BENDIGO.- Jahnne Pasco-White’s messmates1 has won the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery’s biennial $50,000 acquisitive award for Australian artists.

messmates 1 is part of a body of work comprising 11 overlapping panels, presented for exhibition in Melbourne earlier this year. The artist explores notions of waste, renewal and regeneration as she incorporates old clothes and other collected detritus into the work and overpaints in bright and earthy tones.

In making the selection, the judges, who included Tansy Curtin, (Curatorial Manager, Bendigo Art Gallery), Tracy Cooper-Lavery (Director of HOTA, Queensland) and Roslyn Feeney (representing the Guy family) noted:

“Pasco-White’s visceral work pushes the limits of the medium itself; it’s raw, layered and vibrant with an incredible surface texture and palette. It is emblematic of the artist’s life and current practice, reflecting the complexity of contemporary life as a female artist.

“We are thrilled to award this prize to an early career artist, and recognise that this could prove to be a pivotal moment in her practice. We can’t wait to see what she does next.”

Jahnne Pasco-White is a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne. She was the 2018 recipient of the Australia Council’s Marten Bequest Scholarship and has had exhibitions in New York, Sydney, Auckland and Melbourne.

Her work was selected from 36 finalists and a record entry pool of 439. Finalist’s paintings are currently on display at Bendigo Art Gallery in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition.

Judge Tracy Cooper-Lavery said; “The exhibition presents a strong representation of contemporary painting trends in Australia. Prize exhibitions such as this emphasise that artists are still seriously exploring painting as a medium. Abstraction is very strong as is tonal realism and it is evident that artists are still referencing major movements in art.”

Held every two years, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize offers audiences the opportunity to see some of the most exciting, new contemporary painting from a wide cross-section of emerging and leading Australian artists. Previous winners include Stieg Persson, Dale Frank, Stephen Bush, Jan Nelson, Tim Johnson, Chris Bond, Guan Wei and Margaret Loy Pula. As an acquisitive prize, the winning work joins the Bendigo Art Gallery’s permanent collection.

The prize was initiated by Mr Allen Guy CBE (1917-2007) to honour his brother Arthur Guy (1914-1945) whose life was tragically cut short whilst in service in New Guinea. Arthur was educated at Camp Hill State School in Bendigo and then at Ballarat Grammar School.

Bendigo Art Gallery Director Jessica Bridgfoot said: “The AGMPP an important survey of contemporary Australian panting, and we thank the Guy family for continuing this generous and important prize.”

The 2019 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize finalists are: Kylie Banyard, Natasha Bieniek, Marion Borgelt, Angela Brennan, Kirsty Budge, Daniel Butterworth, Zhong Chen, Nadine Christensen, Leo Coyte, Greg Creek, Fernando do Campo, Mark Dober, Juan Ford, Helga Groves, Stephen Haley, Gregory Hodge, Kez Hughes, Jennifer Joseph, Dena Kahan, Adam Lee, Belem Lett, Richard Lewer, Dane Lovett, Jordan Marani, Karla Marchesi, Rob McHaffie, Moya Mckenna, Jahnne Pasco-White, Victoria Reichelt, Noël Skrzypczak, Michael Vale, Judith Van Heeren, Craig Waddell, Megan Walch, Amber Wallis and Darren Wardle.