2022 Award Winners and Finalists

Sonia Martignon
WINNER - $20,000 ACQUISITIVE PRIZE
The Charred Mosaic of an Ancient Landscape
Acrylic and pyrography on hand-cut plywood, 105 x 81cm
This artwork documents a pocket of North Australian tropical woodland using acrylic, pyrography and hand-cut edges to create a portal into this unique landscape. A mosaic of burn scars adorns the land, a familiar pattern caused by frequent dry season wildfires. Visually striking, it is a paradox of destruction and regeneration. Endemic cycads, ancient fire-hardy species, sit resiliently in the blackened earth.
Helen Earl
HIGHLY COMMENDED - $2,000 NON-ACQUISITIVE
Choose the Future: Electrify!
Ceramic, 62 x 15cm
The future world is reliant on electrifying our grids as soon as possible with renewable energy sources and phasing out fossil fuels. We must decarbonise the world to achieve a net zero in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to have any future at all. Just as a tree or plant needs wind, sunshine, and water to grow, we too will need to enhance our harnessing of these resources to build our capacity to cope with more than twice the electrical energy we use today. Plug in like a plant and choose a better future.
Lizzie Hall
HIGHLY COMMENDED - $2,000 NON-ACQUISITIVE
Centaur (9)
Oil on linen, 111 x 87cm
Matt Bromhead
COMMENDED
Breeze
Charcoal, Ink, Rice Paper, Kozo Paper on Board, 150 x 120cm
Breeze is constructed using layers of mulberry and rice paper, bound together with rice paste. Each layer responds to the one previous until a kind of aggregate image is formed, showing both the history of its making and a final posture.
Kevin Song
COMMENDED
Still Life with Bottle and Flower
Oil on Canvas Pad, 25 x 33cm
Focusing on the familiar I seek to capture the beauty in seemingly simple objects in a painterly and contemporary way using limited colours and composition.