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.
Installation view, Portraits of Graeme Doyle by Peter Wegner
A significant collection works by Peter Wegner are now showing in the exhibition Graeme Doyle – Medicated Man, at The Dax Centre, Melbourne until mid-March 2024.
This extensive exhibition showcases works by prolific artist Graeme Doyle (1947-2021), capturing his lived experiences with schizophrenia, as well as numerous portraits of Doyle by Peter Wegner. Wegner’s paintings highlight Doyle as the subject, capturing moments of vulnerability and the toll of his illness.
“Peter offers insight into my condition; he mightn’t be able to verbalize it, I mighn’t be able to, but he has certainly painted, drawn, and etched it in a remarkable way.” – Graeme Doyle
With a friendship spanning over 38 years, the exhibition offers a great insight into both Wegner and Doyle’s artistic practices.
Located at the University of Melbourne, The Dax Centre is a gallery that aims to raise awareness and reduce stigma towards mental illness through the use of art.
Graeme Doyle – Medicated Man
Opening night
Schizophrenia Awareness Day
Wednesday 24 May 6pm – 8pm
The Dax Centre, 30 Royal Parade ParkvilleGuest speakers
Archibald Prize winning figurative painter, Peter Wegner
The exhibition will officially opened by Rob Gerrand – SANE Board member
Exhibition on view until 22 March 2024
Peter Wegner, Graeme Doyle 3, 2002, oil on linen, 30 x 30 cm
Peter Wegner, Graeme Doyle 7, 2001, oil on linen, 23 x 30 cm
Image above: Peter Wegner Medicated Man 2017, oil on board, 31 x 28 cm. Private Collection
Above Image: Peter Wegner (right) pictured with subject Sylvia Drager (centre) at Benalla Art Gallery 2022
Peter Wegner continues to add to his ambitious centenarians series with a solo exhibition at Benalla Gallery, Victoria. In a feature by the ABC, Wegner discusses the particulars of the exhibition and what encourages him to connect to his subjects.
The Centenarians celebrates a project which commenced in 2013 when acclaimed artist Peter Wegner drew his Aunty Rita. This formative sitting inspired Wegner to seek out other Centenarians who were still living lives with mobility, curiosity and purpose. In the eight years since Rita’s portrait, the artist has completed portraits of well over 100 Centenarians across Victoria and New South Wales.
“Each drawing was completed from life in an afternoon or morning with little alteration to that first impression, they are moments captured within a time allowed.”
Peter Wegner The Centenarians Benalla Art Gallery 2022
Peter Wegner received a postgraduate diploma in fine arts from the Philip Institute of Technology in 1988. Wegner famously painted his friend Graham Doyle more than 100 times since they met in art school in the 1980’s. He has held solo exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne and his work has been included in group exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Wegner was announced as the winner of the 2021 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for his painting Guy Warren at 100. He was awarded the Doug Moran Prize in 2006 and completed a commission sponsored by BHP for the National Portrait Gallery. He has lectured in drawing at Ballarat, La Trobe, RMIT and Monash since 1996. His work is held in the collections of the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne and several regional and tertiary galleries.
Peter Wegner Portrait of Guy Warren at 100 2021 oil on canvas 120.5 x 151.5 cm
Click here to read Peter Wegner’s ABC feature.
Click here to find out more about The Centenarians.
Peter Wegner, The Centenarians
Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria
1 July – 28 August
Open 7 days
10am – 5pm