The Art Gallery of New South Wales has announce that Sydney artist Lucy O’Doherty has won the ‘2016 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship’, a national painting prize awarded annually to a young Australian artist.
This year’s judges were artist Tom Carment and head curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW, Wayne Tunnicliffe. They selected this year’s winner from seven finalists, shortlisted from 91 entries.
O’Doherty’s winning body of work makes reference to Australian suburbia, suffused by nostalgia and mystery in her depiction of huts in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney.
Guest judge, artist Tom Carment, said Lucy has created a quirky, timeless world.
“Her combinations of tertiary and pastel colours are unusual, and her sense of form defies logic and yet makes sense. There is a stillness about these paintings which I admire.
“Lucy’s work shows a level of maturity and qualities of perseverance which I think will serve her well when she goes to Europe; to live in an unfamiliar culture, absorb great art, and take on new challenges and painting motifs,” Carment said.
O’Doherty has won $30,000 and a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, which is administered by the Art Gallery of NSW.
Art Gallery of New South Wales director Michael Brand said the ‘Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship’, now in its 18th year, consistently attracts a very high calibre of young Australian artists.
“To date the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship has been awarded to 17 young Australian artists and its alumni includes Marcus Wills, Ben Quilty, Mitch Cairns, James Drinkwater and Tom Polo,” Brand said.
“It’s exciting to see that four of this year’s scholarship finalists are also Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes finalists either this year or in years past, including Jason Phu, Abdul Abdullah, Clara Adolphs and Tsering Hannaford,” Brand added.
Carment and co-judge Wayne Tunnicliffe, Art Gallery of New South Wales head curator of Australian art awarded Jason Phu’s work The penis emerges, the rooster crows, God awakens as Highly Commended. Phu receives $5,000.
“Jason’s paintings have a refreshing exuberance. He revitalises a traditional form of painting; his scatter-gun ink calligraphy forming a dynamic matrix for the placement of his humorous and disparate imagery,” Carment said.
The painting Shack at Little Garie from O’Doherty’s winning body of work is currently on display at the Brett Whiteley Studio alongside works by finalists Jason Phu (Highly Commended), Abdul Abdullah, Clara Adolphs, Tsering Hannaford, Andrew Hopkins and Zoe Tweedale.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Until 30 October, 2016
Sydney
Lucy O’Doherty, Shack at Little Garie, 2016, oil on linen
Courtesy China Heights Gallery, Sydney, Walcha Gallery of Art, Walcha and Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
