Returning Lester Prize finalist Jenny Rodgerson was presented with The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture valued at $50,000 at The Lester Prize Main Awards opening night at WA Museum Boola Bardip, Perth, for her oil painting Self Portrait.
Known for her bold and honest self-portraits, Rodgerson’s winning work exudes a rare blend of vulnerability, courage and defiance; juxtaposing her own nakedness against a dark yet dynamic background, the viewer is struck by tension between exposure and concealment – a rare feat that showcases not only technical mastery but also the depth of her lived experience.
Jenny Rodgerson, Self Portrait, 2025, oil on linen, 58 × 49cm
The 2025 finalist works were chosen by an independent pre-selection panel of Daevid Anderson, Annie Silberstein, Amanda Bell, Mark Parfitt, and Helen Simondson. The judging panel consisted of Dr Christopher Allen, Margaret Moore, and Associate Professor Suzanna Castleden.
On Rodgerson’s self portrait, Allen commented:
“This is a strong, honest and courageous self-portrait in which Jenny Rodgerson confronts her own image in the mirror without posing or flattering herself in any way. It has the truthfulness and penetration that can only be found in working directly from life, and the vulnerability entailed in this kind of raw self-examination is poignantly expressed by the artist’s nakedness.”
Other prizes presented on the night included the $5,000 Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize for Sue Eva’s Sue’s Space; the $20,000 Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize for Sylvia Wilson’s My Daughter (Great Grandmother); the $10,000 Barton Family Foundation Installer’s Prize for Gene Hart-Smith’s Family on Dangar Island; the $20,000 Tony Fini Foundation Artist Prize for Ignacio Rojas’ Son of the storm; and the $3,800 Eyewall Foundation Highly Commended Prize for Sophie Hann’s Tsering.
The Baldock Family People’s Choice Prize is open for voting by the general public throughout the exhibition season, also available to view virtually on The Lester Prize website. “Submissions ranged from as large as nearly two metres in length to just 15 centimetres. We’ve had knitted submissions, works in media such as acrylic and oils painted on linen to cardboard, and two portraits painted on materials we’ve never seen before – an egg, and a crumpled and discarded beer can – from all corners of metropolitan and regional Australia,” said The Lester Prize Executive Director Shannon Yujnovich.
The Lester Prize Youth Awards are now open for submission for 2026.
