A sculpture by local artist Nicolas Luppacino has been selected as the overall winner at the 2024 Wānaka Arts Labour Weekend Art Exhibition.

The annual exhibition this year features works by 144 artists from the Upper Clutha and around New Zealand and it is open at the Lake Wānaka Centre for the next two days.

Judges highlighted the balance of subject and workmanship and the “outstanding detail” in the “portrait of fear and attack” in Nicolas’s winning piece, called ‘No Escape’.

Nicolas said he spent three months painstakingly creating the piece at his Luggate studio, but the win was unexpected.

Judges praised the “portrait of fear and attack”.

“It is quite a surprise,” he told the Wānaka App.

An opening event on Thursday night (October 24) celebrated Nicolas and the other artists who had contributed to the exhibition.

Curator Vicky Fulton said there was “a huge amount of artwork” filling the Lake Wānaka Centre, available for people to view and purchase.

There’s something for every taste, she said, with “a very, very wide variety of styles of art and media”.

The exhibition also features artist-in-residence Peregrin Hyde, guest artists Susie Ruddenklau, Cuba Pavlovich and Ben Reid, and working artists Dave Attwell, Stone Maka, Jasmine Clarke, and Rana Odell.

Wānaka resident Rana Odell, one of the working artists at this weekend’s exhibition.

Wānaka Arts president Gaynor Corkery said the entries and interest in the exhibition are increasing each year.

“There's a lot of talent in this community….[and] now people are coming from all over New Zealand to exhibit at our Labour Weekend exhibition,” she said.

Organisers have had to limit the number of pieces each artist can exhibit for the first time ever this year, she said.

The exhibition, which has grown to become a key part of the Wānaka events calendar, is in its 45th year.

Gaynor said Wānaka Arts - the non-profit group behind the event - does it, primarily, “because we are infatuated with art”.

Visit the Wānaka Arts Labour Weekend Exhibition at the Lake Wānaka Centre today and tomorrow (Saturday October 26 and Sunday October 27) between 9am and 5pm.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App