Tasmanian-based artist Zoe Grey has won the 2024 Hadley’s Art Prize for her work The Shape of Rock (2024) that depicts the landscape of her hometown Marrawah. Launched by Hadley’s Orient Hotel in 2017 to generate interest in cultural tourism and promote contemporary landscape artists, the acquisitive prize consists grants AU$100,000 to the winning artist.
Grey, who has previously been shortlisted twice for the Hadley’s Art Prize, was selected out of 35 finalists by a panel comprising Tina Baum, Senior Curator, First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Australia; Jane Devery, Senior Curator, Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; and Dr Neil Haddon, British-Australian artist and Associate Head of Art at the University of Tasmania.
‘Grey’s The Shape of Rock is a very confident work which draws you in with its rich colours and varied mark-making,’ the judging panel said. ‘There is much to discover as you move around the work and different elements reveal themselves. It’s oceanic and energetic. The composition is well resolved, and the work offers an immersion in the landscape which parallels the artist’s experience of her hometown, Marrawah, a small coastal town in the northwest coast of lutruwita/Tasmania.’
Previous winners of the prize include Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan (2023) and Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin (2022).
The AU$10,000 Hadley’s Residency Prize was awarded to Laura Patterson (QLD) and Honourable Mentions were awarded to Zaachariaha Fielding (SA), Naomi Hobson (QLD), Rosie Hastie (TAS) and Iluwanti Ken (SA).
The Finalists Exhibition is on view at Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart, 3–25 August.
