Congratulations to the winners of The Lester Prize 2023, Western Australia’s premier portrait prize with an increased prize pool of more than $115,000.
This year’s prize categories and winners include:
The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture, $50,000 – Tarryn Gill
Judges’ comments provided by Alan R. Dodge AM, Gina Fairley, and Emma Bitmead:
“Tarryn Gill’s portrait Limber (self-portrait in relief) demonstrates a resolved artistic practice through its confidence of making and visual language. The work uses materials powerfully to present a harmonious bodily and gestural portrait. Confined within the picture frame, the figure folds in on itself, creating an arresting central vortex that pulls the viewer in. The eye emerges with a sense of mystery and ambiguity, locking connection with the viewer. While there is a soft dissection of the body, which is not aggressive in any way, it rather hugs in a self-embrace. These elements in tandem convey a sense of uncertainty, and fracture that allude to issues of today. Gill’s work is a challenge to perceptions of portraiture, without ostracising the viewer. It is a very accomplished study of self.”

Tarryn Gill, Limber (self-portrait in relief), 2023, textiles on board, 90 × 65cm. Courtesy the artist
Tony Fini Foundation Artist Prize, $20,000 | Barton Family Foundation Installers’ Prize, $10,000 | Highly Commended – Minjung Kang
Judges comments, provided by Alan R. Dodge AM, Gina Fairley, and Emma Bitmead (who awarded the Highly Commended Prize):
“There is a bold monumentality to Minjung Kang’s Silence. The use of gouache is particularly delicate, and works well with Kang’s choice of a refined palette, giving the work a timeless quality. Compositionally, she plays with layered forms: moving between the flatness of the portrait’s rendering to the fineness of the subject’s hair, all placed against the solid background. This invites the viewer to get closer, adding a visual surprise, and deeper engagement. One is intrigued by this portrait. The image may be flat, but the emotion remains intense. It has a sculptural quality, which challenges that flatness, and allows the mind to roam and find connections to ancient histories and narratives that bridge past, place and present.”

Minjung Kang, Silence, 2022, gouache on paper, 95 × 95cm. Courtesy the artist
Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize, $10,000 – Liz Stute
Judges comments, provided by the Minderoo selected panel of judges, Sid Pattni, Helen Turner, and Ana Nieto:
“Jess is a deeply considered portrait that bridges the gap between the artist and the subject, her mother. Stute centres and elevates her mother in the frame, tempering the muted palette with a penetrating warmth that speaks to her resilience and courage in the face of deteriorating health. With a compelling balance of uncontrolled, expressive mark-making and precise brushstrokes, Stute has captured a moment in time charged with chaos and order, sadness and hope, and pride and vulnerability.”
Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize, $5,000 – India Mark
Judges comments, provided by Alan R. Dodge AM, Gina Fairley, and Emma Bitmead:
“. . . The intimate scale, delicate brushwork and direct gaze of the subject have all contributed to a portrait that is confident, straightforward, and impactful. As an early career artist, Mark demonstrates a maturity knowing when to stop, honing and restraining detail. Her spare brushwork, however, is countered with the confidence of that luminous green square grounding the composition and making it sing.”

India Mark, Studio self-portrait, 2023, oil on linen, 25 × 20cm. Courtesy the artist
Highly Commended – Sarah Paton
Judges comments, provided by Alan R. Dodge AM, Gina Fairley, and Emma Bitmead:
“. . . Paton appears within the composition as a ghostly apparition, with the face rendered drained of emotion, and her body pulled forward by the intensity of the eyes – holding the viewer in engagement. The psychological intensity of the subject is underwritten by the spare brushwork, the bleak colour and the searing splashes of the lights in the background. One cannot help but empathise with the feeling conveyed by the work. The starkness of the clinical colours chosen contribute to this sense of emotional and psychological lethargy. Despite this, there is a feeling of humanity to the piece; you get the sense of a real person – and bare witness to their pain.”

Sarah Paton, Memento mori, 2023, acrylic, pencil and ink on canvas, 69 × 89cm. Courtesy the artist
The Lester Prize 2023 finalist exhibition is on view at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, from 22 September to 26 November. Visitors can vote in the the Baldock Family People’s Choice Prize, $15,000.