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Announced at the opening of the 7th Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition, Chinese-born Australian artist Guan Wei’s work Beach 5 was named the winning entry. Wei’s painting was selected from a shortlist of 30 works and an original pool of over 250 entrants from across Australia.
Held every two years, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize is Australia’s richest open painting prize, awarding a generous acquisitive cash prize of $50,000. Previous winners include Stieg Persson (2003), Dale Frank (2005), Stephen Bush (2007), Jan Nelson (2009), Tim Johnson (2011) and Chris Bond (2012).
Judges, who included Dr Vincent Alessi, (Senior Lecturer, Visual Arts and Design, La Trobe University), Jennifer Kalionis (Director, Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum), John McDonald (Art Critic.Sydney Morning Herald), Peter Guy (representative of the Guy family) and Julie Millowick (Vice Chair, Bendigo Art Gallery Board), say Guan Wei’s work was chosen from a diverse selection of contenders for its “strong cultural message. It is a painting about Australia and the idea of cultural transformation by a Chinese born Australian artist, that speaks to us about the changing nature of Australian life.”
The finalists include: Lyndell Brown and Charles Green, Fabrizio Biviano, Lynne Boyd, William Breen, Kevin Chin, Nadine Christensen, Marcel C, Jesse Dayan, Ivan Durrant, Chris Dyson, Juan Ford, Shaun Gladwell, Helga Groves, Neil Haddon, Stephen Haley, Pei Pei He, Euan Heng, Col Jordan, Gladdy Kemarre, Adam Lee, Christian Lock, William Mackinnon, Viv Miller, Ian Parry, Josie Kunoth Petyarre, Matthew Quick, Bill Sampson, Jacqui Stockdale, Jenny Watson and Guan Wei.
The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize was established by Mr Allen Guy CBE (1917-2007) to honour his brother Arthur Guy (1914-1945) whose life was tragically cut short whilst in service in New Guinea.
Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition
Bendigo Art Gallery
Until 1 November, 2015
Victoria
Guan Wei, Beach 5, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 130cm x 162cm
Courtesy of the artist and Nancy Sever Gallery
