The Zonta Ashburton Women’s Art Awards (ZAWAA) return to the Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum for the ninth year. With an unprecedented 126 entries, the judges had a tough decision in selecting the finalists. Preselection judging has resulted in 31 artists qualifying as finalists for the Premier Award with an additional 25 artists included in the Young Generation Award specifically for women between the ages of 16-20.

ZAWAA seeks to raise the status of visual artists who identify as women and to acknowledge the contribution women make to the greater art discourse. The award is aligned with the values of Zonta International, which exists to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.

This year’s Premier Award was won by Julia Holderness for her work Villa Margaux: a studio archive. In this work, Julia explores the invented Villa Margaux (France) residency, a fantasy location and an invented art historical frame. The creation of artist-designer Florence Weir, and the narrative that she spent time there painting and making pottery in the 1930s, is also a fabrication. The assemblage of papers, workbook sketches and fragments in this work resembles a historical artist’s archive, but comes from Julia herself, an artist working in the present. The installation investigates the slippage between artmaking, lived experience and fiction, and questions the notion of archival truth.

Along with a cash prize of $4,000, Julia Holderness has also won the invaluable opportunity to create a solo exhibition at the Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum in 2026.

The ZAWAA25 Young Generation Award went to Margerette Erfe for her sculptural entry I’m an open book? The judges described the work as ‘an endearing, tiny stage set made from book pages that is cleverly constructed and suggests a profusion of competing possible selves and ideas.’

The ZAWAA awards exhibition will be on display until 27 April 2025. Visitors to the Gallery are encouraged to choose their favourite artwork for the People’s Choice award.

Winner of the ZAWAA24 Premier Award Marie Porter’s exhibition Recloaking is also on display and brings a sculptural consideration to the undertaking of harvesting pine trees. In the gallery, Porter houses three cubes within an atmosphere that suggests verdant native forest. Two of these, each a metre cubed, utilise the detritus of the pine harvesting process (‘slash’), and can be imagined as units of time, space and volume – all essential considerations in pine forestry. The third cube, a stand of the native white pine Kahikatea serves as an aspiration that biodiverse native forest will again cloak the denuded whenua. Recloaking will run until 27 April 2025.

Judges for the 2025 awards are:

Jenna Packer, full-time practicing artist.

Christina Read, Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts at Whitecliffe School on Fine Arts.

Kyla Mackenzie, Curator and Collections Manager at Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi O Whakatū.

The Zonta Ashburton Women’s Art Awards Finalists for 2025 are:

Amie Blackwell, Saskia Bunce-Rath, Sheena Burton, Emma Byrne, Carolyn Currie, Deanna Gracie, Katie Hallam, Julia Holden, Julia Holderness, Ina Johann, Yuki Komiyama, Monica Koster, Claire Langlands, Marie Celeste Lawrence, Vic Mangan, Jessica Marcotte, Malaea McFadyen, Ferne Mcintosh, Amy McMillan, Nina Morris, Maree Quinn, Gemma Root, Cheriene Singer, Elfi Spiewack, Charrette van Eekelen, Elise Waterson, Clara Wells, Shannon Williamson, Sophie Wood, Viv Wotton.

Finalists for the Young Generation Award are:

Heilee Amonelo, Khaijren Neya Balbuena, Nina Banua, Sophie Browniee, Marley Celedonio, Ella Clark-Powell, Abbey Cruickshank, Anna Do, Gracymay Ellen, Alexis Elliott, Margarette Erfe, Georgia Grins, Madeline Hann, Reka Harvey, Mackenzie Keech, Rose Langford, Kate Lusby, Rosie Major, Scarlett Giffin Munn, Lily Kempton Reeves, Emily Smith, Yua Tanaka, Aska Ueda, Sienna Yearbury, Ako Yoshizawa.

A generous grant from NZ Creative Communities has enabled the creation of a free catalogue which will include details on all the finalists, along with judges’ and sponsors’ profiles.  ZAWAA25 is proudly supported by Zonta Club of Ashburton, CNZ Creative Communities Grant, Forsyth Barr, Barker’s Foodstore & Eatery, ANZ Bank, Bushey Park Trust, Everist Gilchrist Lawyers, Straight 8 Estate Wines, Scorpio Books, Samantha Rose Flowers, Kate Murney, Terrace Croft and The Rabbit Ashburton.

Entries close 04 October 2024

Key dates for ZAWAA25:

• 04 October 2024 | Entries close
• 15 January 2025 | ZAWAA25 finalists and judges announced
• 10 February 2025 | Last day for finalists’ works to be delivered to the Gallery
• 07 March 2025 7pm | Exhibition opening
• 27 April 2025 | Exhibition closes

Main image: ZAWAA24 Premier Award-winning work The Rocks by Marie Porter

Left image: ZAWAA23 winner Jo Burzynksa’s exhibition Scents take up the Ringing