Castlemaine Art Museum has announced the finalists of their biennial acquisitive painting prize, the 2024 Len Fox Painting Award.
From over 300 entries (the most the award has attracted to date), 56 applicants have been selected as the finalists of the CAM 2024 Len Fox Painting Award, and will have their works displayed in the forthcoming exhibition at Castlemaine’s contemporary art space, Castlemaine Art Museum from Friday 27 September.
2024 Len Fox Painting Award Finalists
Adrian Jurra Tjungurrayi, Alice Wormald, Amanda Johnson, Amber Wallis, Angie de Latour, Anne Wallace, Anthea Kemp, Anthony Pelchen, Bill Sampson, Carla Tucker, Chow Banana, Dale Cox, David Moore, Deborah Walker, Dena Kahan, Eleanor Louise Butt, Elizabeth Nelson, Ella Dunn, Emily Feretti, Emma Coulter, Gabrielle Martin, Geordie Gem Williamson, Grant Nimmo, Helen McInnis, Jacqui Stockdale, Jacquie Meng, Jo Davenport, Joel Arthur, Jonathan Nichols, Judith Van Heeren, Julia Ciccarone, Karan Hayman, Kate McKenzie Lewis, Kate Tucker, Katherine Hattam, Kevin Chin, Kir Larwill, Lori Pensini, Lorna Quinn, Mark Dober, Mark Rodda, Mary Tonkin, Michelle Zuccolo, Moya McKenna, Nadine Christensen, Naomi Hobson, Nellie Ngampa Coulthard, Rhett D’Costa, Robert Fielding, Sid Pattni, Stephen Bush, Stephen Pleban, Tai Snaith, Wendy Stavrianos, Wendy Teakel and Zoe Amor.
About The Len Fox Painting Award
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The Len Fox Painting Award is a biennial acquisitive painting prize held at Castlemaine Art Museum, and is awarded to a living Australian artist to commemorate the life and work of Emanuel Phillips Fox (1865–1915), the uncle of Len Fox, partner of benefactor Mona Fox. The Len Fox Painting Award and generous acquisitive cash prize of $50,000 is funded through a bequest from Mona Fox.
The Len Fox Painting Award recognises and promotes the work of Australian artists pursuing the artistic interests and qualities of E. P. Fox. These include engagement with colour and light; ambitious connections with international developments in art; and an interest in travel and an engagement with the cultures of diverse regions and peoples.
The Len Fox Painting Award will be made to a painting judged to have addressed the interests of E. P. Fox as an imaginative, inquisitive, and worldly artist. Any style or genre was eligible for submission, however, it is recognised that E. P. Fox is most noted for landscape, figurative and portrait paintings. The painting may be made in any medium, subject to declared practical limitations. This is an acquisitive award, with the winning work becoming part of the Museum’s Art Collection.
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To judge the more than 300 works submitted in the Len Fox Painting Award, CAM enlisted judges Emma Busowsky and John Wolseley alongside non-voting Chair, Naomi Cass, Director of Castlemaine Art Museum. Both esteemed artists in the Australian contemporary art space, Busowsky and Wolseley’s backgrounds as active artists and engagers in the contemporary art world brought crucial viewpoints to the judging process.
Emma Busowsky is a curator and writer with specialisation in Australian art, exhibitions, collections and museums. Currently living and working on Dja Dja Wurrung Country as Curator at Bendigo Art Gallery, Busowsky has worked in the Australian art museum sector since 2003 across curatorial and programming roles. Prior to her role at Bendigo Art Gallery, Busowsky was the Curator at Castlemaine Art Museum, and before that, Curator of the Deakin University art collection. Recent projects include the major exhibition, ‘Australiana: Designing a Nation’ (in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria) and the exhibition and major publication, ‘Daughters of the Sun: Christian Waller & Klytie Pate’ (2018). Emma holds a Master of Cultural Heritage and a Bachelor of Arts with first class Honours from Deakin University.
John Wolseley is one of Australia’s most important artists. His work in watercolour, drawing, printmaking and installation over the last 40 years has been a meditation on how the earth is a dynamic system of which we are all a part of. Detailed studies of insects, botany, birdwatching and geology have been a preoccupation for most of his artistic practice. He portrays the Australian landscape and its ecosystems by combining collage elements and markings made ‘in collaboration’ with the natural environment. Wolseley’s works celebrate the complexity of Australia’s diverse ecologies and encourage an understanding of the significance of environmental fragility.
To learn more about the Len Fox Painting Prize Award and the forthcoming exhibition, head here. Discover Castlemaine Art Museum’s full exhibition and events program here.
