culture

First Nations artists among Hadley’s Art Prize finalists

Phoebe Blogg Published May 6, 2025 at 12.35pm (AWST)

Image: Hadley's Art Prize.

Hadley's Art Prize announced the 30 finalists for the 2025 edition of the $100,000 acquisitive landscape prize on Tuesday.

First Nations artists among the finalists include Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray, George Cooley and Leon Russell Black.

The finalists' works will be presented in an exhibition at Hadley's Orient Hotel from 29 August to 21 September, with the winning work announced on 28 August.

Selected for the best portrayal of the Australian landscape, this year's finalists represent early career and established artists from all over Australia working across a wide array of mediums including painting, drawing, printmaking, digital collage, manipulated photography and ceramics.

Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray is an established artist from Utopia, Northern Territory who paints the Leaf, Seed and Flower of the Bush Yam, a tuber plant important for food and medicine. Kngwarray's submission Yam Seeds shows the wind moving through the yam plant in a series of tiny coloured flicks of paint that undulate across the surface.

Recognised as an early career artist working through Munupi Arts in the Tiwi Islands whose paintings explore his Country, culture, family and the Tiwi people, Leon Russell Black's submission Bush Holiday Dreaming depicts fishing, hunting and gathering on Country.

George Cooley is a senior man and community leader from Coober Peedy who paints the landscape surrounding his Country. Cooley's submission Painting my Country - The Breakaways depicts part of the Stuart Range, the artist working from memory to document its spectacular mesas, ridges and sloping escarpments.

This year the judging panel of art specialists comprises of Southern Kaantju/Umpila woman and multidisciplinary artist Naomi Hobson; director, curatorial and cultural collections at the University of Tasmania, Caine Chennatt; and leading Tasmanian-based artist Catherine Woo.

"Selecting the finalists was both a privilege and a challenge. We appreciate the effort and skill that went into every entry, and we took our time viewing and rating every artwork. It was great to see entries from every state and territory, as well as from some Australian artists living overseas," the panel said in a joint statement.

"To reach the finalists we've recognised works that demonstrate technical excellence, evoke atmosphere, push creative boundaries, consider complex relationship to landscape, and convey powerful stories of place."

Curator of the Hadley's Art Prize, Dr Amy Jackett, said this year's exhibition "will have something for everyone", featuring "intricately painted realistic landscapes, some abstract atmospheric works, and some interesting uses of colour, texture and materials".

"There'll be many different landscapes to experience from across Australia," she said.

George Cooley, Painting my Country- The Breakaways, Acrylic on linen, 2025, 124cm x 116cm. (Image: supplied)

The Hadley's Orient Hotel has a rich history interwoven with art, from early landlords in the 1800s who were passionate art collectors to major exhibitions in the 1920s and '30s. Current majority owners of Hadley's Orient Hotel, Don Neil and Annette Reynolds, founded the Hadley's Art Prize on the 90th anniversary of the first solo exhibition held at the hotel - a series of landscape paintings by John Eldershaw.

Their aim is to celebrate the work of contemporary Australian landscape artists and build an art collection to be enjoyed by visitors to the hotel all year round.

Alongside the Major Prize of $100,000, there is the $10,000 Residency Prize, the $2,500 People's Choice Award, the $1,000 Packing Room Prize, and $1,500 worth of prizes for students. This year's finalists will also receive two nights free accommodation at the Hadley's Orient Hotel.

Artworks are for sale and entry to the exhibition is free. On the 28th of August 2025 winners will be a announced and the exhibition will open. From the 29th of August – 21st of September 2025 the public will be able to view the exhibition of finalists.

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