Celebrating our artistic journeys

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Celebrating our artistic journeys

At Nonna’s House: Enzo Iezzi (OW2021) with his Acquisitive Art Prize-winning installation

The wonderful thing about our Annual Acquisitive Art Prize Exhibition is the moment in time it offers to celebrate the artistic journeys of our talented visual art students.

Presented last term in the light-filled RVIB Chapel at the St Kilda Road Campus arts precinct, this year's exhibition revealed the students’ creativity in all its forms.

‘The full array of media and concepts in the work showcases the diversity that makes up the fabric of Wesley,’ said Amelia Judd, Head of Arts at St Kilda Road campus. ‘We see moments of contemplation, melancholy, humour and despair through people, objects and place.’

All art students from Years 10 to 12 at our Glen Waverley and St Kilda Road campuses are eligible to enter the exhibition. The winner of the titular prize is awarded $500 and their work is acquired for the College's permanent collection.

This year’s guest artist judge, Melbourne painter and photographer Concettina Inserra, praised the students for the confidence they showed in putting their work forward for the exhibition. ‘You’re vulnerable when you’re making art, because it’s self-expression. It’s quite brave to show these beautiful expressions to everyone,’ she said.

She awarded the main prize to Enzo Iezzi (OW2021) for his installation Nonna’s House. Inspired by his Italian family, Enzo said that he ‘always wanted to do a bigger installation piece and make sure that when you interacted with it, you felt like you were at home, at Nonna’s.’ Jent

Concettina admired the effort of the rendered walls and sourcing of relevant furniture and objects, as well as the loose painting style which conveyed a feeling of fading memory. ‘That moved me a lot,’ she said. ‘I really felt like I was at Nonna’s House.

Inspired by Max Dupain’s Sunbaker, Year 11 student Jent Jiang presented his diptych Beachwalker and won an Encouragement Award