VCA Art is proud to announce that the winner of the $15,000 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship for 2009 is Linda Tegg.

Linda Tegg completed her Master of Visual Art last year and is currently enrolled in the Master of Fine Art at the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts. Linda’s aim is to use the Murdoch Fellowship to travel to the Venice Biennale in June 2009 and will spend time in Paris and New York.

Linda Tegg is interested in artworks that have themselves been transformed by years of fetishization, and with linking them through her art practice to the female figure and rise of raunch-culture and exhibitionism in contemporary society. By observing the art works and audience of major artistic institutions, such as the Venice Biennale, the Louvre, the Tate and MOMA, she hopes to further her understanding of the spectacle and implications for the viewer. Linda said that it is in New York that “I hope to consolidate the experience gained in Venice and Paris and develop a body of work that questions the nature of viewing and exhibiting”.

The judges, Jan Murray, Dr Christopher McAuliffe and Associate Professor Jon Cattapan said "the attraction of Linda’s work is that she shows a deep understanding of studio tradition and the capacity to confound these expectations. Linda’s work explores an unsettling union of aesthetics and voyeurism".

The prestigious Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship for VCA Art graduates is one of three biennial awards awarded every two years to VCA graduates of Art, Drama and Music, through the generosity of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch DBE, CBE, LLD and must be used to fund travel and study abroad. Previous VCA Art winners of this award include Steven Cox, Jon Campbell, Vera Möller and Andrew Hazewinkel.

The work of Linda Tegg and the short-listed finalists will be exhibited at the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery from 20 Feb to 13 March 2009.

The Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship 2009 Exhibition
Friday 20 February – Friday 13 March
VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery
40 Dodds Street, Southbank. T: 03/ 9685 9400
Gallery Hours: Tues to Sat 12-5pm