Artist Jenny Rogerson has won this year’s Richard Lester Prize with a bold self portrait.
The award was announced to a packed crowd at WA Museum Boola Bardip. The competition has the largest prize pool of any art competition in Australia and a focus on portraiture.
Accepting the award Rogerson said she was “totally honoured” to be the recipient of this year’s award.
The judges of the award had high praise for Rogerson’s submission.
“This is a strong, honest and courageous self-portrait in which Jenny Rodgerson confronts her own image in the mirror without posing or flattering herself in any way. It has the truthfulness and penetration that can only be found in working directly from life, and the vulnerability entailed in this kind of raw self-examination is poignantly expressed by the artist’s nakedness.”
Rogerson said the judges assessment was very accurate, as her process involves looking in a mirror and then painting what she sees on the canvas.
“Painting in my studio in rural Victoria is a very solitary profession. You are by yourself in the studio, a world away from being here tonight, and you are vulnerable in a different way because you’re looking at yourself in the mirror constantly.”
The artist said while he work was not a large painting, she had spent many months working on it, slowly refining what she saw.
“Its really nice that a simple portrait, that is so honest – in this world where so much is happening all the time, and so much social media, and so much razzle-dazzle, that a simple portrait can win a prize like this.” Rogerson said.
Rogerson will be the recipient of a $50,000 prize for taking out the top award.
Sylvia Wilson was the recipient of the $20,000 Minderoo Prize with her painting My Daughter (Great grandmother).
The Barton Family Foundation Installers’ Prize of $10,000 was awarded to Gene Hart-Smith for his painting Family on Dangar Island, while the Eyewall Foundation Highly Commended Prize with its cheque of $3,800 for her work depicting fellow artist Tsering Hannaford.
Sue Eva, who created a intriguing portrait which sees her face reflected in a silver tea pot, was the winner of the $5,000 Ashurt Emerging Artist Prize, while Ignacio Rojas took home the $20,000 Toni Fini Foundation Artist Prize for Son of the Storm, a portrait of the artist’s child.
The awards were hosted by cultural leader Bourby Webster who shared that this year they had been a record number of submissions to the awards with 1,000 painting submitted to the competition.
Speaking at the award announcement Dr Marina Hogan, chair of The Lester Prize, noted that the event does not receive any state or federal funding but has continued to grow over its 18 year history, and still has many plans for new initiatives in the future.
Forty paintings were selected as finalists and they will on display at the WA Museum Boola Bardip until Sunday 16th November 2025.
