This year’s Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture attracted a record 613 entries, from which 72 finalists have been selected and will be exhibited at Tweed Regional Gallery.
Sam Ferris, On the way to inspections 2022, Digital Silver Gelatin print. Image courtesy: the Artist.
The 72 finalists’ portraits will be on display at Tweed Regional Gallery from 14 July until 24 September 2023.
Portrait subjects for this year’s award include artists Wendy Sharpe, Jude Rae, William Yang, Blak Douglas and the late Madeline Preston and John Olsen AO OBE.
The Olive Cotton Award 2023 carries a first prize of $20,000. The winner will be announced at an awards night on 15 July, to be livestreamed on the Tweed Regional Gallery’s Instagram channel.
“I am continually surprised and moved by the portraits we receive,” said Award Coordinator and Curator of Public Programs Meredith Cusack. “What strikes me this year is the individual vision of entrants. From the cinematic to the intimate, we are transported into the worlds of others. Sometimes it is the sitters’ world that is revealed and in others we are aware it is the artists’ lens that frames what we see.”
Katherine Cordwell, This Is Blak Douglas In Studio 2022, Inkjet print. Image courtesy: the Artist.
About the Olive Cotton Award
Launched in 2005, the Olive Cotton Award is dedicated to the memory of Olive Cotton as one of Australia’s leading 20th Century photographers. The award is funded by Olive Cotton’s family.
The Gallery has announced that leading photography curator, historian, and writer Helen Ennis will be part of the Award’s public program this year. Ennis is the author of several books on Olive Cotton including Olive Cotton: A life in photopgraphy (2019). Helen will be in conversation with Gallery Director Susi Muddiman OAM on the final day of the exhibition.
See a list of the Olive Cotton Award 72 finalists on the Tweed Regional Gallery website.
