Christian de Vietri, 2nd law, 2004

Polyurethane, fibreglass, metal, enamel 110 x 245 x 170 cm

Courtesy the artist and Goddard de Fiddes Gallery

In conjunction with the Credit Suisse Private Banking / Art & Australia Contemporary Art Award

Throughout its forty-eight-year history, the front cover of Art & Australia has often heralded an artist in mid-career or at the peak of their creative achievement. Eight years ago the magazine saw the need to create a platform to celebrate artists at an earlier stage of their development. Reserving the back cover for the work of an artist in the first five years of their professional practice seemed a natural choice and so the Art & Australia Contemporary Art Award was born.

Eight years and twenty-eight recipients on, annual award applications have soared (now in the vicinity of 600) and many careers have flourished – with Del Kathryn Barton's 2012 Archibald Prize win just one measure of success. Credit Suisse Private Banking is the current award sponsor, and is a supporter of many leading cultural institutions internationally, including the Singapore Art Museum and the National Gallery, London.

The Contemporary Art Award offers valuable exposure to emerging artists by bringing their work to the attention of the public through the back cover, a profile story inside the magazine and by the purchase of selected works for the Art & Australia Collection. The latter part of the prize has enabled artists not only to be supported through acquisition, but to have their work exhibited on rotation at Art & Australia's Sydney offices and loaned to national museums on an ongoing basis.

Coinciding with Art Month Sydney 2016, the Art & Australia Collection will have its first collective public showing at the Chippendale gallery MOP, one of Sydney’s pioneering artist-run initiatives. Since its inception in 2003, MOP's key programming rationale has been to act as a career springboard for young and emerging artists. Art & Australia felt it the perfect setting to encapsulate everything the award endeavours to achieve.

‘The collection had been assembled over eight years and represents a glimpse into the contemporary psyche’, says Art & Australia’s Publisher/Editor Eleonora Triguboff. ‘Curators from all over Australia and New Zealand have formed the selection committee and include Greg Bourke, Rex Butler, Joanna Capon, Max Delany, Brian Ladd, Victoria Lynn, Justin Paton, Gene Sherman and Anna Waldmann.’

For more information on the exhibition and award click here.