Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori has been announced as the winner of the Inaugural $50,000 Gold Award for contemporary painting. The announcement was made on Friday night, the 1st of June, at Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland.
Eight finalists were selected for the award, including Ben Quilty, Michael Zavros, Jason Benjamin, Kate Bergin, Juan Ford, Victoria Reichelt and Kate Shaw. Sally Gabori, the 88-year-old Mornington Island artist who is represent by Alcaston Gallery, won the prize with her painting Dibirdibi Country, 2011.
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Dibirdibi Country, 2011, synthetic polymer paint on linen, 198 x 455 cm
“Sally Gabori’s work Dibirdibi Country 2011 is simply magnificent: its 4.5 metre expanse encompasses a grand sweep of the country that it evokes and depicts, the country on Bentinck Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria that was her late husband’s and for which Gabori now is a custodian. She honours her cultural responsibilities to the places of the rock cod with this luscious, energetic, life-affirming painting: its bold blacks, delicate pinks and flaming vermilion shout and dance with joy.” – Julie Ewington, Curatorial Manager of Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery and judge of The Gold Award 2012
Sally Gabori is currently exhibiting in unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and will have new work shown by Alcaston Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair, 1 – 5 August 2012.
The Gold Award
Rockhampton Art Gallery
June 1 to August 12
