$42,000 Biennial Religious Art Prize, the Mandorla Art Award has 64 Finalists

THE WEST AUSTRALIA
By Stephen Bevis

"In the Fullness of...." by Michael Iwanoff

AUSTRALIA---Twenty-five years after winning the Mandorla Art Award, Mt Lawley artist Michael Iwanoff is again a contender in Australia's richest religious art prize. Working to this year's theme "born of a woman" taken from St Paul's letter to the Galatians 4:4, Mandorla organisers have selected 64 finalists in the $42,000 biennial award to be announced next month. Iwanoff's acrylic, mineral sands, glass and mixed media on canvas work In the Fullness Of…. "It is created in the spirit of nurturing positive rituals and inclusiveness not only physically but also symbolically, within the fullness of the everyday," Iwanoff says.

Selected Mandorla finalists will be shown at the Perth Town Hall from the opening night on August 10 until August 19. Sponsored by St John of God Health Care, the Mandorla Art Award is now the nation's richest religious art prize after an increase in the top prize to $25,000. The Sydney-based $20,000 Blake Prize is judged in November.