2024 Judging Report

Click here to view the Prize and Award Winners

The award for best in show goes to Ruth Belfridge for Across Country, a very considered representation of a quintessentially Australian landscape which reveals the artist's insight into the love of the bush.

Best painting in oil or acrylic is awarded to Zhonghua Fan for Branches, an exquisite rendering of dappled light on a gum tree branch painted in plein air.

The award-winning photograph, Liza Clements' silhouette of two birds on a lamp post -Here Comes The Sun, Mordialloc Beach-does what photographs do best, which is to capture a fleeting moment in time for enduring contemplation.

From an enormous pool of watercolours, the award is given to Party House Queen Vic Markets by Alison Tedesco, in recognition of her attention to detail, humour and distinctively aesthetic.

Best other medium goes to Pierina Sannia for Vintage White, an asthonishingly accomplished hyperreal still life executed in pastel.

Suzette Wearne is the Assistant Curator at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. Previously, she was a curator at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne where she curated several exhibitions of the work of leading Australian and international artists. Suzette has been contributing to the arts community for over twenty years, with experience in the management of art studios, in the commercial sector and in major public museums and galleries including the Melbourne Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria. She has published widely on contemporary art and culture, and coordinated and judged major art prizes and awards.

Photograph by Natalie Tuck

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