Melbourne-based artist Atong Atem is the first recipient of the La Prairie Art Award, an acquisitive award championing the work of Australian women artists presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Sydney, and La Prairie.
Atem was awarded for her originality and ambitiously crafted and vibrant photographic portraits that celebrate their subjects.
Atong Atem, A yellow dress, a bouquet 2022, Art Gallery of New South Wales, La Prairie Art Award 2022 © the artist
The new award supports Australian women artists through the development or expansion of a new body of work. It aims to support and nurture the recipient’s practice and increase their international profile. Each work will be acquired by AGNSW for its collection.
The La Prairie Art Award also provides the recipient with an international artist residency. As part of the award, Atem will travel to Zurich, Switzerland and attend the Art Basel international art fair as a VIP guest of the Swiss luxury house.
The Ethiopian-born, South Sudanese artist and writer based in Melbourne works predominantly in photography, often using portraiture to explore migrant stories and postcolonial histories of the African diaspora and examine lines of community and connection.
Atem’s work A yellow dress, a bouquet, 2022, is a sequential self-portrait consisting of five photographs in which Atem appears in close-up, her face brightly painted. In this work, Atem gestures towards the tropes of classical western paintings traditions, through the postures she assumes and the symmetry of the sequence, while maintaining what she refers to as a “decidedly African, postcolonial aesthetic style” through an emphatic use of colour and texture.
AGNSW senior curator of Australian contemporary art Isobel Parker Philip said, “In A yellow dress, a bouquet, Atem extends her ongoing preoccupation with self-portraiture and builds on the stylistic mannerisms of her early Studio Series from 2015 that in part responded to the history of mid-twentieth century African studio portraiture, specifically the work of Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta.
“Through her hyper-stylised costumes and make-up, Atem draws attention to the staging inherent to the studio scene, but such ornamentation also carries political weight. For Atem, the face-paint is a symbol of aesthetic alienation and a reaction against the idealisation of whiteness.”
La Prairie chief marketing officer Greg Prodromides said, ‘The La Prairie Art Award is the first art initiative of its kind for La Prairie in Australia. As a brand deeply engaged in art and culture, we are very pleased through this award to be able to provide women artists an exciting opportunity to expand their practice and give them a stronger voice.’
AGNSW will display the La Prairie Art Award 2022 winning works from 15 March to 22 May 2022.
