The Hadley’s Art Prize, has just announced its winner for 2025, New South Wales-based artist Sophie Cape. The annual landscape prize, valued at $100,000 has been awarded to Cape for her work, Thunder shifts the shivering sands.
“Winning the Hadley’s Art Prize is a lifeline for me and my practice, and I feel honoured to have been selected out of such an incredible group of finalists… I created Thunder shifts the shivering sands in the landscape after the floods in Southern NSW last year, exposing it to the chaos of the elements and working with soil, rust and debris, materials transformed by water and weather. This painting is a portrait of survival and decay, beauty and destruction,” says Cape, on her winning work.
Cape’s artwork was chosen by judges: Southern Kaantju/Umpila woman and multidisciplinary artist Naomi Hobson; Director, Curatorial and Cultural Collections at the University of Tasmania, Caine Chennatt; and leading Tasmanian-based artist Catherine Woo. On their selection: “Sophie Cape’s portrayal of the Australian landscape was remarkably executed, compelling, and resonant. Her work is a strong embodied, site-responsive, and honest record of environmental upheaval, of land torn by flood and landslide. Combining the gathering of raw and found materials from the environment with the expressive force of the artist’s body, it exults in this confluence, melding matter, natural marks and a perceptible, visceral relationship between human presence in the non-human world.”
Established by the Hadley’s Orient Hotel in 2017, the prize seeks to invest in the cultural landscape of Tasmania and the wider nation, offering an opportunity for contemporary artists working in two dimensional mediums to reflect Australia’s natural environment. With the aim to generate interest and cultural tourism for the area, the 29 finalists’ work will be on display at the Hadley’s Orient Hotel until 21 September.
Alongside the Major Prize, there is a Residency Prize valued at $10,000, a Packing Room Prize valued at $1000, a $2500 People’s Choice Award, as well as $1500 worth of prizes for school students.
The 28 finalists include:
Alex Bray
Andrew Pye
Belinda Street
Callum Francis
Denise Lamby
Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray
George Cooley
Harrison Bowe
Julz Beresford
Ken Done
Leon Russell Black
Mary Tonkin
Melanie McCollin-Walker
Melissa Kenihan
Michaye Boulter
Neil Haddon
Pamela Pauline
Peter Griffen
Philip Wolfhagen
Raymond Arnold
Richard Klekociuk
Sandra Pumani
Sara Maher
Susan Stevenson
Tony Scott
Valerie Sparks
Victoria Peel
Yoshiko Gunning.
The Finalists Exhibition
Hadley’s Orient Hotel
Hobart/Nipaluna
29 August—21 September
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