IT was a sculpture of a platypus and a yabby made entirely from cutlery that caught the eye of the judge at the 2022 Bal-Archies Awards.
This unusual artwork by Goodnight artist Steve Cole took out the best in show prize for the exhibition — an honour which Cole was somewhat taken aback by.
“I totally wasn’t expecting to get the top prize, it was quite a surprise that I got the best of the show,” he told The Guardian.
The fourth annual Bal-Archies exhibition was held last Friday evening at The Gallery and was the first part of the Balranald 5 Rivers Outback Festival.
Jan Lawler, who volunteers at The Gallery, said Cole was a deserving winner of the $3000 award.
“It was really great to see Steve with that award because he is so gifted and he works so hard at things, and it was something different, it was the first time a sculpture has won the acquisitive award,” she said.
Cole has previously won the sculpture prize at the last few Bal-Archies Awards, but this was the first time he has ever taken home the top prize.
“I just dream up things all the time – I’ll never get it all done, there is just so much,” he said.
Ms Lawler said there was more than 120 in attendance and despite being down on award entries, sales of artwork on the night were still quite good.
“We had enough entries to fill those first two galleries, but they were down on the last time we had it, which was 2019,” she said.
“Generally it has been reported that they have been down across other galleries as well.”
The Bal-Archies exhibition will be open at The Gallery in Balranald until November 30. All of the artwork is available for purchase.
Prize winners
Balranald Shire Council Acquisitive Best in Show ($3000) – Steve Cole
Sections A-G $500
A – Human Portrait (Oil/Acrylic) – Jim Van Geet
B – Human Portrait (Works on Paper) – Dianne Craig
C – Human Portrait (Pastel) – Jasmin Rose
D – Fauna (Oil/Acrylic) – Fiona Merlin
E – Fauna (Works on Paper) – Sharon Pate
F – Fauna (Pastel) – Mary Briggs
G – Figure/Animal in a Landscape (Any medium) – Jan Harris
Sections H-J $200
H – Human Portrait (Photography) – Stephen Dyer
I – Fauna (Photography) – Vanessa Peters
J – Figure/Animal in a Landscape (Photography) – Errol Bradbury
Sections K-L $500
K- Human Study (Sculpture) (no entries) – Sandy Peters
L – Fauna (Sculpture) – Jasmin Rose
3x Emerging Artists Awards ($100 each)
Katherine Roney
Anna Scoleri
Ray Roney
