Congratulations to Sarah Anthony, Melbourne-based figurative artist, portrait painter and metalsmith, and the 2022 winner of The Lester Prize People’s Choice Prize. Anthony takes home $15,000 donated by the Baldock Family for her oil on canvas work Breathe, depicting her 13-year-old son Charlie.
Sarah Anthony, Breathe, oil on canvas
“. . . It represents a felt response to the final months of the 2021 COVID lockdown in Victoria, which had spanned almost two years,” says Anthony. “Like many young boys, Charlie loves computer games, sport, and hanging out with friends. This happy, unremarkable childhood was disrupted by COVID. It was an extraordinary time of great uncertainty and frustration, which was particularly tough for children. Through this image of Charlie, I have tried to express how stifled we felt in those final months.
In the seemingly endless holding pattern, we felt desperate to throw off masks and gulp fresh, untainted air. It felt then – and still does – like the world is holding its breath waiting to exhale in relief.”
This prize announcement marks the end of The Lester Prize’s forty-piece portrait exhibition that has been on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia for the past six weeks, with its audience in the thousands. The Lester Prize Executive Director Annie Silberstein noted that the appetite for viewing portraiture works grows each year and demonstrates public interest in contemporary portraiture.
A selection of the finalist works will be on show at Western Australia’s Joondalup Library from 6 February to 11 March 2023, before touring to Bunbury Regional Art Gallery which it will remain on display from 18 March to 28 May 2023.
Entries are open for The Lester Prize Youth Awards, closing 13 February 2023. The exhibition will be held at WA Museum Boola Bardip from 7 April to 16 July 2023.
With an annual prize pool worth over $100,000, The Lester Prize is now one of the nation’s most recognised and prestigious art prizes.
Additional information can be found online.
lesterprize.com
