{"id":165284,"date":"2025-09-24T07:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T07:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/165284\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T07:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T07:12:11","slug":"the-lester-prize-socials-from-art-awards-opening-night-at-wa-museum-boola-bardip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/165284\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lester Prize: Socials from art awards opening night at WA Museum Boola Bardip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian artists and art lovers celebrated the opening night of this year\u2019s Lester Prize<\/a>, where one self-portraitist went home with the main award of $50,000.<\/p>\n

Melbourne artist Jenny Rodgerson was presented with The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture, worth $50,000, for her oil painting Self Portrait, which impressed judges for its portrayal of strength and vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Judge Christopher Allen said Rodgerson\u2019s artwork displayed a rare blend of vulnerability, courage and defiance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a strong, honest and courageous self-portrait in which Jenny Rodgerson confronts her own image in the mirror without posing or flattering herself in any way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has the truthfulness and penetration that can only be found in working directly from life, and the vulnerability entailed in this kind of raw self-examination is poignantly expressed by the artist\u2019s nakedness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JennyCamera IconJenny Rodgerson with her winning artwork. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

SEE THE SOCIAL GALLERY BELOW<\/p>\n

Other prizes presented on the night included the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize for Sue Eva\u2019s Sue\u2019s Space; the Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize for Sylvia Wilson\u2019s My Daughter (Great Grandmother); the Barton Family Foundation Installer\u2019s Prize for Gene Hart-Smith\u2019s Family on Dangar Island; the Tony Fini Foundation Artist Prize for Ignacio Rojas\u2019 Son of the storm, and the Eyewall Foundation Highly Commended Prize for Sophie Hann\u2019s Tsering.<\/p>\n

The Baldock Family People\u2019s Choice Prize is open for public voting throughout the exhibition season, which is on display at the WA Museum Boola Bardip until November 16.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s finalists were chosen from a record number of 1024 submissions, making it the highest number since the prize\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n

The Lester Prize executive director Shannon Yujnovich said the team was blown away by the number of submissions and diversity of talent on display.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never ceases to amaze how creativity finds its outlet,\u201d she said. \u201cWe never know what to expect, but the breadth of variety in this year\u2019s submissions was truly amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubmissions ranged from as large as nearly two metres in length to just 15 centimetres. We\u2019ve had knitted submissions, works in media such as acrylic and oils painted on linen to cardboard, and two portraits painted on materials we\u2019ve never seen before \u2013 an egg, and a crumpled and discarded beer can \u2013 from all corners of metropolitan and regional Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lester Prize, renamed from the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture in 2017 in honour of the prize\u2019s leading patron Richard Lester, is fast emerging as one of Australia\u2019s most recognised and prestigious art prizes in Australia.<\/p>\n

Following the Minderoo Foundation doubling their contribution in 2024, the Lester Prize\u2019s pool of more than $130,000 places it as the richest prize pool in the country.<\/p>\n

Additionally in 2025, The Lester Prize secured a three-year partnership with Westpac worth $90,000, further bolstering its support of Australian artists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian artists and art lovers celebrated the opening night of this year\u2019s Lester Prize, where one self-portraitist went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,13882,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-165284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}