Stencil artist Luke Cornish has won the 2024 Gallipoli Art Prize with his powerful work The Pity of War, depicting a woman and a hooded figure huddled together wearing gas masks. Cornish describes the work as “a contemporary reinterpretation of Michelangelo’s iconic La Pieta, reimagined to convey the profound sorrow experienced by mothers who have lost their children to the ravages of war.”
Luke Cornish, The Pity of War, aerosol/acrylic on canvas, 122 × 91cm
“By invoking the spirit of Michelangelo’s masterpiece, I seek to pay homage to the enduring power of art to illuminate the human condition,” Cornish says in his accompanying artist statement.
“The Pity of War serves as a poignant reminder of the futility of violence and the urgent need for peace, encouraging reflection on the true cost of war and the imperative of compassion and understanding in our world.”
Cornish (also known as E.L.K) is an award-winning artist known for his irreverent brand of photo-realistic stencil art that has garnered him global acclaim. In 2012, Cornish was the first stencil artist to become a finalist in the Archibald Prize with his portrait of Father Bob McGuire. Cornish has been an Archibald finalist three times, including this year. His work is entirely done by hand, cutting out sheets of recycled acetate with a scalpel and building up hundreds of layers of aerosol paint, until the works take on a photographic quality.
Cornish has won numerous art prizes and exhibited his work across Australia and in major international cultural centres. His work is held in public and private collections around the world, including his portrait of former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, which was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Cornish continues to make street art on the streets of Sydney and his adopted home of Wollongong, New South Wales.
Kate Stevens, Witness, oil and acrylic on canvas, 41 × 112cm
The 2024 Gallipoli Art Prize judges – Jane Watters, Barry Pearce, Elizabeth Fortescue and John Robertson – also highly commended Kate Stevens for her work Witness, a portrait of Dusty Miller, whistleblower and former SAS medic who served with Australia’s Special Forces in Afghanistan and who gave testimony to the IGADF Afghanistan war crimes inquiry.
“Dusty and the other veterans who spoke at great personal cost about what they witnessed have done the nation a great service; showing courage and loyalty in upholding the qualities which Australians could and should aspire to,” Stevens said in her accompanying artist statement.
Now in its nineteenth year, the $20,000 Gallipoli Art Prize, auspiced by the Gallipoli Memorial Club, Sydney, invites artists to respond openly to the broad themes of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage, comradeship, community, peace and freedom as expressed in the Gallipoli Memorial Club’s creed:
“We believe that within the community there exists an obligation for all to preserve the special qualities of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship which were personified by the heroes of the Gallipoli Campaign and bequeathed to all humanity as a foundation for perpetual peace and universal freedom.”
Works do not need to relate to war or the Gallipoli campaign.
An exhibition of finalists’ works is on view at 6–8 Atherden Street, The Rocks, Sydney, from 18 April to 24 May 2024, with the winner announced on Wednesday 17 April.
