2015 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarships awarded

James L Marshall and Hong An James Nguyen have been awarded the 2015 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarships. Marhall, former co-director of contemporary gallery FELTspace, and Nguyen, graduate of the National Art School and Sydney College of the Arts, both receive flights to an international visual arts institution, tuition fees paid and a US$45,000 stipend for living expenses over one year. Nguyen is a video and performance artist, whose work examines the ‘performatice potential of the camera’. He records footage as he makes it, creating a work and statement from the meta-performance created in the layered practice. Nguyen, whose practice is based in Sydney, has recently completed a month-long residency with Chinese-Australian artist Shen Shaomin, as part of the Beijing Studio Program run by 4A (Centre for Contemporary Asian Art). Marshall is an Adelaide man who now splits his days between Melbourne and Los Angeles. The Adelaide art scene is vividly aware of his legacy: the much-celebrated FELTspace contemporary gallery on Compton St. The multi-media artist has exhibited in Sweden and England, as well as his new American home. With a pop-culture bent and a cyberpunk flavour, Marshall explores themes of ‘contemporary human experience’ through digital images and sculpture. There have been 128 Samstag scholars to date. These include Madison Bycroft (2014, currently studying in Rotterdam) and Christian Lock (2012, studied in California). jameslmarshall.com jamesnguyen.com.au Samstag Museum Images: Hong An James NGUYEN, Overhead Manual Pivot_Attempt_No.3.0 (still, detail), 2014, two channel video, black & white, sound. Courtesy the artist James L. MARSHALL, The Black Cat (revised), 2011, timber, gypsum board, acrylic, fluorescent light fittings, hardware and cord, 300.0 x 256.0 x 30.0 cm. Photograph by Chris Boha.