As is to be expected of an arty, outer urban area with a predominantly upwardly mobile population and a gay mayor, the Vincent Art Award attracted a lot of attention from the media, the residents and the arts community in general.  Not all of it warranted, much like some ot the work that was entered but some of it brilliant.  The exhibition is held in the Council Offices, a great piece of art in its own right with the sweeping curve of the glass front and triangular balconies that jut out from the sides.

The paintings and sculptures begin downstairs, gradually work their way up the staircase on the right, against the back wall on the upper level, then into the Council Chambers where they well and truly fill all the space that is available.  Next year Vincent may want to look at finding a new space for the art award as some of the pieces are literally hidden in corners and can not be given proper justice.  Not as many visual arts disciplines as I expected are represented.  Painting is the widest category including watercolour, oil and acrylic.  Sculpture and textiles are also shown.

The first thing you see when you walk in the door are probably the two best paintings in the exhibition, Thomas Hoareau's Supa Valu and Julie Dowling's Nana.  Both these paintings are technically superb dealing with entirely different subjects, the only similarity is they they are both oil on canvas.  Dowling deals with the racism first experienced by her grandmother in her own garden, shouted from the street.  Her hands cover her charges ears from the insults but the pain comes out of her eyes.  The grandchildren stare back, defiantly protective of their grandma.  The painting sparkles with the beauty of the environment that surrounds them, the trees and sky contain Aboriginal shapes and forms.

Hoareau deals with a different life, the corner of Grosvenor Road and Beaufort Street in Mount Lawley and the convenience store thereof.  Every time you look into this painting you see something new, the veggie racks at the back of the shop, the Telstra advert in the phone box, all make this painting enticing to look at.  The treatment of light is superb, more harsh in the glare of the phone box, softer around the lamps of the street lights and pouring out the doors of the supermarket.

Upstairs Gary Leathendale's Vincent Nocturnes shows a distorted view of Oxford Street through a sliding window that has not been cleaned properly, allowing the light to sparkle leaving shapes of the building muted and confusing.  Bjorn Dolva's Cafe Scene has a cafe strip that is curvy and cubist with its buildings swerved and distorted.  It looks like L.A. might after the San Andreas fault rips it to pieces.

These are only some of the works I thought were worth mentioning.  The exhibition is huge with 185 exhibits and all of them are of some merit.  The council has been foresighted enough to buy some of the best pieces and I hope that the standard of this exhibition continues into the future, although a new venue or decent size hall would be a good idea.