Chris Orr was the winner of the $5000 Ursula Hoff Institute Award at the Geelong Gallery Acquisitive Print Award 2023, with Served bold, pigment inks on Canson Arches aquarelle rag, printed by CPL, framing by Neo Frames. The selection panel were Kirsty Grant, curator of Australian Prints and Drawings from 1994-2007 and since then as Senior Curator of Australian Art; Geelong Gallery Director & CEO, Jason Smith; and Geelong Gallery Senior Curator, Lisa Sullivan.
Guest judge Kirsty Grant said:
Orr’s work ‘Served bold’ (2023) is an exceptionally sophisticated and captivating digital print, which was, for the three judges, utterly arresting. It is a work that cleverly combines imagery from historical engravings with the intricate circuitry of a computer motherboard and it speaks to the prominence of technology in the 21st century and the power it exerts over every aspect of contemporary life. Served bold draws a connection between the role of historical printmaking in democratising imagery, the dissemination of information, and the global and totalising power of the computer.
Thank you to the Ursula Hoff Institute for their support of this award.
