The 2024 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize includes some of the country’s finest established and emerging artists. The 31 works in the exhibition were selected from 560 entries from across Australia, offering a unique look at various contemporary painting practices.
The absence of an overarching prize theme ensures diverse responses across the shortlisted works to the natural world, the built environment; observations of the everyday, references to art history and popular culture and explorations of the act of painting itself.
This year’s winning work, which is acquired into the Gallery’s collection, is Melbourne-based artist Travis MacDonald’s: The top of the pond (2024) and is an exemplar of the artist’s refined painterly touch, luminous colouration, and the suggestive, enigmatic narratives he composes. It emanates a beguiling sense of calm, absorbing the viewer into a luminous, dynamic space of contemplation and possibility. The figure invites empathy and intimacy and evokes the peace found in solitary reverie and the restorative power of nature.
Open until 3 November with free entry.
