SALA Festival 2017 Artists-in-Residence Announced

A white ceramic bust of a person sitting on a round mirror with a black background. There are textural patterns on the skin and flowers and leaves in the hair.
Narcissus Reflecting – Sonali Patel

Three South Australian artists have been selected to participate in the SALA Festival 2017 artist-in-residence program at SAHMRI (South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute), Adelaide Festival Centre and Flinders Medical Centre.

SALA FESTIVAL 2017 ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE ANNOUNCED

Three South Australian artists have been selected to participate in the SALA Festival 2017 artist-in-residence program at SAHMRI (South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute), Adelaide Festival Centre and Flinders Medical Centre.

SAHMRI will host painter and sculptor Sonali Patel who will work with the Heart Health Theme in the lead up to SALA Festival in August.

Adelaide Festival Centre will welcome contemporary emerging artist Jane Skeer who will be creating an installation made entirely of discarded objects that will also be part of the DreamBIG Children’s Festival in May.

While photographer Steph Fuller, based within the Arts in Health at FMC program, will be working primarily with the Medical Imaging department at Flinders Medical Centre.  Stephanie has ambitions to poeticise medical imagery.

The work of each artist inspired by their residency will be exhibited in their respective venues during this year’s SALA Festival from 1-31 August 2017.

This year is the 20 year anniversary of the annual SALA Festival it is also coincidently the 20 year anniversary for Arts in Health at Flinders Medical Centre (twenty festival). The SALA Festival has become an important event in South Australia’s arts calendar; last year the festival boasted 630 exhibitions featuring close to 5,000 participating local artists state-wide.

SALA started its artist-in-residence program in 2014 and each year it grows and benefits the participating artists and host organisations. The residency offers artists an insider’s perspective and in turn they interpret the business of the host organisation and its activities through art.

Exhibition registrations to be part of the 2017 SALA Festival will be open from Wednesday 1 March until Monday 15 May – go to salafestival.com for more information.

Arts in Health at FMC and SALA commissioned an evaluation report for the 2015 and 2016 residencies at Flinders Medical Centre the report is available for download here.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Sonali Patel is a visual artist who exhibits in sculpture and oil painting. She has a Bachelor of Visual Art from the Adelaide College of Arts and studied painting at the Adelaide Central School of Art. After moving from Mumbai where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Sonali gained an Associate Diploma in Fashion Design at the Douglas Mawson Institute receiving the Best Graduate Award.  During the 2010 Adelaide International, she was selected for the Heart workshop conducted by the international contemporary artist Jorge Orta. He subsequently invited her to attend an art residency at Studio Orta in Paris.

Jane Skeer works predominantly in sculpture and installation, with found objects and repurposed materials. She is known for her playful works that engage all the senses.

Her award-winning work, Quiet Square, was included in the prestigious Perth Institute of Contemporary Art’s Hatched 2016. The work was first exhibited in Adelaide Central School of Art’s Propositions 2015 Graduate Exhibition, and then selected for exhibition in the 2016 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition. It was acquired by Chester Osborn of d’Arenberg Winery, to be displayed in the d’Arenberg Cube in McLaren Vale.

Steph Fuller’s practice stems from fear of adulthood stamping out her imagination and leaving her with all that is routine and mundane. Image-making grants her permission to continue seeing the world with a wide-eyed sense of wonder. Steph studied her Bachelor of Visual Arts (Photography) and Masters of Visual Art at the University of South Australia.

SALA is pleased to be able to collaborate with Country Health SA and UniSA to announce four new 2017 Artist-in-Residence opportunities at country mental health inpatient units located in Whyalla, Berri, Mount Gambier and Glenside Health sites. Expressions of interest close at 5pm Monday 28 March. For more information about these new residency opportunities go to https://www.salafestival.com/news/10/

 

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Media contact: Penny Griggs [email protected] OR 8233 0675 OR 0401 307 477