Deborah Williams, Martin King and Phillip Edwards – finalists in Pro Hart Outback Art Prize

Image above: Deborah Williams The air smells different 2023 aquatint intalgio 53×39.5cm

Congratulations to Deborah Williams, Martin King and Phillip Edwards who have been selected as finalists in the 2024 Pro Hart Outback Art Prize!

The exhibition of the finalists’ work will open Friday 9th August at Broken Hill City Art Gallery,
and will be showing until October 27th.

The Pro Hart Outback Art Prize is an acquisitive competition showcasing work in any media which reflects the spirit and diversity of the Australian Outback.

You can see the full list of finalists on the Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s website

Image above: Martin King false ornithology, the mungo diaries III 2024 etching, relief etching, wax, hard cover books, ribbon 85cm x 85cm x 5cm

Image above: Phillip Edwards Bimbowrie vista 2024 mixed media 90x115cm

Salvatore Zofrea – ‘From the Collection: Jagath Dheerasekara & Salvatore Zofrea’ at Campbelltown Arts Centre

Image above: Salvatore Zofrea Catching fire-flies in summer from the series Appassionata: one
hundred woodcuts no.15. 1994–1999  Jelutong woodblock  40 x 60 cm image  56.5 x 76.7cm
sheet

Congratulations to Salvatore Zofrea on his upcoming exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre

From the Collection: Jagath Dheerasekara & Salvatore Zofrea

Exhibition Dates: 6 July – 13 October 2024 

Exhibition Opening July 26th, 6-8pm
Campbelltown Arts Centre

‘Salvatore Zofrea was born in Italy and migrated to Australia in 1956 at the age of nine. Zofrea’s practice is influenced by his life story and the natural world. As an artist, Zofrea has committed his life to painting, drawing and printmaking, often creating work in series over the course of several years. He draws inspiration from a vast array of research including art history, literary texts, poetry, music, film, and performance as well as from his life experiences.

Apassionata is a series of 100 woodblock prints created by Zofrea between 1994–99. The series is renowned as the most detailed account of key events in his life, depicting scenes from Zofrea’s early life in Italy to his coming of age in Australia. Zofrea depicts moments in time from significant milestones such as My birth at 9pm, to everyday memories with friends and family in Catching fireflies in summer. Although deeply personal in nature, Zofrea encourages individuals to bring their own emotions and life stories to the interpretation of his works.

37 works from the ‘Apassionata’ series were donated by the artist to Campbelltown City Council Art Collection in 2003…’

Please see the Campbelltown Arts Centre website for more information

Collection in focus: Golburn Regional Gallery

Jenny Rodgerson & Peter Wegner – Finalists in The Lester Prize 2024

Above image details: Jenny Rodgerson Mum’s orange cardigan  2024 oil on linen 60 x 40 cm

Congratulations to Jenny Rodgerson and Peter Wegner, who have been selected as finalists for The 2024 Lester Prize for Portraiture

The Lester Prize Main Awards exhibition will be held at Western Australian Museum from 13 September to 27 October 2024. In April 2019, the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, one of the country’s richest prizes for portraiture was renamed The Lester Prize in honour of the award’s leading patron, Richard Lester AM.

The Lester Prize has become Wester Australia’s most prestigious portrait prize.The 40 finalists’ works will be on public display at the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip from 14 September through to 17 November with the main winner announced on the Opening night on Friday, 13 September.

In the meantime, you can view all the Finalists online via The Lester Prize website.

Above image details: Peter Wegner Lydia waiting 2023 oil on board 30 x 30 cm

Holly Grace & Sarah Tomasetti – Finalists in the 2024 Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize

Image above: Sarah Tomasetti From Balpatta X 2024 145 x 150 cm pigment oil and marble dust on fresco

Congratulations to Holly Grace and Sarah Tomasetti who have been selected as finalists for the 2024 Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize

The exhibition of finalists’ works will be on view from 8 June – 14 July at the Fleurieu Arthouse in the beautiful McLaren Vale, South Australia. The gallery is open daily 11am to 4pm.

The Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize for landscape was established by David Dridan, Greg Trott and Tony Parkinson in 1998. This year, the exhibition features works exploring the theme A Sense of Place. There are three prizes: The Fleurieu Art Prize $20,000, Emerging Artists Prize $5,000, and a People’s Choice award of $2,500. The judges are Lisa Slade, Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at Art Gallery of South Australia, Brian Parkes, CEO at Jam Factory and Nicholas Folland, Head of Contemporary Studies and Sculpture at Adelaide Central School of Art.Image above: Holly Grace Resonant Landscapes  2024 overall dimensions 35 x 90 x 35 cm

Regarding the above work, artist Holly Grace shares this statement:

“The artwork Resonant Landscapes is a new body of work, based on concepts of portraiture and portraits of a place, themes initially developed during a recent artists residency at the National Portrait Gallery and at Gudgenby Cottage in the Namadgi National Park. As part of the residency experience I created a collection of blown glass sound receptors based on the inner ear structures of birds and humans. These glass receptors became my acoustic horns, resonant structures to receive and record natures soundscape built from the songs of birds, crickets, frogs, to the gentle rush of water, the rustle of wind through eucalyptus leaves and snow grass.

Within this artwork I explore the many chameleon qualities of glass. It is an instrument for sound and a canvas for light, creating both a personal memoir and a sense of a place. Using both the camera and glass as my tools, I explore the Namadgi wilderness hoping to discover where I belong in this ancient landscape and how walk light in this increasingly fragile environment.”

2024 Salon des Refusés at S.H. Ervin Gallery

Image above (left to right): Graeme Drendel Portrait of Rick  2024 oil on canvas 41 x 31 cm | Michelle Hiscock The Director  2024 oil on canvas 45.5 x 35.5 cm | Paul S. Miller I am still  2024 egg tempera on wooden panel 60 x 60 cm

Congratulations to Graeme Drendel, Michelle Hiscock, Paul S. Miller, Lewis Miller, Rodney Pople, and Mary Tonkin whose works are included in the 2024 Salon des Refuses at S.H. Ervin Gallery.

Salon des Refusés 8 June – 25 August 2024

The Salon des Refusés was initiated by the S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the official exhibition. The Archibald Prize is one of Australia’s most high profile and respected awards which attracts hundreds of entries each year and the S.H. Ervin Gallery’s ‘alternative’ selection has become a much-anticipated feature of the Sydney scene.

Each year our panel is invited to go behind the scenes of the judging process for the annual Archibald Prize for portraiture and Wynne Prize for landscape painting and figure sculpture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, to select an exhibition from the many hundreds of works entered in both prizes but not chosen for the official award exhibition. The Salon des Refusés exhibition at the S.H. Ervin Gallery has established an excellent reputation that rivals the selections in the ‘official’ exhibition, with works selected for quality, diversity, humour and experimentation, and which examine contemporary art practices, different approaches to portraiture and responses to the landscape.

This year’s selectors were Brad Hammond, director Orange Regional Gallery and Jane Watters, director, S.H. Ervin Gallery.

Congratulations to our represented artists who were included in this year’s Salon des Refusés for the following works:

Graeme Drendel Portrait of Rick  2024 oil on canvas 41 x 31 cm

Michelle Hiscock The Director  2024 oil on canvas 45.5 x 35.5 cm

Paul S. Miller I am still  2024 egg tempera on wooden panel 60 x 60 cm

Lewis Miller Portrait of Graeme Drendel II  2024 oil on Belgian linen 172 x 82 cm

Rodney Pople High as a kite  2024 oil on linen 159 x 136 cm

Mary Tonkin A scream, Kalorama  2023 oil on linen 214 x 366 cm

Image above: Lewis Miller Portrait of Graeme Drendel II  2024 oil on Belgian linen 172 x 82 cm

Image above: Mary Tonkin A scream, Kalorama  2023 oil on linen 214 x 366 cm

Image above: Rodney Pople High as a kite  2024 oil on linen 159 x 136 cm

Janet Luxton – Finalist in the Artists for Conservation International Exhibition

Image above:  Janet Luxton  Giant Australian Cuttlefish  2021  oil on canvas  120x160cm

Congratulations to Janet Luxton who has had two of her paintings selected for the international juried exhibition Artists for Conservation 2024

AFC’s annual exhibition aims to support conservation through art sales and education, and to share artworks inspired by nature with new audiences.

Each artwork in the exhibition is dedicated to a conservation organization of the artists choice, with at least 40% of the proceeds from the sale of each painting supporting conservation initiatives around the world.

The exhibition is accessible globally online here 

Image above:  Janet Luxton  Herdwick Ewe  2021  oil on linen  130x110cm

Janet Luxton has an upcoming exhibition with Australian Galleries in Sydney, June 18 – July 6

To read more about the artist and view a selection of her work, visit our online Stock Rooms here or email sydney@australiangalleries.com.au

Wayne Eager – Interview in Studio National

Above image: Wayne Eager, Allegory I  2023 oil on linen 95 x 133 cm

Wayne Eager was interviewed by Janet McKenzie for Studio International. Wayne Eager talks with Janet McKenzie about living in Central Australia with his partner, artist Marina Strocchi, working with Indigenous people to further their art, and witnessing a transformation in the art market’s view of Aboriginal work.

In 1990, Wayne and Marina travelled to Alice Springs in Central Australia for three months and were given introductions to a number of remote Aboriginal communities: Papunya, Kintore and Yuendumu. Subsequently, they moved to Central Australia in 1992, where the three-month project led to them making a major contribution to Aboriginal arts programs for almost 30 years.

Janet McKenzie: Can you recall your first encounter with Australian Aboriginal art?

Wayne Eager: I remember bark paintings at the old National Gallery of Victoria Museum, in Swanston Street, Melbourne. In 1968, the new NGV opened in St Kilda Road, and I often visited. I was always interested in the organic quality of the mark-making and the conviction of the storytelling on a two-dimensional surface. But it wasn’t until the desert “dot” paintings began to emerge that my interest intensified.

In 1982, Gabrielle Pizzi approached Roar Studios to exhibit a show of Western Desert paintings. Many of the artists were against her proposal, deeming it an exploitation of Aboriginal culture. A few of us stood up for the proposal on the grounds that it was a good thing to promote Aboriginal art and culture to the wider art world, as it had been relegated to a hidden history of anthropological relics for far too long. Her exhibition at Roar Studios was her first show of Aboriginal Art in a public space. She went on to open her own gallery in Melbourne, exhibiting a range of Aboriginal art from across Australia.

JMcK: What prompted your seven-month trip to Central Australia with David Larwill in 1990?

WE: An increase in exhibitions of Western desert painting in the wider world led to our growing interest. A friend, John Corker, who helped to set up Roar Studios in 1982, had moved to Alice Springs in 1983 to work with the Aboriginal Legal Aid service.

In Central Australia, I was mesmerised by the bright light and colour in the wide, open landscape. We visited the Papunya Tula Artists Gallery on an almost daily basis, travelled around country and visited various communities, before moving on north towards Darwin.

Read the full interview on the Studio International website.

Above image: Wayne Eager Sufi 2014 oil on linen, 153 x 158 cm

Omina Art Prize Finalists – Kate Hudson, Martin King, Robin Stewart and Marina Strocchi

Image above: Marina Strocchi The vineyards of Madden’s Lane 2023 acrylic on linen 122 x 152 cm

Congratulations to Kate Hudson, Martin King, Robin Stewart and Marina Strocchi who have been selected as Finalists in the 2024 Omnia Art Prize

The Omnia Art Prize & Exhibition
24 – 26 May 2024

Opening Gala and Announcement of Winner
Friday 24 May 7pm – 10pm

Smith Hall, St Kevin’s College
Moonga Road  Toorak, VIC

Book Tickets Here

This year’s prize will be judged by curator, writer and lecturer, Dr Rebecca Coates, Director of Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA).

Works exhibited are for sale, with proceeds from the event going to the St Kevin’s College Foundation to support the education of students in need or students experiencing hardship.

Image above: Robin Stewart Discovering Horus 2023 oil on linen with collage 97 x 92 cm

About the Omnia Art Prize and Exhibition

The Omnia Art Prize and Exhibition is an annual  prize, open to established and emerging Australian contemporary artists, with all exhibited artworks for sale. Vibrant, culturally-rich and thought-provoking, the hundreds of artworks on display reflect the best of Australian contemporary art across mediums from oils, acrylics, drawing, photograph, mixed media to small sculptures.

Bringing together communities and artists across a full weekend of exhibition and events, the Omnia Art Prize and Exhibition champions contemporary artists at every stage of their careers, fostering connections among creators, designers, buyers, and art enthusiasts. It is a dynamic platform for the exchange of ideas and inspiration, enriching the cultural landscape with diverse perspectives and artistic expressions.

Above image: Martin King Dawn chorus, momento mori N.D. etching, liftground aquatint, spitbite, photopolymer intaglio, chine colle and wax 101 x 130 cm

Above image: Martin King Thinking about ledger of the lost N.D. photopolymer gravure, hardcover book and ribbon

Above image: Kate Hudson Grevilleas & banksia edition 35 2021 reduction linocut 26 x 22 cm

Above image: Kate Hudson Proteas and billy buttons edition 35 2020 reduction linocut 26 x 22 cm

Above image: Kate Hudson Scarlet banksia & bottlebrush edition 35 2021 reduction linocut 26 x 22 cm

Jennifer Keeler-Milne – Ravenswood Art Prize Finalist

Congratulations to Jennifer Keeler – Milne for being selected as a finalist in the Ravenswood Art Prize 2024 for her work 32 Elkhorn drawings.

117 finalists were announced from 1616 entries received for the 2024 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize. Finalists include 62 Professional Artists, 47 Emerging Artists and 8 Indigenous Emerging Artists.

Since its establishment in 2017 the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize has garnered over 11,100 entries, confirming the importance of the Art Prize in elevating the visibility of women artists in Australia. 63% of these entries have originated from Emerging and Indigenous Artists over the last eight years, highlighting the Prize’s role as a significant platform for artists within the Australian arts community.

Key dates

10 May 2024
Winners announced at the Opening Night and artworks on sale. Purchase tickets here.

11-26 May 2024
Thursday – Sunday. Exhibition of Finalists, in Sydney or via the virtual Exhibition tour, and sales of artworks (online).