PORTRAITURE: AN ENDURING TRADITION

Townsville’s sustained interest in portraiture is reflective of the genre’s enduring popularity around the world. A portrait provides us with not only a physical likeness but also a window into the sitter’s life, into their mind and their soul. The voyeur in each of us delights at the opportunity to peek through these windows time and again.

Since 2007, the city has been afforded the chance to go peeking through many windows, turning out en masse to view The Percivals. Beginning as a $3,000 prize exhibition at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in 2007, an overwhelming response saw the exhibition return in 2008, and become a biennial event from this point forward. Since this time, the show has delighted many, and also courted its share of controversy, as seems the norm for any portrait prize of note.

2014 marked my first encounter with The Percivals, and also a dramatic evolution for the exhibition, shifting from a stand-alone biennial show to a citywide celebration of the genre of portraiture. As we enter the 2016 edition of The Percivals, we have space to reflect on the successes of 2014, and also to welcome further additions.

Of course, 2014 saw the introduction of the DUO Magazine Percival Photographic Portrait Prize at Pinnacles Gallery to run concurrently with Perc Tucker Regional Gallery’s Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize. Both exhibitions enjoyed a strong response; a total of 87 works by 82 artists were displayed as finalists in the Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize, while the finalists display of the DUO Magazine Percival Photographic Portrait Prize featured 75 works by 61 artists. Each show was packed with highlights, though the winning works - Frank Giacco’s painting Charles Blackman and Roderick McNicol’s work The Late Blossoming of Jack Charles – were absolute standouts.

The citywide celebration also included the fun exhibition Animal Portraits , an active education program, and the engagement of the broader community in the Flinders Street banner exhibition of photographs, entitled The PEOPLE’S Percival. All of these elements return in 2016.

2014 also saw a collaboration with ABC Open to present the outdoor paste-up exhibition, Faces of Townsville. Paste-up artwork will return in a big way in 2016, with a new piece by leading Australian street artist, Baby Guerrilla. Simultaneously, the Galleries will team with local group, LensCap Collective, to deliver a Families of Townsville paste-up exhibition.

With extensive research conducted by the group, the project will trace the history of some of Townsville’s founding families.

This project is a fitting addition to the program in our T150 year, but is not the only celebration, with each of the major exhibitions offering an acquisitive Townsville 150th Anniversary Award. Only finalists residing in the Townsville local government area who have captured a portrait of a local sitter are eligible for these Awards.

I am also extremely excited for this year’s schedule of programs and events – surely the most dynamic program that has been run to coincide with The Percivals. Our roving portrait artists will return to the exhibition launches and the Cotters Markets; a host of workshops including painting, photography, LEGO Portrait Workshops and Brick Yourself sessions are on offer; our judge Professor Anne Marsh will present a seminar and workshop, entitled Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970; and a number of talks by artists and guests will enthral us, with details of our exciting speakers to be revealed throughout The Percivals.

Of course I must extend my thanks to the exhibition’s sponsors and supporters that enable all of this to happen.

DUO Magazine are once again supporting the major $10,000 acquisitive award for the DUO Magazine

Percival Photographic Portrait Prize, a wonderful exhibition of contemporary photography that simply would not exist without the support of DUOMagazine, and in particular my thanks go to Scott and Stacey Morrison. The support provided by Glencore, who have supported The Percivals over many years and allowed the acquisitive prize to grow to $40,000, continues to place the Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize amongst the nation’s largest and most lucrative portrait exhibitions, and in particular my thanks to Paul Taylor and Avril Plath.

I would like to personally thank our judges, Ross Searle and Professor Anne Marsh. Yours is a role I do not envy, particularly considering the quality and diversity of entries that we have received for The Percivals in 2016.

Thank you to all of those who have made The Percivals the huge success it is, and I trust you will all enjoy the celebrations across the city in 2016.

Shane Fitzgerald Manager Gallery Services