Hadley’s Art Prize has announced the thirty contemporary Australian artists selected as finalists for the 2025 edition of the esteemed $100,000 acquisitive prize for the best portrayal of the Australian landscape.
Dr Amy Jackett, Curator of the Hadley’s Art Prize, said: “This year’s exhibition will have something for everyone with intricately painted realistic landscapes, some abstract atmospheric works, and some interesting uses of colour, texture and materials. There’ll be many different landscapes to experience from across Australia.”
Pamela Pauline, Once Was, 2025, Unique 1/1 photographic collage on Canson Edition Etching Rag, framed with non-reflective glass, 95 × 125cm
Finalists represent early career and established artists from all over Australia working across a wide array of mediums, including painting, drawing, printmaking, digital collage, manipulated photography and ceramics.
Known for his vibrant paintings of Australian landmarks, Ken Done’s submission Mauve reef explores his visceral experiences of reef diving, with brightly-coloured marks depicting coral and tiny schools of fish.
Neil Haddon explores themes of displacement and identity, influenced by his migratory experiences and Tasmania’s colonial history. His submission is inspired by the view of the Derwent Estuary from his studio, and recalls the stories of the colonial whaling industry’s devastating toll.
Pamela Pauline, an American-born Australian photographic artist, celebrates the beauty and fragility of Australia’s unique flora and fauna. Pauline’s submission Once Was is a layered photographic landscape that bears witness to Australia’s vanishing biodiversity.
Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray, an established artist from Utopia, Northern Territory, paints the Leaf, Seed and Flower of the Bush Yam, a tuber plant important for food and medicine. Kngwarray’s submission Yam Seeds shows the wind moving through the yam plant in a series of tiny coloured flicks of paint that undulate across the surface.
George Cooley, a senior man and community leader from Coober Peedy, paints the landscape surrounding his Country. Cooley’s submission Painting my Country – The Breakaways depicts part of the Stuart Range, the artist working from memory to document its spectacular mesas, ridges and sloping escarpments.
Sophie Cape is a Sydney-based artist and former professional athlete whose practice oscillates between abstraction and figuration. Cape’s submission Thunder shifts the shivering sands was created in situ within the soaked landscape of Southern NSW post the 2024 floods.
Sophie Cape, Thunder shifts the shivering sands, 2024, rust, charcoal, soil, pigment and binder on canvas, 148 × 160cm
Hobart-based artist Valerie Sparks creates large-scale printed works and immersive installation environments. Her submission The Long View was created through assembling CT scans the artist conducted of common garden rocks.
The 2025 judging panel of art specialists is comprised of Southern Kaantju/Umpila woman and multidisciplinary artist Naomi Hobson; Director, Curatorial and Cultural Collections at the University of Tasmania, Caine Chennatt; and leading Tasmanian-based artist Catherine Woo.
Alongside the Major Prize of $100,000, there is the $10,000 Residency Prize, the $2,500 People’s Choice Award, the $1,000 Packing Room Prize, and $1,500 worth of prizes for students. This year’s finalists will also receive free accommodation at the Hadley’s Orient Hotel for two nights.
The finalists’ works will be presented in an exhibition at Hadley’s Orient Hotel from 29 August to 21 September 2025, with the winning work announced on 28 August 2025. Artworks are for sale, and entry to the exhibition is free.
