Ash Keating opened the show, focusing on the role Top Arts played in his career.
”It was an awakening for me, and such an honour to be part of the NGV at that age,” he said.
”It’s really delightful being here and reliving that type of energy and excitement.”
Curator Gina Panebianco has been with the program since the inaugural show in 1994 and believes technology and social media have caused the biggest shift in the type of work presented.
”Twenty years ago, you could see that students from regional and remote schools weren’t getting the opportunity their metropolitan counterparts had,” she said.
”That’s changed dramatically because now they can be exposed to art from around the world, online.”
Ms Panebianco said there were nine students from regional Victoria in the exhibition and more girls than boys, which reflects enrolments in the classes.
Despite new technologies, many students still opt for ”analog” works, including Adrian Del Re from Marcellin College, whose origami installation The Subjectivity of Interpretation is inspired by his childhood. ”I wanted to bring back that sense of childhood wonder, so instead of doing origami cranes I did a much more postmodern and contemporary mutation of the concept,” he said.
Another VCE graduate thrilled to be in the exhibition is Cassandra Min from Haileybury College.
”I never really expected to get into this exhibition,” she said. ”I’ve been the last two years and it’s amazing, so I thought my work wouldn’t reach that standard.
”But it is a motivation, to have people enjoy the work I create is really pleasing.” Her work, Symphony Series, was inspired by a love for classical music and abstract artist Jackson Pollock.
