A retrospective exhibition of the best of Australia’s most significant thematic Christian art prize represents the first initiative by the Perth archdiocese’s recently opened Faith Centre to spread the message through cultural evangelisation.
The collection of winning entries from the Mandorla Art Award for contemporary religious art, running since 1985, is the first time the works have been shown together outside of New Norcia.
Opening the exhibition, Archbishop Barry Hickey said one of the ways for the Church and, by extension the new Faith Centre, to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ was through culture.
Each artwork was the fruit of contemplation, he said.
The retrospective exhibition is open until 20 November at the Faith Centre, 450 Hay Street. A calendar featuring the works is now available.
The 2012 awards offer a prize pool of $42,000 for artists who best interpret the theme ‘born of a woman’ taken from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians 4:4. Archbishop Hickey was joined for the occasion by Perth’s Anglican Archbishop, Roger Herft, and Uniting Church Moderator Ron Larkin.