Art Almanac warmly congratulates Senior Yankunytjatjara artist Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan, winner of this year’s $100,000 acquisitive Hadley’s Art Prize, awarded to the most outstanding portrayal of the Australian landscape. Selected by a judging panel comprising renowned artist Wendy Sharpe AM, Tasmanian artist Milan Milojevic, and curator, artist and writer Dr Fiona Foley, Ngayuku Ngura (My Country) is a dynamic and vibrant work.
Cullinan, from Indulkana Community in South Australia, boasts over twenty years of experience in painting, as well as printmaking and drawing, expressing her connection to Country through her winning work:
“I paint my Country, the beautiful and powerful Yankunytjatjara Country that I live on and that will always be a part of me. My painting is connected to the Tjukurpa (Ancestral Stories) that I know, but also my paintings are an extension of who I am, and how I interpret my place in the world.”
Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan, Ngayuku Ngura (My Country), 2023, acrylic on linen, 152 × 167cm
The judges added, “Cullinan’s work knocked us out at first glance and just kept giving. The longer you look at it, the better it gets. The work does not reveal all its secrets at once. Like the Country, it is vibrant and alive. We were all drawn to Cullinan’s work and find it utterly fascinating.”
The Hadleys Art Prize also awards a $10,000 residency prize, this year received by Victorian artist Melissa Kenihan.
Melissa Kenihan, This is not a Rehearsal, 2022, oil on linen, 151 × 136cm
Emerging Tasmanian artist Joshua Andree took out this year’s Packing Room Prize, valued at $1,000.
Honourable mentions were awarded to Patrick Mung Mung, Joan Ross, Denise Brady and Joshua Andree.
An exhibition of thirty finalists’ works is on view at Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart, from 22 July to 20 August 2023.
