Alumna Zoe Grey has been awarded the $100,000 Hadley’s Art Prize for a work inspired by her North-West Tasmanian home.
Ms Grey’s work The Shape of Rock was selected from 35 finalists for the 2024 prize, which is awarded for the most outstanding portrayal of the Australian landscape.
The work depicts the rugged landscape of Marrawah, a remote coastal community in the North-West of Tasmania where the artist grew up.
Ms Grey completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours at the University of Tasmania in 2018.
“Winning this prize is a huge honour, a surprise and a great privilege,” she said.
“I'm interested in exploring personal relationships to place, and how we engage with the environment around us.
“This painting, The Shape of Rock, is inspired by my evolving relationship with the landscape of my home, Marrawah.”
The second-time Hadley’s finalist also won the $1000 Packing Room Prize selected by Hadley’s team of volunteers.
The University of Tasmania Prize, awarded to a Year 11 or 12 student, was awarded to Sydney-based Innes Winchcombe for his photograph Nature’s Secret Passage.
The judging panel - Senior Curator First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Australia Tina Baum, Senior Curator Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Jane Devery and Associate Head of Art at the University of Tasmania Dr Neil Haddon - commended Ms Grey for immersing the viewer in the landscape around her home.
“The Shape of Rock is a very confident work which draws you in with its rich colours and varied mark-making,” the panel said.
“There is much to discover as you move around the work and different elements reveal themselves. It’s oceanic and energetic.”
Ms Grey works in painting, as well as drawing, collage and ceramics, her practice exploring notions of home, connection to place and landscape. With numerous solo exhibitions nationally, her work is held in private collections around the world and in the public collection of the Devonport Regional Gallery. Ms Grey was afinalist in the 2021 Hadley’s Art Prize, the 2022 Women’s Art Prize Tasmania and has undertaken residencies in Norway and Finland.
Established by Hadley’s Orient Hotel in 2017, the Hadley’s Art Prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative art awards. The annual acquisitive award seeks to contribute to the Tasmanian and Australian art scene, generating interest in cultural tourism and promoting the work of contemporary landscape artists.
The Finalist’s Exhibition is now open at Hadley's Orient Hotel, Hobart from 3–25 August.