Carlo Van de Roer recently became the first New Zealand born artist to win the prestigious Jury Distinction Award in the BMW Prize at Paris Photo 2010. His winning work, an aura portrait of Miranda July, was exhibited in Wellington in March 2010. He was represented in Paris by chic M+B gallery from Los Angeles. We succeeded in getting him a small amount of press coverage to acknowledge the award but the moment has largely gone unnoticed on these shores.
No Australasian gallery has ever participated at Paris Photo although a few New Zealand artists have had book signings there, such as Bruce Connew and Harvey Benge. Some work has been done to see New Zealand selected as the spotlight country, however, no success to date. Interestingly Africa is the featured 'country' for Paris Photo 2011.
Pictured: Our new Holland Electro 4500 sensor control vaccum next to Carlo Van de Roer's Blinded by the Light # 1 (Wunderkammer exhibition).
