Two Pilbara artists named finalists in prestigious Lester Prize portraiture award

Two Pilbara artists have been announced as finalists for Western Australia’s most prestigious portrait award, the Lester Prize.

The Lester Prize is managed by The Lester Inc, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2007 to provide an avenue for artists to exhibit works of portraiture within Western Australia.

South Hedland artist Sophia Alone has been named as one of 40 finalists for her thought provoking portrait work Respect Grandfather Kutri Makanykarra.

Meanwhile, Tom Price painter Jenna Pickering was also made a finalist for her stunning portrait of renowned singer Paul Kelly.

Now in its 16th year, the Lester Prize’s exhibitions are targeted at diverse groups in the community and include artist floor talks, workshops, live art demonstrations and pop-up community activations.

This award is one of the nation’s most recognised and prestigious art prizes and boasts a prize pool available to professional, emerging and young artists of more than $105,000.

The finalists’ works will be on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in the Centenary Galleries over a six-week season from October 1 to November 14, with the main winners announced on September 30.

One of the pre-selection panel members said there was a great variety this year from highly technical portraiture to experimental and expressive aesthetics.

“It’s always interesting to see how people express themselves through what can be a pointed subject in art,” they said.

“Testing how far you can push portraiture without fundamentally breaking it is a nuanced process and it’s exciting to see when it’s done successfully.”

The Lester Prize executive director Annie Silberstein said the organisation was in full preparation for the upcoming exhibition season and looked forward to displaying the 40 works in October.

“The COVID-19 related issues and nuances were not as prominent in the works this year as they have been in the past two years and the 2022 finalist works seem to represent a more fun and light-hearted approach,” she said.