Currently logged in. Logout
The Moran Arts Foundation have announced the winners of the 2014 Moran Prizes, Australia’s most valuable art prizes.
‘2014 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize’, believed to be the world’s most significant prize for a portrait award, has been awarded to Melbourne-based artist Louise Hearman for her paintings of renowned Australian photographer Bill Henson, Bill 1383/1384, taking home an incredible $150,000 in prize money.
“Louise’s diptych of Ben Henson was the one work we kept going back to and looking at. It is very intimate, very personal, compelling and obsessive – a little bit like both the artist and the subject”, said Edmund Capon and Lewis Miller, co judges of the ‘2014 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize’.
Commenting on her winning diptych, artist Louise Hearman confirms, “Over 30 years ago I was drawn to the lecture room at the Victorian College of the Arts by some intoxicating music, and there was Bill, playing his favourite music to the students. A great friendship began from an interest in pictures and music and we are still great friends today.”
Brisbane-based photographer Suzanne McCorkell has been announced as the winner of the ‘2014 Moran Contemporary Photography Prize’, collecting $50,000 in prize money for her image, Time out from training, a portrait of Australian Paralympians Bridie Kean and Chris Bond, OAM. The image is part of her ‘Scar Stories’ Project which, according to McCorkell, “aims to empower young cancer survivors who are living daily life with the scars from cancer.”
Aidan J Sullivan and William Long, co judges of the ‘2014 Moran Contemporary Photography Prize’ said, “The winning image communicates this wonderful tenderness between the subjects, and at the same time displays a fantastic visual honesty, conveying an intimate and touching moment between the two disabled athletes; a day to day moment that was clearly something that would be part of the couple’s everyday life. On one hand the visual communication conveys all that the viewer needs to know and on the other, plants the seeds of questions that intrigue, and eventually demand the viewer to seek out those answers.”
The exhibition showcases works by some of Australia’s finest artists and photographers – the 30 finalists in both Moran Prizes, as well as winning entries
in the Student section of the Photography Prize.
Juniper Hall
29 October, 2014 to 15 February, 2015
Sydney
Louise Hearman, Bill-1384/1383
Suzanne McCorkell, Time out from training
