National Hero’s Journey Art Prize

The aMBUSH Gallery is set to host the National Hero’s Journey Art Prize.

The exhibition will feature posters on the subject of COVID-19. Sights, sounds and survival tales driven by feelings of angst, depression, frustration, guilt, need, loneliness, despair, and also the prevailing need to never lose sight of hope. This is a time when helping others versus the need to help oneself as we are forced to maintain distance from those we love and from those, not so close, who could quite obviously do with a little companionship. But amidst all the gloom and doom are we actually headed for a new golden age?

According to Gallery Director, Bill Dimas, there is always a time of great social commentary from artists inspired by the breakthrough of new ideas and new ways of expressing them after great upheavals in the world. “We need to have the perception and the power to turn this into a learning experience and we need to pay attention to how the planet is responding,” said Dimas. “Something’s not working. It’s very clear.”

The idea of a poster exhibition, as opposed to paintings on canvas, is due to the need to express the immediacy and urgency of the situation we find ourselves in.

“A poster throws everything at you all at once,” said Dimas, and referred to movie posters in which composite images usually centre on the hero’s journey, as an example. “What’s the danger and how will the hero get out of it?’’ is the general gist of this exhibition.

Now we all have the chance to be heroes. 50 finalists will be featured in an online exhibition with the actual gallery exhibition in November with the winner receiving $3,000 cash.

Entries close Sep 10. Visit www.ambushgallery.com for more information.

By Renee Lou Dallow