Media and Copyright

Forty Main Awards Finalists have been chosen for WA’s premier portrait prize – The Lester Prize.

The finalists were chosen from 750 entries received from artists across Australia, with twelve finalists from WA, eight from NSW, seven from VIC, five from SA, three each from QLD and TAS, and one each from the ACT and NT. 

The Lester Prize is one of the nation’s most recognised and prestigious fine art prizes. The prize pool available to professional, emerging and young artists is now worth almost $85,000, including the main prize of $50,000.

• Contract for Art Gallery rooftop development awarded to ADCO Constructions
• Project to feature external lift, rooftop sculpture walk and 500-person social venue
• Rooftop to feature 34-metre artwork by Noongar artist Christopher Pease
• Project to support 265 Western Australian jobs and fulfils an election commitment by the McGowan Government

The McGowan Government has approved a $1.5 million support package for Western Australian artists during the COVID-19 emergency.

The initiative was developed by the Art Gallery of WA Board and the Art Gallery of WA Foundation. 

Aboriginal art centres and independent artists will share in up to $525,000 towards a targeted acquisition program to purchase existing works for the State Art Collection.

In addition, more than 350 WA artists will receive $2,000 towards creating a State Art Collection archive.

There Were Moments of Transformation, the second exhibition of the Regional Exhibition Touring Boost (RETB) initiative Freighting Ideas, was set to launch at Katanning Gallery on Saturday 28 March, 2020. Postponement has come as a result of COVID-19, a situation affecting the sector as a whole.

The winner of the 2020 Tom Malone Prize for Australian glass artists is Mel Douglas for her work Tonal Value 2019.

As an acquisitive prize, each year’s winning entrant is awarded $15,000 and their work becomes a part of the State Art Collection where it joins works by previous winners.

Tonal Value was selected as the winning piece from a competitive short list of fifteen works by Australian artists including Kate Baker (NSW), Clare Belfrage (SA), Peter Bowles (TAS), Lisa Cahill (ACT), Mel Douglas (ACT), Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott (NSW), Hannah Gason (ACT), David Hay (WA), Marc Leib (WA), Jeremy Lepisto (NSW), Jessica Loughlin (SA), Nick Mount (SA), Kirstie Rea (NSW), Jason Sims (SA) and Jarred Wright (QLD).

There Were Moments of Transformation, an exhibition of works from the Art Gallery of Western Australia's Collection, launches on Saturday 28 March at Katanning Art Gallery as part of the second installment of the Freighting Ideas state-wide initiative in partnership with ART ON THE MOVE.

There Were Moments of Transformation explores the power and fragility of transformation through video, jewellery, glass, ceramics and sculpture. Featuring works by international artists including Auguste Rodin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and William Kentridge alongside local pieces by WA artists such as Lucy Yukenbarri and Bethamy Linton, the exhibition asks you to consider through the creation of these works, how materials change, how they change us, and the world around us.

Buildings are urban monoliths. Cultural institutions are perceived to be even more so. Tom Mùller’s WA Now exhibition MONOLITH SCORES imagines the AGWA building as a living, breathing structure with a dynamic rhythm.

Conceived around the hexagonal shape central to the built form, the Gallery building internally is defined by open vistas and vertical columns and breathes in its own rhythm. By listening to the building, Mùller has created a series of individual works that include a replica of the Gallery’s expansive central column.

Pulse Perspectives exhibition opens Saturday 7 March.

Human impact on the environment, consumerism, identity and family are prominent themes and issues explored in this year's Pulse Perspectives exhibition, the annual display of visual art from Year 12 Visual Arts graduates held at the Art Gallery of WA.

Previously known as Year 12 Perspectives, this year’s exhibition features 44 works by 2019 Year 12 Visual Arts graduates from 29 schools across Western Australia, including Comet Bay College, Ursula Frayne Catholic College, Hale School, John Curtin College of the Arts, Geraldton Grammar School and Joseph Banks Secondary College.

Otherside Brewing Co, WAM and the Art Gallery of WA are bringing art, music, culture, and brews together in a series of free Friday Night events.

Across the four Friday nights in February, AGWA Live will see WA music and art celebrated with a pop-up bar and live music. AGWA and all its galleries will be open till 9pm with its "Ask Me" Guides available throughout. Live music sets curated by West Australian Music, will take centre stage at 7pm and celebrate Western Australian musicians.

Awavena, by acclaimed director Lynette Wallworth, opens at AGWA on Friday 7 February as part of Perth Festival 2020.

From Emmy Award-winning director and recent World Economic 2020 Crystal Award recipient Lynette Wallworth, Awavena is a stunning tale of metamorphosis told through cutting edge XR technology.