Seventy-two finalists have been selected for this year’s $20,000 Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture.
Among the finalists’ portraits are well-known artists Wendy Sharpe, Jude Rae, William Yang, Blak Douglas, and the late Madeline Preston and John Olsen AO OBE. The selection also includes portraits of respected cultural figures from writer George Haddad, journalist Mervyn Bishop, politician Linda Burney, and academics Marcia Langton and Dr Todd Fernando.
Sam Ferris, On the way to inspections, 2022, digital silver gelatin print. Courtesy the artist and Tweed Regional Gallery, New South Wales
Guest judge, artist, curator, and critic Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham said: “Photography has always been a necessary conduit for expressing diverse understandings of identity, social change and the human condition.
“The deeply entwined relationship of photography to portraiture and its ever-evolving form is what we see played out in the theatre of imagery comprising the finalists’ works.
“Sparking conversations about First Nations’ sovereignty, race, place and migration, sexuality and gender, and mortality and time among many other hot topics, these images have a lasting impact, exposing something of the intimacy of the photographer to the sitter, and to us, the captive audience.”
Award Coordinator and Curator of Public Programs Meredith Cusack was pleased to see entries from first-time entrants as well as established artists.
“I am continually surprised and moved by the portraits we receive,” Cusack said. “What strikes me this year is the individual vision of entrants. From the cinematic to the intimate, we are transported into the worlds of others. Sometimes it is the sitters’ world that is revealed and in others we are aware it is the artists’ lens that frames what we see.”
Regional photographers were well represented in the Olive Cotton Award with Jaka Adamic, Paul Blackmore, Aaron Chapman, Kristopher Cook, Luther Cora, Katherine Cordwell, Danielle Edwards, Jenny Fraser, Natalie Grono, Niki Morgan-Smith, Cassandra Scott-Finn, Craig Tuffin, and Chelle Wallace among the finalists. The finalists are also drawn from across Australia, including Dane Beesley, Gerwyn Davies, Stephen Dupont, M Ellen Burns, Juno Gemes, Yiorgos Zafiriou, and a collaborative portrait by Jacqui
Stockdale and Erica Green.
The 2023 Olive Cotton Award finalists exhibition will be on view at Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah South, New South Wales, from 14 July to 24 September, with the overall winner announced at the awards night on Saturday 15 July from 5pm.
The announcement will be livestreamed on the Gallery’s Instagram channel. For a full list of finalists, visit the following website.
@tweedregionalgallery
artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au/olivecotton
