The 2025 winner of the $10,000 M16 Artspace Drawing Prize is Canberra-based Surya Bajracharya with Margaret and Frazer Fair, 2025 – a portrait depicting the artist’s mother and uncle in their youth, based on a photograph the artist discovered in a shoebox. Both homage and investigation, the portrait was built through countless tiny, abstract gestures using charcoal – a tonally delicate, dynamic, and vulnerable medium.
Surya Bajracharya, Margaret and Frazer Fair, 2025, charcoal, 61 × 80cm
Photograph: Brenton McGeachie
Courtesy the artist and M16 Artspace, Australian Capital Territory
Sydney-based Rmsina Daniel received the $2,000 Highly Commended Award for Processional Way, 2025 and Walbanja-Yuin artist Natalie Bateman the $2,000 First Nations Artist Award for South Arm Tasmania, 2025.
