Congratulations to Louise Tate, winner of the $15,000 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize for 2023, with her work titled Self Portrait with a Strawflower, 2023.
The Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize is a celebration of contemporary Australian painting. It brings together a broad range of artists whose varied approaches to the medium convey the breadth and diversity of painting in Australia today. This year’s judges included Jane Clark, Senior Research Curator, Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, and Dr Chris McAuliffe, Art Historian, Centre for Art History and Art Theory, Australian National University, Canberra.

Louise Tate, Self portrait with strawflower, 2023, oil on linen, 58 × 43cm. Courtesy the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery, Queensland
Clark said,
“The artist extends the genre of portraiture into the allegorical realm, picturing herself in profile while a single flower sprig ruptures her facial features and, perhaps, signals her inner mind. The unusual composition communicates a correlation between the short-lived perennial strawflower and human mortality. Tate’s sensitively rendered striped shirt provides an abstract element that adds to the visual complexity of the work, and the slightly dark, sepia-toned palette intensifies the work’s timelessness and intimacy.”
Additionally, the $3,000 Local Art Prize was awarded to artist Lorna Quinn for her painting Like an Oyster, 2022. The judges noted it was beautifully executed with a jewel-like presence: “The work draws the viewer into a minute yet expansive landscape. The work’s glowing presence and formal strength demonstrate a strong and capable voice from a young artist.”
The 2023 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize finalist exhibition is currently on view at Bayside Gallery, Melbourne, until 2 July 2023.