Congratulations to Marcus Callum who has won the 2018 Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award with his painting titled Meg.
The $50,000 biennial prize, which is restricted to realistic portraits that accurately depict their subjects, honours the legacy of Bega valley artist Shirley Hannan. She established the award in her own name in 2002. Following her death in 2005, her husband established the Shirley Hannan Trust.
This year the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award was judged by Dr Andrew Frost, a regular contributor to Art Guide Australia.
Frost said of the winning work, “Marcus Callum’s painting has an arresting luminosity that matches the sensitivity of the treatment of his subject. It’s also a virtuosic demonstration of contemporary realist portrait painting.”
Callum explained that he wanted his portrait to capture the complexity of adolescence. “The transition to adulthood can simultaneously be full of joy and fraught with danger,” he said. “My subject, Meg, stares at the viewer with an uneasy confidence. Despite an uncertain future, she emerges from the darkness as an all-knowing and omnipotent being.”
Works by all 35 finalists in the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award are on display at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery until 8 December.
The Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award Exhibition
Bega Valley Regional Gallery
27 October – 8 December
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