Artist Jeremy Hawkes Receives Create NSW Fellowship
Lismore-based artist with disability Jeremy Hawkes has been awarded a $30,000 2018/19 Creative Development Fellowship from Create NSW that will support him in completing studio based research and development, fund a residency at the Berlin Art Institute, see him attend national and international arts conferences and study at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York.
Jeremy also intends to use this time to begin a whole new body of work with increased engagement in new technologies.
Jeremy said he is utterly delighted and amazed and, ‘unusually for me, quite speechless at receiving this Fellowship. Opportunities like these are rare for artists with disability and artists living in regional Australia. This is my most significant achievement to date’.
‘The validation after so many years of hard work is incredibly meaningful, and the opportunities presented are just amazing. This is the beginning of the next stage of my arts career’.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts from Southern Cross University in 1994, Jeremy completed post-graduate studies at both RMIT and VCA. He has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas, most recently at the Lone Goat gallery in Byron Bay and as part of the Epicormia Collective at the NRCG, Ballina.
A workplace accident in 2007 revealed a degenerative spinal condition. He lives with chronic pain, atypical parkinsonisms and neural divergence – all of which inform his politics, activism and arts practice.
His recent thematic concerns include the body as a site of identity / pathology, evolutionary theory, and explorations / musings on mortality.
‘I am very grateful to Create NSW for this Fellowship and for all the support and encouragement I have received over the years. It’s not easy being an artist. It’s not easy living with a disability. I hope this will inspire other people like me to keep going, keep pushing at the boundaries, never give in and know that their work is valued, important and very relevant,’ said Jeremy.
