Senior Pitjantjatjara artist Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin has become the first woman to win Australia's richest landscape prize, the Hadley's art prize, since its inception in 2017. Her winning work, titled Antara, was announced in Hobart on Friday and selected from 35 finalists for the $100,000 acquisitive award.
Goodwin, chairperson of the Mimili Maku Arts centre in South Australia, created the painting based on the Tjukurpa story of the witchetty grub, a narrative from the Antara region in the APY lands. 'The Witchetty Grub story is the main [story], it's truly huge, it's a big ceremony,' she said in a statement. 'It's a very old storyline from a long time ago, and I was taught about it when I moved to Mimili as a young girl. Now I look after it and teach the children about it, the Antara story.'
The judging panel—comprising Judy Watson, Wayne Tunnicliffe, and Mary Knights—praised the work as 'an incredibly resolved work' with a fascinating colour palette that 'pushes and pulls across the painting'. They noted the diversity of brushstrokes and mark-making in a 'distinctive, raw, and energetic way', describing it as 'full of life'. Goodwin expressed her pleasure in sharing the storyline that holds great significance for her community.
The prize, established by Tasmanian philanthropists Don Neil and Annette Reynolds, is double the value of the $50,000 Wynne prize. This year's finalists were predominantly female (70%), with over one-third being First Nations artists. Tasmanian artist Catherine Woo won the packing room prize for her work A Moment in the Day, while Darwin artist Max Bowden received the $10,000 residency prize for And a nice day was really had by all.
