1. ZAFAA 2021, installation photograph: From left:  Johann + Edwards, Concretions – acid/pink, 2020, mixed media drawing on C-type photograph, Jenny Wilson, Unravelling, 2020, ceramic and silk.  Photograph: Shirin Khosraviani 

In 2019 a survey exhibition at the Auckland Art GalleryToi o Tāmaki of feminist art activists, Guerilla Girls, led Wellington-based writer, Anna Knox to reflect upon the status of women artists in Aotearoa within the context of their male counterparts.   Published online in The Spinoff, Knox discovered:   Male artists in Aotearoa have 30% more opportunities to exhibit in solo exhibitions in public galleries than females.  Women artists are still under represented in dealer galleries, especially by male dealers.  

Now in its fifth year at the Ashburton Art Gallery, manager and curator, Shirin Khosraviani maintains that the establishment of the Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award (ZAFAA) in 2017 was conceived through her awareness that ‘one of the major challenges facing female artists is the ability to secure solo exhibitions in public galleries’.   From its inauguration in 2017 the ZAFAA has developed into a significant art award for many reasons.  It is the only designated annual visual arts award for women artists in Aotearoa and, as Khosraviani  also acknowledges, ‘as a survey-of-sorts for contemporary art by women in Canterbury, it’s been thrilling to watch it grow and take hold’. 

April 2021 Edition  SEE IT HERE.