BENDIGO.- Announced at the opening of the 7th Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition, Chinese-born Australian artist Guan Wei's work Beach 5 was named the winning entry from a shortlist of 30 works and an original pool of over 250 entrants from across Australia.

Judges, who included Dr Vincent Alessi, (Senior Lecturer, Visual Arts and Design, La Trobe University), Jennifer Kalionis (Director, Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum), John McDonald (Art Critic.Sydney Morning Herald), Peter Guy (representative of the Guy family) and Julie Millowick (Vice Chair, Bendigo Art Gallery Board), claimed Guan Wei's work was chosen from a diverse selection of contenders for its "strong cultural message. It is a painting about Australia and the idea of cultural transformation by a Chinese born Australian artist, that speaks to us about the changing nature of Australian life."

Held every two years, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize is Australia's richest open painting prize, awarding a generous acquisitive cash prize of $50,000. Previous winners include Stieg Persson (2003), Dale Frank (2005), Stephen Bush (2007), Jan Nelson (2009), Tim Johnson (2011) and Chris Bond (2012).

Beach 5 and works from the shortlisted artists are on display at Bendigo Art Gallery in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition from 29 August to 1st November.

Artists include Lyndell Brown and Charles Green, Fabrizio Biviano, Lynne Boyd, William Breen, Kevin Chin, Nadine Christensen, Marcel Cousins, Jesse Dayan, Ivan Durrant, Chris Dyson, Juan Ford, Shaun Gladwell, Helga Groves, Neil Haddon, Stephen Haley, Pei Pei He, Euan Heng, Col Jordan, Gladdy Kemarre, Adam Lee, Christian Lock, William Mackinnon, Viv Miller, Ian Parry, Josie Kunoth Petyarre, Matthew Quick, Bill Sampson, Jacqui Stockdale, Jenny Watson and Guan Wei.