Lester Prize 2021 Main Awards Exhibition

The Lester Prize is one of the country’s most recognised and prestigious portrait prizes–an award that places artists and the community front-and-centre. This year’s 40 finalists were chosen from more than 750 entries received from artists across Australia. 22 of the 40 finalists are emerging artists, seven former finalists including two previous winners have made it to the final list. 12 finalists are from Western Australia. View the Finalists’ works on our website.

The prize pool available to professional, emerging and young artists is now worth over $100,000, including the main prize of $50,000. The winners were announced on 15 October at the Main Awards Night at AGWA. The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture 2021 winner was Sidney Tapia for his portrait of Siaosi Feiloakitau titled Through you. Other Lester Prize winners announced at the Awards Night included: Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize: Emily Song Dumplings; Ashurst Emerging Artist: Illyampi Victor Burton Mamu; Oxlades Highly Commended: Narelle Zeller Brave new worker and Oxlades Highly Commended: Sally Ryan Never again.

For school group tour enquiries please contact educate@artgallery.wa.gov.au. For more information, visit the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s website. Open daily (except Tuesdays) until November 29.