2023 winner – Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin (Pitjantjatjara) for her work 'Antara' 2022

'Ngayuku ini Tuppy Goodwin, ngayulu Antaranya palyani. Maku Tjukurpa titutjarangku munu nganana Maku Tjukurpa palyara tjunanyi Antara-nya alatjitu, kutjupa wiya tjukurpa nyangatja palu pulka, Antara-nya Maku Tjukurpa, inma pulka.Tjukula mankurpatjara palyani. Ngayuku Tjukurpa nyangatja, munu Antaranya palyaningi, iritinguru alatjitu, ka ngayuku Tjukurpa ngaranyi alatjitu Antara palyantja.

My name is Tuppy Goodwin. I paint the Antara storyline, the Witchetty Grub Tjukurpa. The Witchetty Grub story is the main one, it’s truly huge, it’s a big ceremony. There are three deep rock holes where we go, the main ones. This is my storyline, it’s a very old storyline from a long time ago, and now I am looking after it, the Antara story'

Goodwin is a senior Pitjantjatjara artist committed to passing on her cultural knowledge to the next generation of Anangu. She moved to Mimili with her family at a young age. At the time, Mimili was called Everard Park, a cattle station that was returned to Aboriginal ownership through the 1981 Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act.

As the chairperson of Mimili Maku Arts, Goodwin is a strong leader for Mimili Community. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She was first shortlisted for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2018, and won the acclaimed Hadley's Art Prize for landscape painting in 2022.

Artwork
Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin (Pitjantjatjara)
2022
'Antara' 
synthetic polymer paint on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Mimili Maku Arts, APY Lands, South Australia.

2021 winner – Kirsty Budge for her work 'Ok, so is this a fresh hell or are we just adding to the regular one today?' 2021

Painted during the 2021 Melbourne lockdowns, Budge says the work reflects her personal experiences during this difficult period. 'This painting has its own logic and it was a way to cope, to practice acceptance and to surrender what was happening around me. It also felt like a form of communication because I have found it really hard to talk during this time. We were all in this inky abyss and trying to stay afloat. My closest people know that if I'm painting then I'm doing ok,’ she says.

In making the selection, the judges, who included Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow (Curatorial Manager, International Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art), Jessica Bridgfoot (Director, Bendigo Art Gallery) and Tanja Johnston (Head of Arts Programs, Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM)) noted:

‘The judging panel had a shared excitement about Kirsty Budge’s winning work. It is a magical ecology of forms at play in an energetic and elegant composition with so much to discover. Through a confident application of colour, line and tone, recognisable symbols and motifs slip in and out of our recognition. Kirsty shows a wonderful painterly capacity to push and pull space. You sense a real enjoyment in the process of making. This is clearly a painting in dialogue with history, while also resonating with our current times, bringing forth its own sense of landscape and narrative.

Artwork
Kirsty Budge
Australia 2021
'Ok, so is this a fresh hell or are we just adding to the regular one today?' 
oil on canvas
Courtesy the artist and Daine Singer, Melbourne

2021 finalists (in alphabetical order):

• Emma Beer
• Kirsty Budge
• Max Callaghan
• W H Chong
• Yvette Coppersmith
• Renee Cosgrave
• Greg Creek
• Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin
• Helga Groves
• Bronwyn Hack
• Camille Hannah
• Rebecca Hastings
• Katherine Hattam
• Yusuf Ali Hayat
• Mark Hislop
• Naomi Hobson 
• Sue Jarvis
• Dena Kahan
• Adam Lee
• Jill Lewis
• William Mackinnon
• Rob McHaffie
• Dani McKenzie
• Glenn Morgan
• Betty Muffler
• Jan Murray
• Sid Pattni
• Bundit Puangthong
• Babette Robertson
• Jenny Rodgerson
• Kate Stevens
• Louise Tate
• Kate Tucker
• Philip Wolfhagen

2019 winner – Jahnne Pasco-White for her work messmates 1, 2019

messmates 1 is part of a body of work comprising 11 overlapping panels, presented for exhibition in Melbourne earlier this year. The artist explores notions of waste, renewal and regeneration as she incorporates old clothes and other collected detritus into the work and overpaints i in bright and earthy tones.  

In making the selection, the judges, who included Tansy Curtin, (Curatorial Manager, Bendigo Art Gallery), Tracy Cooper-Lavery (Director of HOTA, Queensland) and Roslyn Feeney (representing the Guy family) noted:  

“Pasco-White’s visceral work pushes the limits of the medium itself; it’s raw, layered and vibrant with an incredible surface texture and palette. It is emblematic of the artist’s life and current practice, reflecting the complexity of contemporary life as a female artist.  
“We are thrilled to award this prize to an early career artist, and recognise that this could prove to be a pivotal moment in her practice. We can’t wait to see what she does next.”


Artwork
Jahnne Pasco-White
Australia 1987
messmates 1
2019
synthetic polymer paint, fabric dye, oil stick, crayon, pencil, paper, canvas, cotton, linen, pva, masking tape and bamboo on canvas
Courtesy the artist and Daine Singer, Melbourne

2019 finalists (in alphabetical order):

• Kylie Banyard
• Natasha Bieniek
• Marion Borgelt
• Angela Brennan
• Kirsty Budge
• Daniel Butterworth
• Zhong Chen
• Nadine Christensen
• Leo Coyte
• Greg Creek
• Fernando do Campo
• Mark Dober
• Juan  Ford
• Helga Groves
• Stephen Haley
• Gregory Hodge
• Kez Hughes
• Jennifer Joseph
• Dena Kahan
• Adam Lee
• Belem Lett
• Richard Lewer
• Dane Lovett
• Jordan Marani
• Karla Marchesi
• Rob McHaffie
• Moya McKenna
• Jahnne Pasco-White
• Victoria Reichelt
• Noel Skrzypczak
• Michael Vale
• Judith Van Heeren
• Craig Waddell
• Megan Walch
• Amber Wallis
• Darren Wardle

2017 winner – Margaret Loy Pula for her work Anatye (bush potato), 2016

Central Australian artist Margaret Loy Pula has won the 2017 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize for her 2016 work Anatye (bush potato) 2016.
Judges who included Mark Feary, Artistic Director Gertrude Street Gallery, Dr David Hansen, Associate Professor, Centre for Art History and Art Theory, ANU School of Art and Design, Hannah Matthews, Senior Curator, Monash University Museum of Art and representatives from Bendigo Art Gallery and the Guy family, were in unanimous agreement in their decision to select Margaret Loy Pula as the recipient of the prize, and commended the vivid impact of the painting, in spite of its reductionist palette.
Judges also noted that, with its demonstrable connection to country, the quietly mesmerising work could also be interpreted through the Western tradition of minimalist abstraction.
Anatye was narrowed down from an entry pool of 291 paintings and 37 finalists, which demonstrates the ongoing dynamism and resonance of the media of painting.
Anatye (bush potato) is part of an ongoing series where the artist paints stories from her father's dreaming, in particular bush potatoes, an important food source of the Anmatyerre people of Central Australia.

Artwork:
Margaret Loy Pula, Anatye (bush potato) 2016
acrylic on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell Fine Art, Brisbane

2017 finalists (in alphabetical order):

• Matt Arbuckle
• Steven Asquith
• Andrew Browne
• Kirsty Budge
• Robyn Burgess
• Deidre But-Husaim
• Mitch Cairns
• Jon Campbell
• Sadie Chandler
• Marcel Cousins
• Jesse Dayan
• Prudence Flint
• Martin George
• Helga Groves
• Stephen Hayley
• Pei Pei He
• Euan Heng
• Rachael Hooper
• Kez Hughes
• Jennifer Joseph
• Guundie Kuchling
• Michael Lindeman
• Christian Lock
• Dane Lovett
• Fiona Lowry
• Margaret Loy Pula
• Karla Marchesi
• Robert Owen
• Louise Paramor
• Anthony Pelchen
• Bundit Puangthong
• Jordan Richardson
• Kate Shaw
• Robyn Sweaney
• Kate Tucker
• David Wadelton
• Stephanie Wilson.

2015 Winner – Guan Wei for his work Beach 5, 2014

The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2015 was awarded to Guan Wei. The judges described his work Beach 5 as having 'a strong cultural message. It is a painting about Australia and the idea of cultural transformation by a Chinese born Australian artist that speaks to us about the changing nature of Australian life'.

Since 2008 Guan set up a studio in Beijing after living in Australia for 20 years and started a new life as a travelling artist working and living in both China and Australia. Every  time he returned to his Sydney home he was always aware of the blue sky, blue sea, golden beaches,  the green bush and relaxed life style. His painting  uses references from the old Chinese maps, the three red seals are the names for imagined mountains. The emu symbolizes Australia. The fan symbolizes China. In this painting the bright sunshine, floating clouds, transparent seawater, the enchantment of the beach, all combine together to reveal a picture of nature and harmony, lightness and joy of Australia life style.

Artwork:
Guan Wei
Beach 5 2014
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Nancy Sever Gallery

2015 Finalists

• Lyndell Brown and Charles Green
• Fabrizio Biviano
• Lynne Boyd
• William Breen
• Kevin Chin
• Nadine Christensen
• Marcel Cousins
• Jesse Dayan
• Ivan Durrant
• Chris Dyson
• Juan Ford
• Shaun Gladwell
• Helga Groves
• Neil Haddon
• Stephen Haley
• Pei Pei He
• Euan Heng
• Col Jordan
• Gladdy Kemarre
• Adam Lee
• Christian Lock
• William Mackinnon
• Viv Miller
• Ian Parry
• Josie Kunoth Petyarre
• Matthew Quick
• Bill Sampson
• Jacqui Stockdale
• Jenny Watson
• Guan Wei

2013 winner – Chris Bond for his work Viridian, 2012.

The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2013 was awarded to Melbourne artist Chris Bond for his work Viridian.
Chris Bond’s painting is an illusion and a finely crafted canvas, constructed to look like a book. Bond expands on the historical tradition of realist painting and creates the illusion of a three-dimensional object. It is a painting expressed through the form of a book. Empty and wordless, the work can also convey a sense of loss that we will never understand. This paradox is part of the work’s beguiling beauty.
Constructed from linen, canvas and cardboard, the surface of this painted book carries exaggerated damage from its imagined use as actual objects – marks, creases, tears and stains disrupt the carefully painted surfaces. Yet the visible edges of the internal pages, constructed of layers of canvas, are crisp and clean.
Bond's interest in Formalism “… stretch[es] back to art school days in the 1990s … [my] works attempt to reduce the possibility of ‘reading’ – by removing context through the erasure of text, flattening the image by blurring and avoiding texture, and finally reducing the imagery to a single colour.
The hardback book is a beautifully redundant form. Historically its authority was held in its bulk, its expense, its inability to be broken. The dust jacket, by contrast, is lightweight, flimsy, easily damaged – a throw away. My painted books amplify this distinction, to the extent where the covers seem incongruous, misfit.”

Artwork
Chris Bond
Viridian 2012
oil, canvas, card and MDF on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2013 finalists (in alphabetical order):
• Tom Alberts
• Justin Andrews
• Peter Atkins
• Annette Bezor
• Chris Bond
• Marion Borgelt
• Stephen Bram
• Angela Brennan
• Jon Cattapan
• Nadine Christensen
• Julia Ciccarone
• Marcel Cousins
• Ivan Durrant
• Craig Easton
• Juan Ford
• Marie Hagerty
• Stephen Haley
• Louise Hearman
• Gladdy Kemarre
• Josie Kunoth Petyarre
• Janet Laurence
• Adam Lee
• Michael Lindeman
• Tony Lloyd
• Margaret Loy Pula
• James Lynch
• William Mackinnon
• Nonggirrnga Marawili
• Tim McMonagle
• David Ralph
• Kate Shaw
• Aida Tomescu
• Megan Walch.

2011 winner – Tim Johnson for his work Community Base, 2010.

Sydney-based artist Tim Johnson was awarded the 2011 prize. The judges commented, “As one of Australia’s most highly regarded senior artists, Tim Johnson’s painting Community base unifies various disparate elements through multiple themes and narratives. Exemplary of his overall practice the work references the notion of ‘Painting’ and creates a fresh sense of what painting can do. It is a complex work that rewards on close viewing and will warrant repeat visits.”

Tim Johnson is a key contemporary painter in Australian postmodern art. Influenced by Asian art and Western Desert painting, his interests spread wider than Australia and include the art of the Buddhist East and Native America. He saw similarities between the art of cultural forms and Aboriginal art, which inspired magnificent multi-layered canvases simultaneously rich with chunks of life, events, moments and places.

Since 1980 Johnson has actively collaborated with many Indigenous artists including Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri as well as senior Asian artists, creating breathtaking amalgams of various cultures that have been influential and at times controversial.

Artwork
Tim Johnson
Community Base 2010
acrylic on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne


2011 finalists (in alphabetical order):

• Greg Ades
• Marc Alperstein
• Kate Bergin
• Angela Brennan
• Lyndell Brown & Charles Green
• Celeste Chandler
• Nadine Christensen
• Brett Colquhoun
• Yvette Coppersmith
• Jesse Dayan
• Janenne Eaton
• Prudence Flint
• Louise Forthun
• Neil Haddon
• Katherine Hattam
• Pei Pei He
• Kirra Jamison Tim Johnson
• Jennifer Joseph
• Gladdy Kemarre
• Tony Lloyd
• Dane Lovett
• Tim McMonagle
• Geoff Newton
• Louise Paramor
• Timothy Price
• Bundit Puangthong
• David Ralph
• Aida Tomescu
• Megan Walch
• John Walker
• Darren Wardle
• Richard Watkins
• Jenny Watson
• Anna White
• Mark Wingrave.
 

2009 winner - Jan Nelson for her work Walking in Tall Grass (Tom), 2009.

The 2009 Prize was awarded to Melbourne based artist Jan Nelson. The outstanding photo-realist painting Walking in the Tall Grass (Tom) shows, with remarkable technical virtuosity, what is possible at the juncture of painting and photography.
Although a painting, the stunning work hints at the obsession with youth and image in modern culture.
The judges commented, “Walking in Tall Grass (Tom) is a luminous painting that packs a punch despite its small size. It is an accomplished synthesis of style and subject, characterised by a conscious appropriation of contradictory styles that we recognise as decidedly contemporary. Its heightened colour, amazing detail and the scene in the mirrored sunglasses draw us into the world of the character Nelson depicts.”

Artwork
Jan Nelson
Walking in Tall Grass (Tom) 2009
oil on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

2009 finalists (in alphabetical order):
• John Beard
• Kate Bergin
• Fergus Binns
• Daniel Boyd
• Jon Campbell
• Nadine Christensen
• Brett Colquhoun
• Peter Daverington
• Chris Dyson
• Craig Easton
• Vincent Fantauzzo
• Prudence Flint
• Juan Ford
• Louise Forthun
• Neil Haddon
• Stephen Haley
• Nick Hall
• Katherine Hattam
• Euan Heng
• Lily Hibberd
• Amaya Iturri
• Gladdy Kemarre
• Sam Leach
• Rhys Lee
• Loongkoonan
• Dane Lovett
• Tim Mcmonagle
• Jan Murray
• Jan Nelson
• Jonathan Nichols
• Louise Paramor
• Bundit Puangthon
• David Ralph
• Steven Rendall
• Wilma Tabacco
• David Wadelton
• Lucy Ward
• Darren Wardle
• Anna White

2007 winner - Stephen Bush for his work Jerks as a passable frown, 2006.

The 2007 prize was awarded to Stephen Bush for his monumental work Jerks as a passable frown. The work was selected by the panel of judges from more than 340 entrants (42 short-listed paintings).
Based in Melbourne, Stephen Bush has been a practising artist for almost 30 years. Since graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1978, Bush has exhibited extensively across Australia and the United States.
Bush’s painting is extensive and varied, he engages with a diverse range of subjects from the real to the sublime. His latest series of works, depicts majestic natural landscapes made surreal by his use of lurid pinks and greens. Into these landscapes Bush inserts emblems of human occupation – a potbelly stove, a small building – seemingly at odds with the surrounding landscape. We have a sense of an environment of seemingly contradictory elements – the beauty and untamed aspects of nature juxtaposed with humanity’s attempts at control and cultivation.

Artwork
Stephen Bush
Jerks as a Passable Frown 2006
oil and enamel on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery


2007 finalists (in alphabetical order):
• Peter Atkins
• Gordon Bennett
• Damiano Bertoli
• Naomi Bishop
• Marion Borgelt
• Robert Boynes
• Stephen Bram
• Angela Brennan
• Lyndell Brown and Charles Green
• Stephen Bush
• Zhong Chen
• Nadine Christensen
• Tony Clark
• Brett Colquhoun
• Marcel Cousins
• Steve Cox
• Craig Easton
• Janenne Eaton
• Prudence Flint
• Juan Ford
• Louise Forthun
• Mark Galea
• Neil Haddon
• Stephen Haley
• Melinda Harper
• Lily Hibberd
• Tony Lloyd
• Euan Macleod
• Peter Maloney
• John Nixon
• Derek O'Connor
• Robert Owen
• Kain Picken and Rob McKenzie
• David Ralph
• Gareth Sansom
• Noël Skrzypczak
• Sally Smart
• Wilma Tabacco
• Aida Tomescu
• Lucy Ward
• Darren Wardle
• Jenny Watson

2005 winner – Dale Frank for his work Three Lies: Good things come in small packages; Nothing is interesting if you are not interested; One man’s meat is another man’s poison. They will show you everything they have – their sexy bodies. When the student is ready, the master will appear. Laughter is the closest distance between two people while Happiness is not a state of mind, but a manner of travelling. Tarampa Hotel, Tarampa Road, 2004.

Dale Frank was selected out of 41 short-listed artists from around Australia and received a $50,000 cash acquisitive prize.
Judge Rachel Kent, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney commented, “Dale Frank has explored representational and more abstract modes in his art over the past two decades. In this work, pools of poured coloured varnish create a rich and tactile surface. The exhibition of finalists represents a great opportunity to view works by over 40 contemporary Australian painters. It provides an insight into key themes and concerns shaping Australian painting now, and reflects the healthy state of the medium. The selection of an award recipient was a difficult process due to the high standard of exhibited works, and the sustained practices of the participating artists.”

Artwork
Dale Frank
Three Lies: Good things come in small packages;
Nothing is interesting if you are not interested;
One man’s meat is another man’s poison.
They will show you everything they have – their sexy bodies.
When the student is ready, the master will appear.
Laughter is the closest distance between two people while Happiness is not a state of mind, but a manner of travelling.
Tarampa Hotel, Tarampa Road, 2004 2004-05
Acrylic, varnish on linen canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne


2005 finalists (in alphabetical order):
• Garry Adams
• Peter Atkins
• Xiao Bai
• Irene Barberis
• Christopher Beaumont
• Yvonne Boag
• Marion Borgelt
• Robert Boynes
• Warren Breninger
• Angela Brennan
• Kerry Buckland-Lewis
• Janet Burchill
• Jon Campbell
• Jon Cattapan
• Zhong Chen
• Greg Creek
• Hazel Dooney
• Franz Ehmann
• Sarah Faulkner
• Prudence Flint
• Juan Ford
• Louise Forthun
• Dale Frank
• Mark Galea
• Stephen Haley
• Melinda Harper
• Katherine Hattam
• Robert Hunter
• Lindy Lee
• Euan Macleod
• Louise Paramor
• David Ralph
• Gareth Sansom
• Joan Nancy Stokes
• Guy Stuart
• Wilma Tabacco
• Aida Tomescu
• Stephen Turpie
• Darren Wardle
• Jenny Watson

2003 winner - Stieg Persson for his work Middle Management.